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Hell, I’d been half inclined to go into Time River Market & Café and set up shop so I could watch.
But I’d been told I needed to work on that whole overbearing thing. Too bad my daughter was unknowingly feeding into my weakness.
She hurried to fold the letter, even though she was all kinds of meticulous about it, careful to make sure the edges were straight before she sealed it with another sticker. When she was satisfied, she hopped off the stool and darted for the back door.
The boys’ heads popped up where they were playing Legos on the floor. “Where you goin’, Livvie?” Oliver asked her.
“I’m going to invite Ms. Savannah over for dinner because we really need to welcome her to the neighborhood.”
“I want to invite her, too.” Owen scrambled to his feet, and Oliver was right behind him, and in an instant, the three of them were scuffling around to make it out the door first.
Each of them trying to outdo the other, like doing it would win them a prize for hospitality.
Sighing, I followed because the last thing Savannah needed was to get bombarded by my yahoos without any supervision. They’d chase the poor girl off before she got the chance to settle. Before she could realize this was a safe place. Maybe freak her out the same way as I’d felt her do last night when she’d peered out into the yard.
Like she couldn’t imagine belonging here.
Because she’d promised one day she was going to leave. Disappear. And I was the idiot who kept wanting to beg her to stay.
I traipsed across the backyard behind my kids at a slower pace than their all-out sprint, and a second later, all three of them were hammering at the glass door. I had almost made it to the small patio by the time Savanah was cautiously opening it and peeking out.
Her dark blonde hair was two shades deeper considering it was sopping wet, and it was only then I was realizing she was wrapped in a towel.
Droplets of water twisted and wound down her neck and shoulders before the rivulets disappeared into the cotton she had tucked tight under her arms.
A bolt of lust hit me like a lightning strike.
“Oh,” I heard her say in surprise before those aqua eyes were popping up to find me where I shifted on my feet without one fucking clue about what I was supposed to say.
Thankfully, my daughter’s manners were much more developed than mine since she stepped forward and reached out her hand. “Hello, Ms. Savannah. I’m Olivia, and this is my brother Oliver and this one is Owen, and we wanted to come and welcome you to your new house, and we would like to invite you to dinner because we knew the cupboards are bare in there and there isn’t even one single thing to eat, plus I’ve been learning to cook just like my auntie Dakota, and I think you’d really like it. I think you already met my dad.”
Livvie let go of the words without hardly taking a breath, then she was offering Savannah the folded invitation.
I tried to decipher what was on Savannah’s face. The way her gaze kept darting between me and my kids, the panic I could feel welling around her while this emotion I couldn’t quite put my finger on brimmed in her eyes.
“Oh.” She whispered it that time.
Unsure.
Dumbfounded, maybe.
I finally found my voice. “It looks like we interrupted Savannah. Why don’t we all head back to the house and let her finish getting dressed.”
Fuck. I didn’t want her to get dressed. I wanted to send my kids to my mother’s and push through Savannah’s door and peel her from the plush towel so I could get to what was underneath.
Revisit whatever was thrumming between us last night.
I felt like a piece of shit, standing there having those thoughts. But it’d been a long damn time since I’d felt anything close to this. Or maybe it was brand-new, this foreign pulse in my chest. The twist in my guts. The need that pummeled through my bloodstream.
One that urged me to step closer.
To pull her against me.
Fuck whatever destruction it would bring because I was pretty sure this woman might possess the power to destroy me.
Olivia scowled at me from over her shoulder. “She didn’t even get to look at it, Dad.”
“Wook at it.” Owen beamed at Savannah.
Sorrow lanced through her features.
I saw it.
Felt it.
Through it, she smiled a smile I’d never seen her use before as she looked down at my tiny son. One that was both tender and filled with grief.
“You want me to look at it, huh?”
“Yes,” he said through his adorable voice, the single word flooded with a giggle.
She shifted her attention to Olivia. “Did you make this for me?”
