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“Don’t push your luck, kid.” He thumped Trey in the stomach with his shoes.
Eyes well off the master bedroom door, Daniel charged down the hall. He would leave a note and let her sleep. He wasn’t up for resisting a sleep-mussed Mary Elise, anyway.
She might be stubborn, but so was he, and he had reinforcements. Each day that passed, it was obvious she loved Trey and Austin. The boys were his trump card for convincing her to stay.
He locked the front door while his brothers sprinted toward Darcy Renshaw’s sports car easing into her parking spot after her night flight. The boys launched at her as she stepped out. She had to be dead on her feet but didn’t wince. He owed Wren and Max more than he could repay.
Daniel finished bolting the door and turned to thumb the remote on the truck lock. “Come on, fellas,” he called, striding down the walkway past the mailboxes. “Leave Wren alone so she can go to sleep. Let’s get a move on, or I’m ordering Trey chocolate chip pancakes.”
“Eww!” Trey’s exaggerated gag drifted across the lot.
“You’re talking to a man who ate rabbit eyeballs in survival training. I’m not impressed with your bellyaching about the menu, kid.”
When Trey didn’t snap a ready comeback, Daniel glanced over his shoulder. Wren was long gone, Trey and Austin now standing with some businessman, tie flapping in the breeze over his shoulder.
Alarms jangled in his head. Not the work instincts he’d come to expect and trust, but a strange new protectiveness. Didn’t schools teach kids not to talk to strangers?
Daniel charged forward. “Come on, boys. Now.”
Trey jogged toward him, dragging Austin by one hand. “That man was just asking about the condos, said he’s thinking about moving here.”
“Yeah, well, the guy’s outta luck, then.” He knew full well there weren’t any condos available since he’d already called to check that out for himself in the midst of a stupid whim thinking maybe he could coerce Mary Elise into staying a few doors down.
Just to be close to the boys, of course. And because he wanted to help her as much as she’d helped him. Not because he couldn’t stomach the thought of her long-legged stride walking out of his life.
Daniel scooped Austin up under one arm and “flew” him to the truck. “We’ll talk about staying away from strangers some more over your milk, kid.”
Austin stretched his arms out, airplane-style. “That man’s got funny birds on his tie.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Daniel swung Austin upright and snapped him into the car seat with a newfound skill.
Tucking behind the wheel, Daniel watched the man cross the parking lot to the main office. Okay, that seemed to support his claim of condo hunting. Instincts were there for a reason, however.
He popped open the glove compartment and snagged a pad and pencil, jotting the license plate number on the guy’s Mercedes. He’d get Spike to run the number when he checked in about the voicemail.
Daniel shifted the truck into reverse and glanced over his shoulder. Two pairs of brown eyes stared back at him. Those eyes filled with trust, albeit begrudging on Trey’s part, until something twisted inside Daniel. He’d been so busy thinking about how he would do his duty and take care of them, he’d never even seen it coming.
These weren’t trump cards.
They were his brothers, his blood, not just some burdensome responsibility. They needed more from him than a set of bunk beds and a ride to school. And if he felt this much for the two runts after only a week…
As much as he wanted to break through whatever walls Mary Elise had erected between them, if he screwed up again—a likely scenario—two sets of trusting brown eyes would pay as well. A prospect a lot more daunting than the addition of a neon-green training seat to his bachelor condo.
CHAPTERTEN
Mary Elise tuggedthe T-shirt over her knees, chin resting on her folded arms, and listened to the door slam as Daniel and the boys headed out for breakfast. The scent of bay rum—of Danny—drifted up from the rumpled sheets where she’d lain awake, too aware of him with every breath.
As if sleeping in the soft warmth of his shirt wasn’t tempting enough. Almost as tempting as the fading echo of his laughter mingled with Austin’s giggles and a repeat hoo-ya from Trey.
She was so proud of Danny.
He’d pulled it together with his brothers. Sure, they’d only been together about a week, and no doubt more bumps would jostle them in the future. Trey was still prickly, but Daniel had his number. Austin would adjust faster because of his youth. The rest would sort out, now that they’d begun to forge a family unit.
They didn’t need her anymore. Her suitcase waited in a corner, calling to be packed.
She’d known he could manage—smart, determined, with a heart bigger and softer than he realized. She worried more about him submerging his own needs. The boys would be fine. But what about Daniel? The friend inside her wanted to be the one to take care of him in what would still be an incredibly stressful time.
The woman within her just flat-out wanted to take him.
