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Lucas shook his head. “I’m so not cut out for this.”
“Who is? Taking care of kids is like herding cats—you come away with a few scratches and hair on your clothes. Still, they can be cute.”
Lucas snorted, taking a few steps down the front stairs.
Addy didn’t back away because she wanted him to know she wasn’t scared of him. He wore a blue work shirt that stretched across his broad chest, the sleeves rolled up. His biceps protested the crinkled fabric and his forearms were sprinkled with burnished hair. One pearlized button in the middle of his shirt was chipped, and she longed to touch it if only so she could step closer to him and learn his smell.
Which was an odd inclination.
She’d never been attracted to someone like Lucas before… someone so raw and masculine, someone who reminded her of the Marlboro Man.
Stopping in front of her, he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The move was both tender and intimate. She lifted her gaze to his, and within those soft eyes was a momentary flicker of something that made her stomach flip over.
“Such a rare beauty, Addy Toussant.”
Addy had been called beautiful before, but not in the last few years. Something warm swirled within her, making her soften, making her wonder how his hands might feel on her bare skin.
“Thank you,” she whispered as his hand lingered at her jaw.
A tugging on her skirt jarred her from the wonderfulness of the moment.
A pair of blue eyes attached to a wriggling child with a hand thrust between her legs peered up at her. “I gotta go tee-tee bad.”
Lucas dropped his hand and lifted those chocolate eyes heavenward. “Dear God, grant me the serenity to-”
“-take Charlotte to the bathroom?” Addy finished for him with a laugh. She longed to step back into that sensual moment with Lucas but was relieved she didn’t have to. Something about the intense emotion she felt alarmed her. “I can take her.”
“Great. If you’ll do that, I’ll round Chris and Michael up and get started.”
“Just be consistent and fair with both those boys. It’s the only way,” she said, jogging up the front porch steps, tugging Charlotte with her.
“And you know this how?”
Addy stopped and made a face. “Well, I don’t really. I just hear my sisters say it. Could be totally wrong.”
Lucas gave her a smile and then headed toward her driveway.
“Hey, Addy. You wike my Uncle Wucas?”
“He’s all right.”
Charlotte twitched, dancing the I-gotta-go ballet on the end of Addy’s arm. “He’s scawey.”
“No, he’s not. He’s a man just like your daddy.”
“Michael says he’s a giant like in my book.”
“You don’t believe everything Michael says do you?” Addy pushed open the front door and entered the family room. It was a mess with socks on the floor, toss pillows off the couch, and the television projecting cartoons to an empty room.
“Him’s the oldest,” Charlotte said with conviction, tugging Addy toward an open door in the hallway. “Michael says he knows why Uncle Wucas hates us… because mommy was his first.”
Mommy was his first… what?
Did Courtney and Lucas have a past? That could explain why she’d never seen the man around the Finlay house. Sounded a bit soap opera-ish, but wasn’t reality stranger than fiction?
“Your uncle doesn’t hate you, Charlotte,” Addy said, helping the little girl slide down the elastic-waist jeans and slide onto the potty. “He just isn’t used to children.”
Charlotte looked up at her. “Then why did my mommy leave us with him?”
