gaze at Mia with those pure blue eyes that were so like Frisco’s.
“Well,” she said carefully. “Someday I’d like to get married and have a family, but—”
“She does,” Tasha informed her uncle. “She’s pretty and she makes good sandwiches. You should ask her to marry you.” She stood up and, taking her bucket, went down to the edge of the water, where she began to chase waves up the sand.
“I’m sorry about that,” Frisco said with a nervous laugh. “She’s…you know, five. She’s heavily into happily ever after.”
“It’s all right,” Mia said with a smile. “And don’t worry. I won’t hold you to any promises that Tasha makes on your behalf.” She brushed the sand from her knees and moved back onto the beach blanket she’d spread out.
Frisco moved to join her. “That’s good to know.” He turned to look at Mia, his warm gaze skimming up her legs, lingering on her red two-piece bathing suit and the enormous amount of skin it exposed, before settling on her face. “She’s right, though. You are pretty, and you make damn good sandwiches.”
Mia’s pulse was racing. When had it started to matter so much whether or not this man thought that she was pretty? When had the urge disappeared—the urge to cover herself up with a bulky T-shirt every time he looked at her with that heat in his eyes? When had her heart started to leap at his crooked, funny smiles? When had he crossed that boundary that defined him as more than a mere friend?
It had started days ago, with that very first hug he had given Natasha in the courtyard. He was so gentle with the child, so patient. Mia’s attraction to him had been there from the start, yet now that she had come to know more of him, it was multilayered, existing on more complicated levels than just basic, raw sexual magnetism.
It was crazy. Mia knew it was crazy. This was not a man with whom she could picture herself spending the rest of her life. He’d been trained as a killer—a professional soldier. And if that wasn’t enough, he had barrels of anger and frustration and pain to work through before he could be considered psychologically and emotionally healthy. And if that wasn’t enough, there was the fact of his drinking.
Yes, he’d vowed to stop, but Mia’s experience as a high school teacher had made her an expert on the disease of alcoholism. The best way to fight it was not to face it alone, but to seek help. He seemed hell-bent on handling it himself, and more often than not, such a course would end in failure.
No, if she were smart, she’d pack up her beach bag right now and get the heck out of there.
Instead, she put more sunblock on her face. “I went into your kitchen to help Natasha load the cooler with soda,” she said. “And I noticed you had only one thing stuck onto your refrigerator. A list.”
He glanced at her, his expression one of wariness. “Yeah?”
“I wasn’t sure,” she said, “but…it looked like it might’ve been a list of things that you have difficulty doing with your injured knee.”
The list had included things like run, jump, skydive, bike, and climb stairs.
He gazed out at the ocean, squinting slightly in the brightness. “That’s right.”
“You forgot to include that you’re no longer able to play on the Olympic basketball team, so I added that to the bottom,” she said, her tongue firmly in her cheek.
He let loose a short burst of air that might’ve been called a laugh if he’d been smiling. “Very funny. If you’d looked carefully, you’d have noticed that the word walk was at the top. I crossed it off when I could walk. I intend to do the same with the rest of those things on that list.”
His eyes were the same fierce shade of blue as the sky.
Mia rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin up in her hands. “Tell me about this amazing pink couch,” she said. “What’s that all about?”
This time Frisco did laugh, and the lines around his eyes crinkled with genuine amusement. He stretched out next to her on the blanket, making sure he could still see Tasha from where they lay. “Oh, that,” he said. “It’s gonna look great in my living room, don’t you think? Dirt brown and ugly green go real well with pink and silver.”
Mia smiled. “You’ll have to redecorate. Maybe a white carpet and lots of Art Deco type mirrors on the walls would work.”
“And it would be so me,” he said, deadpan.
“Seriously, though,” Mia said. “If anything will give Tasha incentive to follow your rules, that will. She’s only mentioned it five thousand times today already.”
“Tell me the truth,” Frisco said, supporting his head with one hand as he gazed at her. “Did I go too far? Did I cross the line from positive reinforcement into sheer bribery?”
Mia shook her head, caught in the intense blue of his eyes. “You’re giving her the opportunity to earn something that she truly wants, along with learning an important lesson about following rules. That’s not bribery.”
“I feel like I’m taking the point and heading into totally uncharted territory,” Frisco admitted.
Mia didn’t understand. “Taking the point…?”
“If you take the point, if you’re the pointman,” he explained, “that means you lead the squad. You’re the first guy out there—the first guy either to locate or step on any booby traps or land mines. It’s a pretty intense job.”
“At least you know that Natasha’s not suddenly going to explode.”
Frisco smiled. “Are you sure about that?”
With amusement dancing in his eyes, a smile softening his face and the ocean breeze gently ruffling his hair, Frisco looked like the kind of man Mia would go far out of her way to meet. He looked charming and friendly and pleasant and sinfully handsome.
“You’re doing a wonderful job with Tasha,” she told him. “You’re being remarkably consistent in dealing with her. I know how hard it is not to lose your temper when she disobeys you—I’ve seen you swallow it, and I know that’s not easy. And giving her that medal—that was brilliant.” She sat up, reaching for the T-shirt Tasha had been wearing over her bathing suit. “Look.” She held it up so he could see. “She’s so proud of that medal, she asked me to pin it onto this shirt for her so she could wear it to the beach. If you keep this up, it’s only a matter of time before she’ll remember to follow your rules.”
Frisco had rolled over onto his back and was shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun with one hand as he looked up at her. He sat up now, in one smooth effortless motion, glancing back at Natasha, checking briefly to be sure the little girl was safe.
She was crouched in the sand halfway between the blanket and the water, starting a new dribble castle.
“I’m doing a wonderful job and I’m brilliant?” he said with a half smile. “Sounds like you’re giving me a little positive reinforcement here.”
Natasha’s T-shirt was damp and Mia spread it out on top of the cooler to dry in the sun. “Well…maybe,” she admitted with a sheepish smile.
He
