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The Matchmaking Twins
Christy Jeffries
DOUBLE THE TROUBLEParenting is hard enough when Dad has to be a mom, but widower Luke Gregson has twins–boy twins, Aiden and Caden. As a Navy SEAL, Luke saw plenty of action, but nothing could prepare him for trying to raise two eight-year-olds alone. Parenthood is not for sissies. Maybe that's why the boys have set their eyes on a certain new candidate for mommy . . .Officer Carmen Delgado seems tough enough to handle anything–including Aiden and Caden! She adores the rascals. Her feelings for their heroic father, however, are complicated, and her tragic past has her heart on a seemingly permanent lockdown. Could two mischievous, persistent boys and their overwhelmed sexy daddy be the ones to finally set Carmen free?
“They really respond well to you,” Luke said.
“They’re good boys. They have good hearts.”
He wanted to tell her that he had a good heart, as well. But so what? Other than that, he didn’t have much to offer a woman.
“They’ve gotten really close to you,” he said.
“I know.” She sighed. Was that a good sigh or a bad sigh? Luke couldn’t tell. “I worry that maybe we’ve gotten too attached to each other.”
“We? You mean you and me?”
“Actually, I was talking about me and the kids,” she said, making his chest sink like the toy anchor at the bottom of the hot tub. “Listen, Luke. I really need to tell you something. To explain why—”
“Hold that thought,” Luke interrupted, seeing his mom waving at him from the doorway. “The boys are sleeping in the RV with my parents tonight and I need to get them out and dried off before Mom and Dad change their minds.”
She held her mouth in a tiny O of surprise. And if he wasn’t sure where her conversation had been headed, he would’ve been tempted to kiss the surprise right off her lips. But he really did need to get his kids out of here before Carmen delivered her big thanks-but-no-thanks speech, which would end up breaking more than one Gregson heart.
Sugar Falls, Idaho:
Your destination for true love!
CHRISTY JEFFRIES graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with a degree in criminology, and received her Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law. But drafting court documents and working in law enforcement was merely an apprenticeship for her current career in the dynamic field of mummyhood and romance writing. She lives in Southern California with her patient husband, two energetic sons and one sassy grandmother. Follow her online at www.christyjeffries.com (http://www.christyjeffries.com).
The Matchmaking Twins
Christy Jeffries
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To my great-aunt, Mary Jane Templeton. Thank you for providing me with so much characterization for this story, and thank you for providing me with so much love and acceptance as a child. I miss our shopping trips, our beauty parlor visits and our lunches out. I’m sure Heaven has a lot more gold-painted pinecones, Pepsi-Cola and Grand Ole Opry episodes now that you’re there.
Contents
Cover (#u7056d775-d7b7-5770-99e8-988259dc3143)
Introduction (#u56281a81-3d97-5c80-86ed-c0eeb7ce0e49)
About the Author (#u9bb4af40-a8d0-5c19-b301-6e5768d9574e)
Title Page (#u158eb38e-25bf-5ea7-b162-83170d30b804)
Dedication (#ud5374bfd-6a34-5e34-85e7-eb4b711934e0)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#u58b49f45-b840-5b21-80a0-ca67f21e05fc)
Officer Maria Carmen Delgado had once come under heavy fire while guarding some of the most remote military encampments in the world before leaving the Marine Corps to become a cop, patrolling the roughest gang neighborhoods in Las Vegas. But eight-year-old twins Aiden and Caden Gregson of Sugar Falls, Idaho, were certainly going to be the death of her.
“Boys,” she said as she unlocked the driver’s-side door to her squad car. “I told you that if you were going to ride along with me, you had to promise to stay in the backseat of the Explorer.”
“Sorry, Officer Carmen,” Aiden said, looking anything but remorseful. “Chief Cooper was calling you on the radio, and we had to tell him that you were ten-seven ’cause you were taking a leak. We couldn’t figure out the secret code for the leak part.”
When she’d volunteered for the after-school mentorship program at Sugar Falls Elementary, she’d expected to get assigned as a quasi-big-sister to some disadvantaged young girl. She hadn’t expected the director to pair her up with a couple of identical little boys with a penchant for mischief and a knack for speaking their overly bright minds.
Normally she only hung out with the Gregson twins when she was off duty. But the officer scheduled to relieve her had come down with the flu and the small-town police department was still new and slightly understaffed, so she’d volunteered to stay late and cover his shift. Since Carmen didn’t like letting anyone down, she’d gotten special permission to pick the boys up from school in her patrol vehicle and bring them back to the station. It would only be for an hour, she’d told herself. What trouble could they possibly get into in that amount of time?
She should’ve known better.
So far, they’d already locked themselves inside a jail holding cell, lost a week’s worth of their allowance money by betting the dispatcher she couldn’t finish their math homework and got kicked out of the local Gas N’ Mart.
And now they’d just told her boss that she’d been taking a leak. Actually, Carmen wished it was just that simple to use the restroom while wearing all her tactical gear along with her police uniform—especially since she went more frequently following her surgery.
Because she couldn’t very well take the boys inside the ladies’ room with her, she’d told them to stay put inside her cruiser and asked Scooter Deets, one of the older volunteer firefighters who was parked nearby, to keep an eye on the twins. Apparently, ol’ Scooter was no better at maintaining control than she was.
Carmen shook her head, thankful the bobby pins securing her coiled bun prevented her hair from being as frazzled as her nerves.
“I knew I never should have let you guys learn our radio codes. You two are in violation of ten-thirty and about to become ten-fifteens,” she said, referring to their unauthorized use of police equipment.
“Wait.” Caden pulled out the little notepad he’d started carrying in his pocket lately. “What’s a ten-fifteen again?”
“It’s a prisoner in custody,” his twin brother answered before flashing his cheeky smile, minus two recently lost incisors.
“Hey, Officer Carmen, will you teach us Spanish, too?”
“Vámanos, mi liositos,” she said before shooing them out of the front and using the handheld radio mic to respond to her boss.
“Sorry about that, Chief,” she said after his voice crackled on the other end. “The Gregson twins are officially on administrative suspension for disobeying a direct order to stay put in the backseat.”
“Roger that,” her boss said. “Tell them that their dad came by the station to pick them up, but since you all were still out, I told Luke that you’d meet him at the Little League fields. You can drop them off there.”
Her belly twisted and she resisted the urge to throw the mic out the window. Captain Luke Gregson, the twins’ father, was the last person she wanted to see today. Or, really, any day for the matter. But she couldn’t say that to Chief Cooper.
“Ten-four,” she replied instead, before clicking off. Then she turned to her two mischievous passengers. “Buckle up, kiddos.”
“Can we go Code Three with the lights and sirens and everything?” Caden asked as she pulled the vehicle back onto the main highway and headed toward the small park on the other side of town. “Dad’s gonna make us do extra laps if we’re late to practice.”
She should’ve just taken the boys to the ball fields after school and let them run wild. Maybe if they got more of their energy out, they wouldn’t be prone to getting into so much trouble. Not that anyone ever really disciplined the adorable rascals.
And speaking of their lack of discipline, by having to take them directly to baseball practice, she’d be forced to shoot the breeze with their father, the hunky and obviously heartbroken Captain Gregson. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the handsome and widowed Navy SEAL turned recruiter. Or that Carmen didn’t know how to talk to men. It was just that the man had this extremely frustrating habit of treating Carmen like she was one of the guys.
Of course, she couldn’t really blame him, or the rest of the males in the small touristy town of Sugar Falls. With her long black hair always pulled into a tight no-nonsense bun and a complete lack of makeup, Carmen was used to working in a male-dominated environment and having to fit in with the good ol’ boys.
It was difficult for people to see that beneath the Kevlar vest and the blue polyester unisex uniform, she was still one-hundred-percent female. Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, she rested the other one underneath her sturdy leather duty belt and rubbed along her longest scar. Well, she was mostly female.
She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and tried to focus on the innocent chatter of the eight-year-olds behind her. In her brain, she knew that she was a strong woman and her ability to have children, or lack thereof, should not define her.
But there was always that niggling sense of what she’d lost.
“Hey, Officer Carmen,” Caden said, breaking her negative reverie. “Are you gonna be at our game this Saturday? Dad and Coach Alex said I could be lead batter.”
Carmen sagged against her seat, wishing she could go to all the twins’ games. But no matter how much the two charming troublemakers were growing on her, she’d rather relive her emergency surgery than be faced with spending more time near their father, Captain Dimples.
Luke had returned to town only a month after she’d taken the position with the Sugar Falls Police Department. When she’d been in the Marine Corps, she’d heard about his elite Special Ops team who’d carried out some of the deadliest missions in Afghanistan. Of course, she hadn’t thought that one of its members would eventually end up living in the same small city. Or that said member would have such adorable kids, who needed more supervision than the single dad could provide.
She especially didn’t know that he’d be so damn good-looking.
“I’m not sure about this weekend,” Carmen said. “We’ll see what my schedule looks like.”
“Aw, c’mon, Officer Carmen,” Aiden chimed in. “Ever since Aunt Kylie had her babies, we’re the only kids on the team who don’t have someone in the stands cheering for us.”
Her chest grew heavy with guilt and she tugged on her weighted vest as if she could physically relieve the pressure. Here she’d been feeling sorry for herself and the fact that she’d never have a family of her own, yet these poor young children had to grow up without a mom. As much as she’d bonded with the two wild and wonderful boys, was she doing them all a disservice by allowing herself to get too close to them when what they really needed was a mother figure?
She was usually much more empathetic than this, which was why she’d been a good MP and an even better cop in Vegas. It was why she’d made the big move to a small town like Sugar Falls in the first place. She needed to find herself again.
And she needed to get her emotions in check.
She pulled into the dirt lot behind the bleachers and was saved from making any additional commitments by the sudden appearance of the tall, muscular, blond male walking toward them and waving.
Her stomach grew uncomfortable and she almost undid her seat belt, thinking the baton attached to her duty belt had shifted and was digging into her flesh. But she knew the feeling well enough to realize it wasn’t from anything she was wearing. She got that same tightening of her insides every time she saw Captain Luke Gregson.
“Hey, monkeys,” he said to his children as he leaned into the open driver’s-side window. “Did you guys catch any crooks today?” His face was close enough that she could see where he’d cut himself shaving this morning. And she could smell the lemon and oak moss scent of his aftershave.
Button it up, Delgado, she told herself.
“Well, we almost stopped a robbery at the Gas N’ Mart,” one of the kids said from the backseat. But Carmen was so focused on not attaching her nose to the tanned and fragrant skin on Luke’s neck that she couldn’t tell which of the boys was talking. “We were getting our slushies and a man walked in with his hat pulled down past his eyebrows and he was reaching into his back pocket, like he was gonna pull out a gun.”
Luke raised one brow, clearly aware of his children’s fondness for exaggeration. Carmen should interject here, but she was too busy commanding her tummy to relax to get any words out.
“So, me and Caden made a run for him, ’cause we were gonna karate chop him up before he could start shooting down the place.”
“Oh, crap,” Luke muttered, and she finally got her hormones under control so she could explain.
“Don’t worry.” She put her hand up as though she could physically stop his thoughts. Then she returned it to the wheel when she realized how close it was to touching his face. “It was only Scooter Deets, and he was reaching for his wallet, not a gun.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t recognize him ’cause he wasn’t wearing his normal Boise State cap. His new goat chewed a hole clean through it, and now he has to wear a diff’rent one until he goes into the big city next month.”
The big city was Boise. It was only an hour’s drive down the mountain, but it was probably a yearly excursion for a local like Scooter.
“So nobody actually got hurt?” Luke asked. Was it her imagination or was his sudden release of air a little too warm and minty? “There wasn’t any damage?”
“Well, Scooter didn’t really get hurt ’cause we landed on all those chips when we jumped at him. But Mrs. Marconi told Officer Carmen that someone was gonna hafta pay for a new display stand since hers is all bent up now.”
Luke drew his fingers through his short military-cut hair. Carmen had seen the exasperated mannerism several times just this past month and knew the poor dad was once again frustrated at his children’s antics. “Okay, boys. Hop out and go warm up for practice. I already put your gear in the dugout.”
“Do we hafta do extra laps?” Aiden wanted to know as they exited her car.
“You will if you don’t mind your manners and thank Officer Delgado for putting up with you two this afternoon.”
“Thanks, Officer Carmen,” Aiden said. Ever since she’d taken the job with the police department, the twins were the only people in town who called her by her first name. Well, actually her middle name, since Maria Carmen was a mouthful even to her.
“Yeah, thanks,” Caden added. “We’ll see you next Tuesday again. And maybe Saturday for the game, remember?”
After this afternoon, she was looking forward to a little peace and quiet. But would it really be almost a whole week before she’d get to see them again?
“I’ll see you next Tuesday, but I don’t know about Saturday, yet.” Unfortunately, her last sentence wasn’t even heard by the two boys who were now running toward their teammates.
“So, do I really have to pay for a new chip display at the Gas N’ Mart?” Luke asked.
Uh-oh. He was still there. And her little towheaded buffers had made a beeline for the field. She shifted her hips to the right, but because of her holster knocking into the seat belt buckle, she couldn’t scoot any farther away from him.
“It really didn’t look too busted to me,” she said, thankful she was wearing her mirrored aviator sunglasses. Hopefully Luke couldn’t tell that she was barely able to make eye contact with him. “I set it back up and the boys put all the bags that didn’t burst open back on the shelves. I was going to have them clean up the broken chips, but I think Elaine Marconi just wanted us to get out of there at that point. She was annoyed, but she has kids of her own so she didn’t seem too put out. I’ll have the chief let you know if she files a claim for damages.”
There. She’d directed any future conversation through her boss, who also happened to be Luke’s friend. While she loved spending time with his funny and impulsive children, being around the man himself caused the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach to migrate straight to her brain.
“Those boys are going to be the death of me,” he said, voicing aloud the exact thought she’d had forty minutes ago. His forearms now rested on her windowsill, as though he wasn’t planning to shove off anytime soon.
“Anyway, I’m sorry we’re late. It was my fault,” she said quickly, hoping he’d take the hint that she was in a hurry to finish the conversation.
“Don’t worry about it. Listen, I really appreciate you spending time with them after school. I’m sure you have much more important things to do around town than play big sister to a couple of little monkeys.” The way he smiled showed his dimples to advantage and indicated that he used the nickname for his kids out of affection.
But she wasn’t particularly fond of the way he classified her into his sons’ peer age range, as if she wasn’t just a few years younger than Luke, himself. At least he’d said sister, though, and not brother. That was something, right?
As much as she wanted to get far, far away from his sexy grin, politeness dictated she respond. “Actually,” she said, “you may find this hard to believe, but the Sugar Falls PD doesn’t see too much action on the weekdays. Foiling a nonrobbery at the Gas N’ Mart has been the most exciting thing to happen on one of my shifts since last January when those tourists didn’t check out of the Snow Creek Lodge by eleven o’clock.”
She clamped her lips tightly together after she spoke. Why did she do that? Why did she always downplay the importance of her job—the value of her abilities? Shrinks would probably say it was some type of residual defense mechanism from growing up in her oversize machismo family or trying not to stand out in a male-dominated profession.
“Still, I know they’re in good hands with you.” Did the man ever stop smiling? “Coop said you outwrestled half his force in defensive tactics training last week.”
“That’s not saying much considering we only have four other officers on staff.” There she went again. She should be proud that she was an expert in martial arts. But she didn’t want Luke to think of her as some juiced-up, studly gladiator. She wanted him to see her as...
Stop. It was this kind of foolish thinking that would seriously undermine all the work she’d put into getting her mind right and her head back in the game since she’d broken up with Mark and moved here. Man, she needed to get away from Luke and her AWOL thoughts.
Thinking quickly, she reached beneath the dashboard and double clicked on the mic of her bandwidth radio, causing the volunteer dispatcher to respond. Carmen clicked on the mic again, then leaned down toward the radio as though she was listening to something Luke couldn’t hear.
The resulting static probably wouldn’t fool a former SEAL, but she went through the pretense of answering a phony call out. “Ten-four. I’m en route.”
She looked back at him as she put the vehicle in gear. “Gotta run,” she said, barely waiting for him to move his arms off the window before tearing out of the dirt lot.
* * *
That was the worst fake radio call out Luke had ever seen. And he should know. He’d trained as a communications specialist before going through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training.
He watched Officer Delgado drive off, gravel crunching and dust flying. Why had she been in such a hurry to get away from him? Was he giving off that lonely “I need to talk to someone who understands kids” vibe again? He rubbed his forehead, then dragged his fingers through his hair before shoving his hands in his jeans pockets.
His twin brother, Drew, said it was obvious whenever Luke was missing the guys from his unit—or worse, when he’d been in the cabin all weekend with his squirrelly sons and he needed adult conversation—because it was the only time Luke uttered more than a few sentences.
But moving to Sugar Falls to become a full-time dad, changing assignments from team leader of an elite Special Forces unit to pushing paper at the naval recruiting office outside of Boise...well, it was all proving to be more challenging than he’d anticipated.
Luke poked his athletic shoe at some tiny rocks that had been kicked up from Carmen’s patrol car as she’d blasted out of the lot. The action was instinctive, as though his feet needed the physical reminder that he was actually standing on solid ground.
He thought back to the night before Samantha’s accident several years ago. Luke had been in a training exercise where the team was being hoisted from the ocean and into a hovering Osprey helicopter. It was dark and the water was choppy, with waves crashing over his head. When it had been his turn, part of his safety harness ripped and he’d had to hold on to the cable with his bare hands to keep from dropping. He’d dangled like that, with the chopper blades stirring up more wind force than the actual storm, for at least a minute before being pulled up to safety.
Ever since his wife had died, he hadn’t been able to shake that feeling of being suspended in the air, swinging above a raging dark sea and holding on as if his life depended on it.
“Hey, Dad,” Aiden yelled from the outfield. “Are ya comin’ or what?”
He waved at the boy and started to jog toward the dugout. He needed a good run tonight. Something that would clear his thoughts or at least make his mind too tired to think.
“How’s Officer Delgado today?” Alex Russell, the team coach, asked Luke when he finally made it back to the dugout. He liked Alex, whose family owned the local sporting goods store, but he didn’t like the sly half smile the man was now wearing.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Even Luke heard the unfamiliar agitation in his voice.
“I’ve just noticed that she’s been dropping the boys off at practice a few weeks in a row.”
“Yeah, that mentorship program at the school finally found someone who was willing to take them on. Once a week, I have to stay at the recruiting office later and can’t pick the boys up, so I think Delgado must’ve taken pity on them—the people who work at the after-school program, that is.”
“Some kids have all the luck.”
His kids? Lucky? No way. They’d already lost their mom before they could really remember her and they’d been bounced around with various relatives while Luke had played Captain Save-the-World. Now it was taking a whole ski resort village to raise the lovable little hellions. “What do you mean?”
“Not only do they get to hang out with a cop, which would be any boy’s dream, but they get to ride around with the hottest one on the force.”
“Officer Delgado?” Okay, so Luke was faking the surprise in his voice. The woman was naturally beautiful with those classic high cheekbones and full lips, but he’d quickly gotten the impression from the woman herself, as well as most of the other men in town, that she definitely was not on the market—not that he was, either. So then why was Alex bringing up her hotness?
“C’mon. Like you haven’t noticed the way she fills out that uniform.”
Sure he had, and he wanted to take the aluminum bat leaning against the fence and swing it at the head coach for even suggesting that he’d noticed, too.
Whoa. Shake it off, Gregson. What was up with the irrational jealousy?
“I try not to,” Luke said, his jaw locking around each word. And that was true. He felt guilty sometimes just for looking at her.
“Hell, we all try not to, Luke. She obviously isn’t the type to flaunt anything and probably wouldn’t appreciate it if we were noticing. She’s all business, that one.” Alex picked up a glove and patted his shoulder before walking out of the dugout. “Let’s get started, boys!”
Maybe Luke wasn’t the only guy in town who Officer Delgado wasn’t warming up to. He should be somewhat relieved that it wasn’t just him. Still, the woman turned into a block of ice whenever he spoke to her, and he didn’t know what to make of that. Luke wasn’t usually so chatty, but he’d tried to talk to her about things they could possibly have in common—like the military or martial arts. Once, he even asked her what she bench-pressed because, clearly, the shapely woman worked out. Yet, unless they were talking about the twins, she shut down completely every time.
She’d made it plain that she was indifferent to him, but for some damn reason, anytime he was within a few feet of her, he couldn’t get his mouth to stop yapping.
Not that he was actually interested in Carmen like that. Or in any woman, for that matter. When he’d been active on the team and going to bars with his single buddies, he’d had no problem charming the ladies. But those days were over soon after he’d met Samantha.
After his wife died, it had taken him a while to get his head back on straight, and he wasn’t entirely convinced he’d succeeded yet. He used to think that volunteering for the most dangerous missions and staring his fears in the face would make him feel more in control. Then, after a near-death experience last summer, he realized he couldn’t be so selfish as to put Aiden and Caden at risk of becoming total orphans. So he’d settled down and aimed for the safety net of Sugar Falls.
Now all his charm was exclusively used for smoothing over the trouble his children unintentionally caused. So far, neither his charm nor his commitment to his children had diminished that dangling, out-of-control feeling he still got. To make matters worse, when Carmen Delgado was around, his safety net seemed further away than ever—and he wasn’t sure he could survive another free-fall.
Chapter Two (#u58b49f45-b840-5b21-80a0-ca67f21e05fc)
Carmen had just finished lunch at the Cowgirl Up CafГ© on Snowflake Boulevard and was walking back to the station to do some paperwork before her shift was over when a very pregnant Mia McCormick waved her over from across the street.
“Hey, Officer Delgado, you’re just the person I wanted to talk to,” Mia said as she held open the door to the Sugar Falls Cookie Company to allow Kylie Gregson, the twins’ aunt, to maneuver her double stroller inside. “Do you have a second?”
“Sure.” Carmen followed the women into the little shop that brought so much business to Sugar Falls. She inhaled the scent of vanilla and looked around at the cute displays to see what the flavor of the month was. She’d always been a sucker for fresh baked goods, and even though the turkey sandwich and potato salad she’d finished a few minutes ago threatened to pop open the button on her uniform pants, she might order a couple of cookies and save them for later.
She tried to look anywhere but at the other customers who cooed and made googly eyes at the twin baby girls, talking to Kylie and Mia about feedings and diapers and all the things Carmen would never get to experience.
Carmen had never felt like such an outsider, which was saying something considering she’d been the only female in her MP unit and had had to hoof it clear across the base to take a shower in the women’s head while all of her coworkers got to use the communal locker room.
At least as a Marine and a cop, she had the job in common with her male counterparts. But there was absolutely nothing she could say at that second that would make her fit in with this duo of mommies. And she never would.
When the customers finally left, Mia said, “I’m so behind schedule. I should’ve taken Maxine up on her offer to deliver the cookies to the old Remington Theater for tonight’s dance recital.”
Maxine owned the Sugar Falls Cookie Company and was married to Carmen’s boss. Since Carmen knew Chief Cooper was off duty this afternoon to accompany his wife to an obstetrician appointment, she doubted the pregnant dance teacher would get much help running errands. Maybe that’s what Mia wanted to talk to her about. But before Carmen could remind the woman she was on duty, the other mom spoke up.
“Thank goodness you got the city council to okay you using the old theater for performances,” Kylie said to Mia as she rocked her stroller back and forth. She directed her next comment at Carmen. “Sometimes I worry about my girls growing up in a small city with a limited access to culture, so having a legitimate venue for school plays and band concerts is a total win. Last year, when the community center got double booked, we had to watch the fifth grade’s talent show while the bingo club was shouting out B-39 and O-14 the whole time.”
Carmen smiled politely as the women laughed. She hadn’t been in Sugar Falls very long, so she didn’t share the same memories, but she appreciated these ladies including her in the conversation and not making her feel so out of the loop. Although she was still waiting for them to clue her in on why they wanted to talk to her.
“You’re from Vegas originally, right?” Kylie asked before reaching into the stroller and unstrapping the infant who’d started fussing. Carmen nodded but averted her eyes quickly for fear that if she watched the tender maternal moment too long, she wouldn’t be able to look away. In which case, they’d probably see the hunger and the desperation in her eyes. She planned to avoid that scenario. Sympathy was never easy for her to handle.
“Hey, I thought I saw my nieces being wheeled in here,” a masculine voice said from the doorway. Carmen didn’t have to turn around to recognize the speaker. Her stomach’s telltale reaction to his voice already alerted her.
She told herself it was due to the big lunch she’d just consumed, not his unexpected arrival. Just like it was the sudden crisp spring air rushing in from the open door that caused the shiver to race from inside her starched collar all the way down her spine—not Luke Gregson, himself.
Maybe if she repeated that lame excuse eight more times, she might actually believe it.
The tall man was dressed in his blue battle dress uniform, looking like he’d spent all morning modeling in a photo shoot for some Navy recruitment poster. She would think that seeing him in his military uniform would trick her mind into believing that he was just like every other guy she’d worked with over the past ten years.
But judging from the second shiver making its way down her back, it wasn’t her mind doing the thinking.
A sudden wail jerked Carmen’s attention from the muscular male legs tucked into shiny black boots and toward the small bundle of pink still strapped in the stroller.
“Oh, no.” The pitch in Luke’s normally deep voice raised a few octaves as he reached for his other niece, talking to her. “Did your mean ol’ mama pick up your sister and leave you behind all alone in this big contraption?”
“Luke Gregson.” Kylie stood up even taller than her five-foot-ten height as she faced her brother-in-law. “If you call me or my fashionable stroller �old’ one more time, I will drive straight to the school and tell your sons that you promised to take them and five of their best friends camping this weekend.”
“Aw, come on, Kylie.” Luke’s voice sounded just like his sons last week when Carmen had told them they had to practice their spelling words before she took them to Noodie’s Ice Cream Shoppe. “That’s not cool. It’s supposed to rain this weekend, and you know what happened last time I let them invite a friend—one friend—for a sleepover at the cabin. I still have mustard and toilet paper stuck to the living room ceiling.”
Carmen laughed. It didn’t take much to imagine how Aiden and Caden had managed that.
“Hey, Officer Delgado.” Luke finally turned his warm gaze to her. Seeing him holding that precious baby made her stomach drop to her knees, which was the only explanation for why her legs felt so unsteady. “I didn’t expect to see you in here chitchatting the afternoon away with these two.”
Didn’t he? If he saw his sister-in-law and nieces enter the cookie shop, then he had to have seen Carmen come in right behind them. More than likely, he was probably surprised to see her socializing with other women. Not that she wasn’t a little surprised herself.
“First, you call me old and now you suggest we’re all just wasting our time talking about important town business?” Kylie tried to sound stern. “Give me my daughter, Luke. She can’t wait to surprise her cousins at school with the news of their fun-filled weekend.”
Luke maneuvered himself and the pink bundle nestled on his shoulder behind Carmen, as though she were the barrier that would protect him from his brother’s wife, who was clearly only feigning her annoyance. His dimpled smile struck again.
“Now, now, Kylie. You couldn’t ever get mad at me. That’s just the hormones talking.” When his sister-in-law chuckled, Luke finally moved back into the line of fire. “I remember when Samantha had just given birth to the boys and she called my commanding officer in the middle of the night, reading him the riot act because I was still on deployment and she was out of baby wipes and didn’t have any clothes not covered in spit-up that she could wear to the store.”
“Your wife was a saint for putting up with you gone on all that secret assignment mumbo jumbo. I couldn’t even imagine what I’d do if Drew got deployed before the girls go off to graduate school.”
Luke rocked back on his heels but didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. The sadness in his blue eyes and the steeliness of his jaw did the talking for him.
“Oh, my gosh, Luke.” Kylie must’ve seen the same hurt expression cross his face because she tenderly stroked his arm. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s okay, Kylie. I know what you meant. And you’re right. Samantha did put up with a lot.”
If Carmen had felt mildly awkward before, she was downright uncomfortable at being a witness to his heartache. What was she doing here, anyway? Should she even be listening to them reminisce about his deceased wife, a woman who obviously deserved the pedestal they’d all placed her on?
“So, Mia,” Carmen said, trying to verbally tiptoe her way out of the emotional land mine. “What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Oh, that’s right. Sorry, I have pregnancy brain and can barely hold on to a passing thought.”
Carmen, knowing she would never be able to personally relate to such a symptom, had no response to that statement. Instead, she forced a smile toward the sweet woman.
“You know how we do group exercise classes at the dance studio?” Mia asked but didn’t wait for a response. “Well, I normally teach a yoga class on Monday mornings, but with the baby due soon, I’m trying to find some substitute instructors while I’m on leave.”
“But I’ve never taught yoga.”
“Delgado’s a Marine,” Luke said, apparently listening in on their conversation. Kylie must’ve decided to distract him from his grief because now he was holding both babies, one nestled against each thick bicep. Whoa.
“She’s a devil dog,” he continued. “They don’t do sissy yoga. Right, Delgado?”
She cringed slightly at the Marine nickname and his inaccurate assessment of her.
“Easy there, skipper,” Carmen said, throwing a naval moniker right back at him. His use of her last name was all the proof she needed that she’d been placed in the Friendzone. It was also a good reminder that she shouldn’t be lusting over him. “You just got out of trouble with Kylie and now you’re trying to pick a fight with Mia, as well? I think you’re underestimating your battle odds.”
Mia’s hand shot between them like a white flag of surrender. “That’s not what I meant. I was actually moving yoga to a different day, which leaves Mondays open. So, I was thinking that maybe you could lead some sort of kickboxing type class or teach self-defense. You know, that type of thing?”
“Oh,” Carmen said, at a loss for words. She hadn’t been expecting the request. She was flattered that the dance instructor thought her capable of teaching, and a little pleased that the small community was beginning to welcome her into their folds. But still. Would other ladies in town even be interested in such a class?
“Give it some thought.” Mia, probably sensing her hesitation, quickly added, “I have the recital tonight, and then the girls and I normally get together on Thursdays for dinner. Why don’t you meet with us tomorrow and we can discuss things more?”
“And by discuss things,” Kylie added, “she means maybe we can help her talk you into it.”
“Uh-oh, Delgado.” Luke smiled showing a single dimple. “These women are trying to get you to come over to the dark side with them. I’m sure you’d rather hang out with us tomorrow at poker night.”
And there she had it. She knew he was part of the group of men who got together with Chief Cooper once a week to play cards. Which meant Luke Gregson definitely thought of her as one of the guys.
It should feel good that both groups wanted her presence at their Thursday night rituals. But there was still the underlying reminder that the man she couldn’t stop thinking about didn’t reciprocate her feelings—and probably never would, considering the loving way he spoke of his late wife. It was enough to dash all hope of her ever finding a man who would accept a damaged woman.
In the past ten years, Carmen had had her share of poker nights and locker-room jokes and testosterone-fueled bragging. A night out with the girls actually sounded like a nice change of pace.
So she looked at the two women and, for the first time, stepped over the invisible line she believed had been drawn in the sand. “What time should I be there, ladies?”
* * *
Could Officer Delgado try any harder to avoid him?
As Luke stood outside the bakery, he had to wonder what he’d done to annoy the beautiful cop. Sure, he enjoyed his sassy sister-in-law and her group of friends. But Carmen didn’t seem like the type of woman to hang out with a bunch of former cheerleaders turned moms.
She had way more in common with him, and he’d simply been trying to point that out. Okay, so maybe he sounded like an arrogant tool with all that ooh rah Marine business. He wasn’t trying to be a chauvinist or imply that she wasn’t capable of teaching yoga. From what he’d seen of her with the twins, and from what he’d heard of her reputation with the MPs, she was one tough cookie.
So then why did she always act like he was a melted chocolate chip stuck to the bottom of her black utility boot?
He would’ve asked Kylie if he’d done anything to offend Carmen, but she’d sat down to nurse one of the girls and Luke had gotten the heck out of Dodge. Not that he was uncomfortable with seeing a woman breast-feed. At least, he doubted he would be. He’d been on a classified mission when his own boys were born, and by the time he’d come home, Samantha had decided that formula was much easier for her. And who was he to object? He couldn’t be there all the time and he still felt immeasurable guilt that his wife had had to do everything on her own.
Not that she’d totally been on her own, he’d found out after the fact. Still, it had been a hell of a lot more than he’d done.
When Aiden and Caden were babies and toddlers, Luke was usually only home for a couple of months at a time. He and his late wife didn’t necessarily share the same parenting philosophy, but they also didn’t share the same workload when it came to the kids, so he took a backseat to her softer approach. Then, after her accident, he’d stayed home long enough to help the boys get through the initial grief before his parents convinced him they could help out. Luke had told himself that the three-year-olds needed a mother figure more than they needed him—after all, it was Samantha who had done most of the work so far.
So when Aiden and Caden were staying with different family members and babysitters and he was still out of the country half the time, the boys lost even more structure.
His cell phone rang, and when he saw the number for the elementary school on the display screen, Luke wished for the thousandth time that he’d been more on top of their discipline. He loved his children more than anything, but man, were they magnets for trouble.
“Captain Gregson, here,” he answered.
“Hello, Captain. This is Mrs. Dunn, the nurse over here at Sugar Falls Elementary.”
Thank God, it was the nurse this time, and not the principal. Wow, that was a really bad thought. “Are my sons okay?” he asked.
“Yes, everyone is fine. Now. Caden had a little incident on the tetherball court and Aiden tried to help him get untangled and, well, the rope got caught. Anyway, I think it’s just a bad sprain, but you should probably get some X-rays just in case.”
“Which one?”
“The left one.”
“I mean, which of my children got injured.”
“Aiden has the actual sprain, but from the way Caden is carrying on, you’d think he was the one hurt.”
It was a twin thing. Luke and Drew had experienced the similar phenomenon growing up. And even as adults.
“I’m coming right now. Is his arm in a sling?”
“Uh, no. Why would it be?”
Luke only had basic medic training to assist in emergencies until a corpsmen got to the scene, but it would seem to him like the nurse would at least want to take pressure off the injured body part. “I just thought that maybe it would help stabilize his arm.”
“Oh, sorry, Captain Gregson. I should’ve been clearer. The sprain is to Aiden’s ankle.”
“How in the world did he sprain his ankle with a tetherball rope?”
“That’s a great question, Captain. And as soon as he gets his brother to relax, maybe Aiden can tell us. I had to snatch some pudding cups out of the school cafeteria to help in the calming-down process.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Luke disconnected the call, got into his nana’s brown Oldsmobile and drove less than a mile from downtown to the school. He’d grown up in Boise, but his parents owned a cabin here and he had spent most of his summers in Sugar Falls before joining the Navy. While the town setting was familiar, he was still getting used to the slower pace of life.
He would’ve preferred to drive around in the yellow Jeep his family kept at the cabin, but when his brother, Drew, had stepped in to care for the boys last summer during Luke’s last deployment, his overly cautious and analytical brother had insisted that the thirty-year-old sedan was safer for shuttling children than the fun and masculine four-by-four.
At least the Oldsmobile was in good shape. Before she’d passed away ten years ago, his grandmother had only driven the thing three times a week—to the grocery store, to the beauty shop and to the casino out on the reservation—so it had low mileage and only some minor dings in the right front fender. Nana never could make the tight turn into her carport at the mobile home park.
He kept meaning to buy a more functional and fuel-efficient car, especially since he was making the hour-long commute into Boise four times a week. But, contrary to what Drew and their sister, Hannah, thought, he’d always been Nana’s favorite grandkid and he missed the old gal.
Growing up, Luke had been the naughty twin—the proverbial pastor’s son who drove his mother to distraction. Nana would come pick him up to give his mom a break, calling him her wild child and having him light her menthol cigarettes for her so she could keep both hands on the steering wheel.
He took a deep breath, still able to smell the Benson & Hedges along with the lingering scent of her Shalimar perfume. His parents were fair and loved him, but Nana had been his island—his place to escape. Driving this brown beast made him feel closer to her.
When he pulled into the school lot, he gunned the eight-cylinder engine, just like she used to do, before pulling into a parking spot. He also overestimated his turn radius and the right bumper knocked into the custom sign that read Principal Parking Only.
Yep, just like Nana.
He walked inside and waved at the school secretary, who, after the third week of school, had programmed Luke’s cell number into her phone’s speed dial.
He let out a little sigh of relief when he turned left to go to the nurse’s office instead of heading straight down the hall toward the principal’s. He’d spent plenty of time sitting outside doors just like that one when he was growing up. And, since history seemed to be repeating itself, his children had a tendency to do the same.
Karma was definitely on the upswing with his genetics. Luke’s parents often referred to it as God’s sense of humor.
When he entered the room, he saw Aiden, the injured twin, sitting behind Mrs. Dunn’s desk and showing her how to play a computer game. Caden, the uninjured one, was propped on the cot and eating a chocolate pudding cup. His left foot was elevated on several pillows with an ice pack balanced precariously on top.
Even Luke’s brother, Drew, a well-respected Navy psychologist, couldn’t explain twin telepathy. But both he and Luke had experienced it firsthand and he didn’t doubt for a second that Caden could legitimately feel his brother’s pain.
Although, from the way Aiden was swinging around in the nurse’s chair and yelling commands at the woman on how to fight the Creepers on her computer, it seemed nobody was really the worse for wear.
“Dad? Oh, good. You’re finally here,” Caden said as he sat up and reached for his backpack. “We need to get Aiden to the hospital for some X-rays. Let me see your phone.”
Luke patted his pocket, ensuring his cell was far out of reach from his dramatic and impulsive son. “Who were you planning to call?”
“Officer Carmen. I’m gonna tell her we need a police escort with lights and sirens and the works.”
Luke raised his blond eyebrow at Aiden, who had just high-fived Mrs. Dunn for reaching the next level on his favorite game. “I think your brother will be fine on the way there. We can forgo the Code Three routine.”
Besides, he was pretty sure Carmen was off duty by now. Wait. How had he known that? Had she mentioned her schedule to him when he’d seen her at the cookie shop earlier?
Considering she hadn’t said more than two words to him, he doubted it. So why did he know what her shift was? Because today was Wednesday. And she always worked the afternoon shift on Sundays and Mondays, then the morning shifts on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
He tapped his toe against the linoleum. Yep, the ground was still solid. So then maybe he could stomp out some of this useless information he was carrying around about a woman who would just as soon do fifty pull-ups than say hello to him.
Of course he would know her schedule because Tuesdays were the days she always picked up the boys after school, right after putting in a ten-hour day. He had to give the woman credit for that. She was an absolute sweetheart with the twins and had the patience of Job. Aiden and Caden couldn’t stop talking about her or singing her praises, which was probably why she kept popping up in Luke’s head so often—just like his renewed knowledge of Star Wars sequels, now that he’d shown the DVDs to the boys.
“Sorry to have to bother you at work, Captain,” Mrs. Dunn, the fiftysomething-year-old former Ski Potato Queen, said. He knew she had been on the homecoming court and had earned her crown at the annual ski festival the same decade his grandmother had bought her Oldsmobile because the woman kept the framed pictures and newspaper articles displayed on a shelf right above the bandages and antiseptic wipes.
“Actually, we had a presentation at one of the high schools this morning so I was off early today.”
“Being a recruiter must be so exciting. Helping all those young people find their careers.” When the nurse smiled at him, he noticed some of her coral lipstick had smeared onto her front two teeth, but he didn’t have the heart to point it out to the former beauty queen. When it came to those holding any sort of authority position over his children, he found it best to keep them locked in as allies.
“That’s sweet of you to say. It really makes me appreciate all you school employees do to help shape the minds of our next generation.” Which was true. Luke loved his own boys, but he didn’t think he could deal with so many students and their high-energy personalities on a daily basis. He gave the woman his best get-out-of-trouble smile.
Her mascara-clumped eyelashes fluttered as best they could and he knew he’d hit his mark. She smiled back and said, “I bet the high schoolers just adore having a hotshot hero like you come speak to them.”
In Luke’s mind, being a SEAL wasn’t such a big deal. He had just been doing what he loved. Still, maybe he could ask Nurse Dunn to share her flattering insight with Officer Delgado. Not that he cared what the female cop thought of him.
“Dad?” Aiden tapped him with a one of the crutches he must have borrowed from the school nurse. “You ready?”
“Oh. Um, yeah.” After hearing the nurse explain to Caden that she only had one set of crutches, Luke carried Aiden’s backpack and watched as his injured eight-year-old hobbled in front of him on one foot. His other son trailed behind with only a slight limp.
Anytime he had a slow day at the recruiting office and thought he missed the excitement of Spec Ops, all he had to do was drive home to his children. No amount of skilled warfare training could have prepared him for the adventure that was fatherhood.
Of course, it was times like these when he wished he’d pursued sniper school. Maybe then he’d be better equipped to work without a teammate. Without a partner. Sure, he had his family for backup, but sometimes he felt so alone.
The kids climbed into the back of Nana’s Oldsmobile and then immediately turned the crutches into dueling lightsabers.
It was going to be a very long night.
Chapter Three (#u58b49f45-b840-5b21-80a0-ca67f21e05fc)
“Hey, Officer Carmen, you wanna sign my cast?” Luke heard Aiden say to the long-legged curly-haired brunette wearing tight jeans and high-heeled boots. Caden rushed inside Patrelli’s Italian Restaurant to join his brother before Luke could stop them.
Crap. It was bad enough that the boys talked about their cop friend all the time, but now they were so eager to see her, they were mistaking her for random ladies in town. Albeit, a very curvaceous and sexy random lady. Luke let go of the heavy oak door and hurried over to the hostess stand to prevent his son from creating an embarrassing situation.
“Monkey, that’s not... Oh.” Luke stopped when the woman turned around.
Wow. He’d never seen Carmen wear anything besides her police uniform—something that clearly hadn’t been tailored with such a womanly form in mind—or track pants and long-sleeved T-shirts when he’d caught glimpses of her out running.
“It’s just a stupid ACE bandage,” he heard Caden say, yet the pending argument barely registered in Luke’s ears.
Double wow. The woman really had some nice legs.
“Yeah, but I’m pretending it’s a cast,” Aiden said. “Casts are cooler and way tougher.”
“I would love to sign your pretend cast.” Carmen reached for a pen off the hostess stand and bent down to write.
Luke had once been skilled at utilizing all five of his senses in any given situation, but try as he might, his eyes were the only thing functioning at that moment. And they were shamelessly staring at Carmen’s, ah, assets. She had on some type of loose, flowing, purple top, and from this angle, he could see down to where the rounded curves of her breasts met the V-shaped neckline.
He almost grabbed one of Aiden’s crutches to steady himself as a sudden wave of lust nearly knocked him sideways. Where had that come from?
When Carmen finally straightened up, Caden asked, “How can you drive your police car with those girl shoes on?”
“I promise, the next children I sire are going to have better manners,” Luke joked as he forced his eyes up to meet her face. But she must have been purposely ignoring him, because she wasn’t looking his way at all. Instead, she was completely focused on his children and smiling. Was she wearing lip gloss? And where in the world had she been hiding all those inky black curls?
“I’m not working tonight. I’m having dinner with some fr—some ladies...with some lady friends.” She waved at Maxine Cooper and Mia, who were already seated at one of the red vinyl booths. “What about you boys? I thought tonight was poker night?”
Had she remembered the invitation he’d awkwardly delivered yesterday? Probably not, since she still wasn’t making eye contact with him. Maybe she was one of those females who related better to kids.
“It is. But it’s Dad’s turn to bring the food. Hey, you should come with us. It’ll be more fun than sitting here and talking about lame girl stuff.”
See. He wasn’t the only one who’d just assumed she’d be more comfortable hanging out with the guys. But before he could say as much, his sister-in-law breezed into the restaurant.
“Aunt Kylie,” both of the boys squealed before throwing their arms around her.
“Oh, you guys are getting so big!” Kylie said. “I’ve missed you two.”
Luke felt a twinge of remorse. The boys had lived with her and Drew for several weeks and often stayed with them when Luke had to go out of town for trainings and recruitment seminars. But now that the couple had two newborns, Luke had tried to keep the boys away so they wouldn’t become too much of a burden.
“Hey, Officer Carmen, in those boots, you’re almost as tall as Aunt Kylie.”
Luke had never really noticed the cop’s height before, but in heels, she came to his chin. At least he guessed she would, if she ever got close enough to him to allow for an accurate measurement.
“My dad and Uncle Drew are both six foot four,” Aiden volunteered. “But we might not grow as big as them because Grammie said our mom was only—how tall was Mom, again?”
It took a second to realize his son was asking him a question. Then it took another second to figure out what that question was. But after half a minute, Luke realized that he didn’t have an answer.
How tall had Samantha been? She was on the shorter side, but he couldn’t recall an exact height. He could remember the way she’d cried and threatened to leave the day he’d gotten his orders to go on a three-month overseas mission. He could even remember the defeated look in her eyes when she’d gone off that night to “have a few drinks with the girls.” But lately it was getting more and more difficult to focus on the rest. No wonder Samantha used to accuse him of being emotionally unavailable.
Think, Gregson! Five foot four maybe? She was definitely shorter than the beautiful woman in front of him. He shook his head. What kind of man compared his dead wife to another woman? And what kind of father couldn’t keep his thoughts in check when his children asked him such a simple fact about their mother?
“She was five foot four,” he finally said while silently appealing for forgiveness in the event he was wrong. As well as forgiveness for the way he’d been too focused on Carmen’s long legs.
His career and dangerous deployments had not only taken its toll on his family, it had also driven a wedge so deeply between him and Samantha that she’d turned to a bottle of vodka to ease her burdens. Just because he hadn’t been the one behind the wheel on the night she’d died didn’t mean he wasn’t to blame.
Yet here he was, staring at Carmen, shamelessly taking in every glorious detail about her. The boys barely remembered their mother, and it was up to him to keep her memory alive for them—not get all hot and bothered about some incredible-looking female cop who had a soft spot for his kids. A flood of shame weighed him down, making him feel like he was closer to two feet tall.
Officer Delgado had her hands shoved into her jeans pockets and appeared to be reading the specials on the menu board several feet away. She obviously couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. His toes flexed inside of his hiking boots and he clenched his jaw in disgrace.
“Well, you boys have fun at poker night,” Kylie said, probably trying to lessen the awkwardness. “I figure I have about sixty-three minutes to get a bit of sustenance before Drew is gonna need me to head back over and feed the girls. So if I don’t get some garlic knots and fettuccine Alfredo in me before then, there will be three very unhappy Gregson ladies.”
Just then, a waitress walked up balancing four large pizza boxes and a couple of white paper sacks filled with Italian subs, and Luke had never been so glad for an excuse to get away. Even though he didn’t think he’d be able to stomach a single bite.
“C’mon, monkeys,” he said, peeling some bills out of his wallet and putting them on the hostess stand before taking the food from the server.
He maneuvered himself and the boxes out the door while the twins said their goodbyes and gave Kylie her usual three hugs, a ritual they’d started when she and Drew had been looking after the boys last year. The cool air felt great on his overheated face, so he decided they would walk the few short blocks to Maxine and Cooper’s apartment above the Sugar Falls Cookie Company.
He liked his cabin out in the woods, but Luke couldn’t deny that the Victorian buildings lining downtown held their own appeal. If the boys didn’t need so much space to run around, he’d gladly move in to one and try his hand at renovation. It might also shorten his commute. But then he’d have to interact more with the townspeople.
And, as he’d just displayed, he sometimes ended up looking like a complete ass when he did.
His life certainly hadn’t turned out the way he’d expected. His training had conditioned him to always be ready to adapt and overcome—to put the mission goal first. However, just because he was ready to move on didn’t mean he knew the direction in which he was headed. Maybe he should focus on figuring out a new mission instead of standing there like a tongue-tied fool who had no business lusting after his children’s volunteer mentor.
They climbed the stairs and Cooper let them inside before grabbing the pizza boxes, carrying them to the white kitchen and opening them up on the counter. “Okay, kids, grab a slice and head on back to Hunter’s room.” Their host handed them each a paper plate then pointed to his stepson’s bedroom down the hall.
Setting the rest of the food down, Luke said hello to Drew, who was pushing his sleeping daughters’ double stroller back and forth, and to Alex Russell.
Luke was still somewhat new to the group, but Drew and Cooper had been stationed in Afghanistan together, and Alex coached both Hunter’s baseball team, as well as Aiden and Caden’s.
A knock sounded, and Coop grabbed a slice for himself as he walked to the door to let in the newcomer. Garrett McCormick had been Cooper’s knee surgeon at the nearby Shadowview Military Hospital before opening up an orthopedic clinic in Sugar Falls after his discharge. Garrett had married Mia a few months ago—or had it been longer than that? Hell, Luke could barely manage to remember details from his own marriage, let alone all these dudes in Sugar Falls who seemed to be drinking from the same Kool-Aid cup.
“Sorry I’m late,” the doctor said. “I had to drop off Mia’s coat at Patrelli’s. Her hormones are all kind of whacked out and she’s been forgetting everything.”
Alex, the only other single male present, covered his ears. “This is an estrogen-free zone, gentlemen. I do not want to talk about anything but baseball, beer and Clint Eastwood movies.”
“Speaking of Clint Eastwood movies,” Drew said as he piled food high on his plate. “Kylie and I were watching Bridges of Madison County the other day on TV and...”
A collective round of “No” and “C’mon” and “Yuck” went around the room. Someone threw a plastic pouch of red peppers at Luke’s twin, who made the catch and then sprinkled some on his pizza.
“Actually, speaking of estrogen...” Garrett paused when he saw several packets of parmesan cheese aimed his way. “Wait, let me rephrase that. I was gonna say that when I stopped by Patrelli’s, I saw Officer Delgado sitting with the ladies, and I hardly recognized her out of her uniform.”
Luke’s ears buzzed as the rest of the guys settled back into their seats. This was his chance to find out more about her without bringing too much attention to himself.
“Hey, Coop.” Alex took a swig of beer. “I was meaning to ask what her deal was.”
If anyone knew Carmen, it would be Chief Cooper, who was the woman’s boss and had previously worked with her before as an MP when they were both stationed stateside. Luke held every muscle still, not wanting to miss the scoop and not wanting to grab the coach by the shoulder and tell him to back off.
There was that weird jealousy feeling again. What was up with that?
“What do you mean?” The police chief arched a brow. Yeah, what exactly did Alex mean? Was he interested in the female cop?
“I mean, does she do anything outside of work for fun? We have that intramural softball team we’re trying to put together for the Western Idaho League and, well, I don’t want to stereotype, but I’ve seen her out running and she looks like she’d be pretty athletic.”
Luke let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Oh.” Cooper got up and brought a foot-long Italian sub sandwich over to the table. “I thought you were asking about personal stuff, which you know I can’t give out.”
“I’m not looking for a date, man,” Alex said, and laughed. “I’m just looking for a shortstop.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to date her?” Luke felt the words coming out of his mouth before his brain could process them. Just a second ago, he’d felt like shoving Alex’s face into his pizza for even inquiring about Carmen. Now he was accusing the man of not finding her worthy enough of his interest. Get back on solid ground, Gregson.
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t date her. I said I wasn’t looking for a date. Any date. At least not with anyone locally. Don’t get me wrong, I know love and babies and rainbow-colored unicorns are running rampant in this town—” Alex looked pointedly at Drew, Cooper and Garrett “—but that pile of marriage crap you guys stepped in isn’t for me.”
“Amen.” The word was out of Luke’s mouth before he could stop himself. He tilted his beer toward Alex’s and they clinked their bottles.
“Wait.” Drew held up his hand. “Luke, I can’t believe you just said that. Hello? You were married once, too.”
“That was a one-time deal and it turned out I wasn’t cut out for it, either.” He didn’t want to talk about Samantha or the shame-inducing lapse of forgetfulness he’d just had at the restaurant in front of witnesses. He didn’t want to think about his marriage at all. He tried to keep all thoughts of that disaster hidden away in that footlocker in his mind and wasn’t sure why everyone else on this planet suddenly wanted to bring it up.
“Don’t you think you could be happy with someone again?” Garrett asked him.
A vision of Carmen’s long hair framing her face, her glossed lips smiling at his sons, was the first thing that ran through his mind. But an occasional smile wouldn’t be worth the inevitable heartache that would result from getting seriously involved with a woman again. Even if he could be happy, it wouldn’t be long before whoever he married wouldn’t be.
“Nope, I’m good.” He realized he’d responded a little too loudly when he saw four pairs of doubting eyes staring at him intently. “Look, the boys and I are just settling into a routine and I’m still getting used to the new job. My plate’s pretty full right now. Besides, every time I see her, she pretty much shuts down, so I’m guessing she’s in the same boat.”
“Who?”
Luke looked up at Drew. “Uh, Officer Delgado? Wasn’t that who we were talking about originally when Alex and Garrett brought her up?”
“Actually,” Cooper said. “That was the conversation before it got segued into you not looking for a relationship and Carmen not being interested in you.”
“Did she tell you she wasn’t interested?” Luke raised his eyes like a hungry puppy looking for confirmation that there were no more pieces of pepperoni being thrown his way. “I mean, not in me per se, but... Stop staring at me like that, you guys. I thought we were talking about relationships and people not looking for them.”
“Oh, boy.” Cooper retrieved a wooden game box off the television stand. “We better deal the cards while Gregson is still struggling to maintain his poker face.”
“I don’t have a poker face because I don’t need one for this stupid conversation that you idiots steered me into.”
“Well, to answer your question,” Cooper said, not trying to hide his smirk. “Carmen hasn’t said whether or not she was interested in you or in any other man at this particular moment. But I do know that she’s getting over some serious garbage she had to deal with in Las Vegas.”
Luke remembered his sons telling him she had worked as a cop with the Las Vegas Metro PD before moving here, and he wondered what might’ve happened to cause her to leave such a large department, which probably had a lot more options for upward mobility than the tiny Sugar Falls Police Department. Maybe a cheating boyfriend on the force?
“Apparently she’s taking out whatever the last guy did to her on men in general.” Luke took another drink, holding himself back from asking for more information. “She treats us like we’re all IEDs she needs to go out of her way to avoid.”
“Hmm.” His brother adjusted his gold-framed glasses. “She doesn’t act like that around me.”
“I’ve never gotten that impression from her, either,” Garrett said, grabbing more pizza.
“Okay, so it’s just me she can’t stand to be around. Anyway, I’m not trying to get Carmen to like me.” Oops. Had they heard Luke slip and use her first name?
“You could do worse,” Drew said, and the other men chuckled. “In fact I’ve seen you do way worse back in the day. Maybe that’s why you’re so attracted to Officer Delgado. Because she isn’t throwing herself at you.”
Yep. They’d caught the slip.
“Don’t try to psychoanalyze me, bro. Why can’t I just be attracted to her since she’s a beautiful woman who looks absolutely amazing in jeans and... Oh, shut up,” Luke finally said when he realized Alex and Garrett were giggling behind their beer bottles like a couple of teenagers.
An infant let out a wail, and Luke wanted to kiss his sweet niece for coming to his rescue.
“I will say this for Carmen Delgado,” Drew said. “She sure can put up with those adorable nephews of mine, so your battle to win her is halfway fought.”
“Just a word of advice,” Cooper said as he picked up plates to clear off the table. “You might want to take it slowly once you decide to finally bite the bullet and pursue her.”
“Who says I want to pursue anything with her?” Luke would’ve kept arguing, but he saw all the men double over in laughter.
What he didn’t see were his two blond curly-haired twins, standing on the other side of the door and giving each other a thumbs-up.
* * *
The following Saturday afternoon, Carmen pulled into the long driveway of the small riverside cottage she’d rented when she first moved to town. Her new home was on the southern border of Sugar Falls, and a little far from downtown, but she liked her privacy.
It was her third day off in a row, and she’d driven to the mall in Boise to stock up on makeup at her favorite department store. And to buy another pair of the jeans she’d been wearing Thursday night. It might’ve been just her imagination, but she could’ve sworn that Luke Gregson had been staring at her legs. At least until she’d knelt down to sign Aiden’s pretend cast and he’d leaned over to stare at something else.
He was probably just curious as to how she signed her name or what kind of message she’d written. Still. She’d experienced the heady rush of flattery for a split second. And, during that moment, she’d remembered that even though she’d had an emergency hysterectomy a year ago, the rest of her lady parts were still alive and well.
Then his words about his future children had turned her butterflies into blocks of concrete and her stomach had felt like lead when she’d tried to stand up.
She also recalled how pensive and eerily quiet Luke had gotten when Caden had brought up the boys’ mother, the love of Luke’s life. The man had completely shut down. His grief must be immeasurable to keep that kind of pain bottled up so tightly. A man that stuck on his dead wife was most likely not checking out Carmen in her civvies.
That was why she didn’t do butterflies anymore. It was also why she shouldn’t have wasted so much money at the mall earlier today.
As she parked her compact SUV next to her cottage, she caught sight of an empty canoe floating down the river behind her house. Uh-oh. That wasn’t good. She hopped out and ran toward the bank to see if she could spot the riders who’d possibly fallen out of their boat. The river was fairly gentle here because of the bend a few hundred yards ahead, which tended to slow its current.
If the rowers had lost their craft farther up north, and closer to town, where the rapids were stronger, she might not see them for a while. But if they’d somehow tipped over near here, then they were obviously novices—most likely tourists—who would be in way over their heads when the flow picked up speed half a mile down.
Running up to her back porch, she grabbed a long rope, then raced to the water’s edge. She didn’t have to keep her eyes peeled for long when she counted three people in bright yellow-and-blue life jackets coming her way. She tied off the rope to a sturdy tree trunk along the river’s edge and threw it across the water just as the trio floated by.
Her stomach tightened again when she saw who she’d just thrown a line to.
“Hey, Officer Carmen,” a little towheaded boy called out as the more than capable Captain Gregson grabbed hold of the rope. Aiden and Caden were both holding on to their father, who was pulling them toward the shore.
“We lost our boat!” The other eight-year-old smiled in excitement, as though he’d lost another tooth, not a hand-carved, custom teak watercraft.
“How’d that happen?” she asked, trying not to stare at the sinewy muscles moving in Luke’s biceps as he steadily alternated his grip, working his way up the rope.
Oh, to have those strong hands on her body, his arms flexing as he moved up her legs and...
Yep. Her lady parts were definitely still alive.
“You know, Delgado,” Luke called out, sounding frustrated but not the least bit winded, “we might get to the shore faster if you helped pull a little bit. Boys, stop wiggling.”
Duh. She’d been standing there salivating at the poor guy, as if he was a participant in a Navy SEAL wet T-shirt contest.
She grabbed on to the other end and put her own muscle into it. Lord, the man was as heavy as a tree trunk. Granted, he had the extra weight of his giggling and squirming sons to deal with, plus the river’s current was starting to pick up speed, creating more resistance.
It took a few more heaves and the boys jumped off their dad and scampered up the bank, their interest diverted by some sort of amphibious creature in the shallow water. Luke took off his life vest and his wet shirt, and Carmen almost dropped to the damp pine-needle-covered earth below her.
Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look.
She looked.
How could she not? The man had a torso that could’ve been sculpted from marble. He had muscles in places she’d didn’t know humans were capable of having them.
“Do you have an extra towel by any chance?” he finally asked. Carmen jerked her head up, meeting his steady gaze, which she normally tried to avoid. She wished she’d tried harder this time. He was grinning at her, that little dimple winking in amusement, and she knew she’d been busted checking out the goods. But, man, were they some goods.
“I thought you Special Forces boys were used to getting things wet.” Her hand almost flew up to cover her mouth. “I meant getting wet. In the water.”
She had tried to be snarky, thinking that if she insulted his macho pride it would cover up the fact that she’d been eyeing him the way a barefoot woman would eye the shoe rack at a Nordstrom half-yearly sale. The resulting comment only made her seem even more like a sex-starved pervert.
“Yeah, well it’s been a while since I’ve been exposed to anything that cold,” he said. “Besides, with this unexpected heat wave, we wore shorts because I didn’t actually expect to end up in the river with the boys.”
“Oh, my gosh! The boys.” She turned to Aiden and Caden, who were standing ankle deep in the water, trying to catch bullfrogs and smiling through chattering blue lips. “Come on, kiddos. Let’s go inside and get you in a hot bath to warm you up.”
She jogged over to where the boys were and helped them get out of their soaking wet life jackets before steering them toward her cabin. She noticed Aiden’s ACE bandage was gone and probably long forgotten. He didn’t have so much as a limp.
“Uh, what about me?” Luke asked, still standing there, droplets of water trickling off the ridged planes of his abdomen. “Aren’t you going to warm me up, too?”
She’d worked alongside men with oversize egos and the predispositions to flirt with a rock. But judging by the torch he was still carrying for his late wife, he was probably only making a dig at her for staring at him so blatantly. Even if he had been flirting, she knew better than to engage in any sort of banter that could lead to him thinking she was the type of woman who would welcome some tired line like that one.
“Simmer down, skipper. There’s a stack of towels on the dryer in the mudroom. Help yourself while I get the boys in the tub.”
“Maybe the water isn’t the coldest thing I’ve been exposed to lately.” He’d mumbled the words, but she’d heard the remark and shot him the withering look she’d perfected back when she was a Lance Corporal and the lone female in a platoon full of horny, young twentysomething-year-olds thousands of miles away from their wives and girlfriends.
She left him standing on her back porch and, after making sure the twins were in a warm bath and had something dry to put on afterward, she went into her room to change out of the jeans she’d been wearing when she’d stepped into the water to get the kids out of their vests. Come to think of it, her blouse was a little damp, too.
A few minutes later, when she padded out of her bedroom wearing cropped turquoise yoga pants and a plain white tank top, she found Luke in her living room, the towel he’d wrapped around his hips cinched low and tight. He was leaning against the back of her pink toile sofa; the only thing between his golden skin and the terry cloth material was the damp fabric of his shorts.
She sucked in her breath and felt her nipples tightening into hard buds.
“Nice, uh, outfit,” he said. But his steel-blue eyes weren’t looking her up and down. They were staring at the two points barely concealed by the thin white fabric of her tank top.
“You know what?” She crossed her arms over her chest, knowing the gesture was made to cover herself, as well as hold herself back from him. “I think I have a shirt around here somewhere for you to use.”
She made an about-face and hustled to her bedroom where she stared at a pile of oversize T-shirts she’d accumulated over the years. Although many of the tees were gender neutral and came from a variety of tactical units and trainings she’d participated in, she was hard-pressed to find any sized double extra large, let alone double extra sexy. She finally settled on a dark green one at the bottom of the pile.
She’d been in such a hurry to get Luke covered up, it wasn’t until she was standing in front of him with the shirt that she realized she should’ve grabbed one for herself instead of practically exposing herself in her skimpy tank top. Again.
“Hey, Officer Carmen,” one of the boys said from behind her. She jumped away from Luke, as though her skin was completely on fire. “Where should we put our wet bathing suits?”
She blushed, thankful her back had been toward the bathroom door so the twins hadn’t caught her reacting so physically to their father. She needed to get them out of there. All of them.
“Let’s put them in the dryer so you can get them back on as soon as possible.”
“That’s okay,” Aiden said. “I like wearing your stuff. It’s soft and smells good.”
Luke groaned when he saw his son in one of her oversize shirts. Apparently, he didn’t like his son wearing a shirt that read “My Heroes Have Always Been Marines.”
Well, it wasn’t like she had kid-sized clothing just lying around her house. And the boys didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Caden was still pumped from winning the round of rock-paper-scissors and getting dibs on the red one with a bulldog wearing a drill instructor hat.
“Do you guys need a ride home?” She handed over another T-shirt to Luke and walked toward the kitchen, trying to put as much distance between them as possible.
“No, but can I use your phone?” Luke asked. “Mine was in the boat when we tipped over and Cooper was supposed to meet us at the pickup point. I don’t want him worrying if he sees the canoe floating by. He can probably swing by here and give us a lift.”
“I’ll just go make some hot cocoa,” she said, then handed him her cell before walking to the kitchen. Normally, she found comfort in the sunny room with its blush colored walls, dark-stained wood cabinets and oversize white farmhouse sink. But today, the ninety square-foot space was closing in on her.
The boys followed her, and she could hear Luke making his call to Cooper and explaining where they were. She was just filling up four mugs when he walked into the kitchen, still wearing that damn towel. Too bad she didn’t have any shorts big enough to fit him. Or a cabinet big enough to hide in.
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