decline, leaving her no polite choice but to walk away from the table with him.
He hated to coerce her verbally, especially when she’d thrown herself on that little gossip grenade in front of Cessy Walker and Freckles. The only person who had ever covered for him in a potentially disastrous situation like that was his brother, Luke. But he couldn’t just sit back and let her martyr herself—or her reputation—without providing his input.
She was just as haughty in her strapless floral-printed sundress as she’d been in her bedsheet this morning. But this time, when she turned to stand toe-to-toe with him, she was almost at eye level. He glanced down at her four-inch wedge-heeled sandals and decided that as regally annoyed as she looked right this second, he liked her similar height to his. As well as her long, toned legs, which made him think thoughts he had no business thinking.
“You never said anything about moving to Sugar Falls,” she said accusingly, the sound of slot machines ringing in the background.
“I didn’t realize I needed your permission to do so.” He tried to keep his voice calm and steady. They were far away from the prying eyes and ears of their acquaintances back at the table, and nobody would be the wiser if they made a scene in the middle of the buffet area. But he knew that if he kept his cool, she would be forced to, as well.
“Of course you don’t need my permission. But can’t you realize how much more awkward this situation is going to be if we have to live in the same town?”
“Not if we don’t let things get awkward.”
“Maybe you have ice running through your veins, but I can’t run around pretending this—” she held up her ring finger between the two of them “—didn’t happen.” She must not have been able to get her band off, but she’d camouflaged it by wearing a large ruby-studded one stacked on top. He’d used so much soap in the shower, he’d almost dropped his own down the drain. He reached into his left pocket, just as he’d done several times throughout the meal, making sure it was safely tucked away.
Looking at her bare shoulders and feeling the warm metal circle under his fingers, he knew he had anything but ice coursing through him right that second. In fact, he was almost as heated as he’d been earlier this morning when she stood in front of him in the same stance, all fired up and practically heaving out of her provocative lace bra.
“I think I’m not saying this right.” He slowed down his words, hoping this would slow his pulse rate, as well. “We have no idea what we’re going to have to deal with in the future, and it would probably help if we could keep things friendly.”
“Why are you always so rational?” She sounded as if she was accusing him of something again. Was she seriously expecting an answer? She let out a pent-up breath and then asked a more logical question. “So you’re going to be living at that cabin with a couple of kids?”
“Yes.”
“But it’s only for the summer?”
“Correct. That should give us enough time to know what we’re going to do about...uh...everything,” he said as he looked pointedly at her midsection. “In the meantime, I wanted to get your number so I could—”
She interrupted him. “Why don’t you give me yours instead? I never give my personal number out to strangers. Besides, I’ll let you know if there’s any news.”
Wow. Talk about putting him in his place. Plus she apparently deemed him one who shouldn’t get a say in what happened from here on out. He didn’t like not being the one in control. Of course, it wasn’t as though he couldn’t find her if he wanted to. They had the same friends—one of them being the chief of police, who could locate anyone—and Sugar Falls was a small town.
“Okay, let me grab a piece of paper to write it down for you.”
“I don’t need it. I’ve got a head for numbers.”
He rattled it off, and she repeated it back to him from memory. Impressive.
Now, if only her clever mind could tell him what they’d done last night...
* * *
Drew hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Kylie the entire flight from Reno to Boise. He had taken a cab from the airport to his parents’ house, planning to spend a night or two with his folks so the kids could get reacquainted with him before they left for their summer excursion.
He and Luke had been extraordinarily close growing up and had even joined the navy together when they’d turned eighteen. But their careers had taken opposite paths, and due to the transient nature of their assignments, they rarely saw each other. Which meant Drew saw his nephews even less.
Normally his mom and dad—or even their younger sister—would take the eight-year-old twins whenever Luke was sent overseas for an indefinite length of time. But Hannah was participating in a Teachers Without Borders program this summer, and his parents were getting a little too advanced in years to handle the high-energy boys. Besides, it was time Drew stepped in for some family bonding, especially when he finally had a duty station that wasn’t in a war zone.
But after twenty minutes in the house with the wild and rambunctious kids, he wondered if he was equipped to handle so much rowdiness all by himself.
“Uncle Drew,” Aiden called out as he stood on the armrest of the sofa. “You look just like Dad, but with hair.”
“You look just like Caden, but with mustard on your face,” Drew responded. “And get down from there.”
“I’m Caden,” Aiden tried to insist. But Drew was an identical twin himself and knew the old trick.
“Does the switcheroo work on your dad?” Drew doubted it did, and it was best that the boys learn right away that he was going to be just as effective at parenting as his brother. Of course, judging by the complete lack of discipline he’d witnessed so far, he didn’t think the boys had been exposed to any effective parenting, no matter how much Luke adored his children.
“Not when he’s here. But when we Skype him, we can usually fool him good. And we fool Grammie all the time.”
“Well, Grammie should know better. After all, nobody’s better at the twin switch than me and your old man.”
At that moment, Caden ran by, shoving a brownie into his mouth as Drew’s mom chased him, a rubber spatula in her hand. “Aiden Andrew Gregson, you bring that brownie back right this minute.”
“Grammie, that’s Caden. I’m Aiden.” The boy who’d been talking to Drew giggled, still balancing on the furniture like a tightrope walker. “See? She mixes us up all the time.”
“Well, it doesn’t help that your names are almost identical, too. It can be confusing for anyone.” Drew lifted Aiden up before planting the boy’s sturdy legs on the floor. What had their parents been thinking, naming them so similarly?
But he didn’t ask this out loud because he wasn’t sure how the kids were reacting to their father’s recent deployment. Their mother had passed away when the boys were three, and Luke had raised them mostly on his own when he wasn’t playing Captain Save-the-World. Yet the past couple of years, they had bounced around so much to accommodate their dad’s dangerous and unpredictable job in special ops, they hadn’t had much consistency.
“Aiden,
