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She screamed and stumbled back.
Chris frowned and pulled the door open to reveal Charlotte standing on the front porch in a pink nightgown and bare feet. “It’s just Charlotte.”
Addy’s racing heart didn’t slow. She clasped her chest. “Oh, God, you scared me to death, Charlotte.”
“You’re wearing a wobe,” Charlotte said, sidling into the foyer, damp curls bouncing. “I have one, too. It’s purple.”
“Go home,” Chris said, flinging out an arm and pointing toward their house. “You’re not supposed to go outside without permission. And never out the front door, Lottie.”
“I came with you,” Charlotte said, looking up at her brother with eyes pure as snowbanks at midnight. “I wove you. You’re my best brudder.”
Chris hesitated, brown eyes flickering down at his little sister. “Well, I don’t care. You still can’t leave without telling-”
“Charlotte!” Lucas shouted, taking the front porch steps two at a time. “What the hell do you think you’re doing running off like that? Do you know what could have happened?”
The man’s eyes blazed, and even Chris stepped back, bumping into an antique table holding figurines her aunt had bought in Italy.
Charlotte squealed and scampered behind Addy where she proceeded to crank up a good wail.
Addy reached down, curved a hand around the child’s shoulder, and held her to the back of her thigh. Charlotte wrapped her chubby arms around Addy’s leg, causing the terry cloth to part. Addy felt the cool night air on her bare thighs and tried to tug the robe closed. As she jerked the bottom closed, she felt the top part. She let go of the child, pulling both parts closed and clutching them as she faced the huge man filling up her doorway. “Stop yelling at her. Please.”
Lucas stilled, shifting in his boots, eyeing the exact spot where she held tight to the fabric. His eyes lowered only slightly before rising to her face. “I’m sorry, but she scared me. I sent Chris over for your list, and after I paid the pizza guy, I couldn’t find Charlotte.”
The little girl still cried, holding fast to Addy. “As you can see, your yelling is not helping the situation.”
“She’s not supposed to leave our house without Momma,” Chris said, folding his arms, very adultlike. He was quite the little parent.
“Mommy! I want my mommy!” Charlotte wailed, snuffling, her little body trembling against Addy’s leg.
“Here.” Addy bent and scooped the child into her arms, praying she’d not just shown her promised land to the two males in her foyer, and strode toward the living room to her left. Making calming noises, she stroked the little girl’s back. “Shhh, shhhh, Charlotte. Your mommy will be home soon.”
The child hid her face in the curve of Addy’s neck and squeezed her tighter. Addy sank onto the flowered couch, carefully tucking her robe around her, and glanced back at the two males standing silently in the foyer. She jerked her head, indicating they follow her and tried not to worry about the front door standing wide open, an invitation to the outside world.
Lucas pulled the door shut and nudged Chris toward where Addy sat.
“What?” Chris said, pulling back. “No, I wanna go back home. I’m hungry. Besides, I still gotta do some math.”
Lucas nodded. “Go then. Three slices of pizza only. No soda.”
Chris nodded. “Cool. Later, Addy.”
He didn’t wait for her response. Just slid out the front door, closing it with a loud bang. Addy couldn’t stop her eyes from sliding to the unlocked deadbolt. A second later she lifted her gaze to Lucas who noticed her preoccupation with the door, but hopefully thought she worried about the force the ten-year old had used.
He walked into her living room, gaze darting left then right before once again landing on her.
“I’m sorry,” Lucas said, ducking his chin slightly. “I didn’t mean to scare her. Or you.”
The irony was Addy wasn’t scared.
Not anymore.
But she was nervous to be practically naked in the room with a man she felt an uncanny attraction toward. And that thought surprised the hell out of her.
She should be terrified of a man storming into the place she felt safest, yelling, disrupting, darting glances at the places that made her very much different from him.
Moments before she had been terrified.
The letter had been sent to terrorize her, and her heart still thudded in her chest from the adrenaline of pounding down the stairs and being startled by Charlotte. But Lucas arriving, filling up the foyer with his strength and somewhat sweet failing at being a caregiver, stilled her. So odd, yet so welcome in the face of what she’d experienced earlier.
