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“Jackson’s cousin has twin daughters about your age. They’re right over there, by the entryway to the main lodge. If you want, I can introduce you.”
Bree snuck a glance past the stacked stone fireplaces and cozy seating arrangements in La Dolce Vita’s front room, unable to hide the interest lighting her eyes. “Anything’s better than hanging out with a bunch of geriatrics. Okay, I guess.”
Across the room, the two blond girls giggled together in typical preteen fashion. Maybe if Bree finally made a friend or two in Pine Mountain, she’d hate it here less. Still, Gavin felt a little burble of worry.
“Don’t go too far, okay?”
“I can’t believe you don’t trust me to walk across the restaurant without getting into trouble.” Her whisper came out more like a hiss, and she whipped her arms back over the front of her sweater. “I’m thirteen, not three!”
Oh, for the love of God, couldn’t they go one day without having a blowout? Why did she have to turn his concern into the Spanish freaking Inquisition?
Gavin lowered his voice, willing false calm over every word. “I trust you. I just want to make sure you’ll be okay, that’s all.”
Bree looked poised for a fight, her lightly freckled brow furrowed in determination, but before she could open her mouth, Sloane took Bree’s hand and folded it into the crook of her arm.
“Oh, Sadie and Caitlin will take good care of her. Plus, Bree’s a smart cookie. She won’t do anything she’s not supposed to. Right?”
The move seemed to shock the argument right from Bree’s lips, and after a pause she said, “Right.”
Sloane shifted her focus back to him, brows raised. “Okay?”
She made it sound so easy, so no-big-deal, that he softened. He hadn’t meant to overreact, and after all, Bree was right. She wasn’t a little kid anymore. Gavin worked up an apologetic look for Bree, startled to see the same sentiment sweeping over her face, too.
“Sure. Go have fun. Just come find me if you need anything,” he said.
With the scowl wiped from her face, Bree agreed with a nod. The resolution prompted one corner of Sloane’s mouth to kick up into a victorious smile.
“Okay, then. I’ll be right back for you.”
“For me?” Gavin blinked.
Her smile curled into a smirk, sparking a gleam in her crushed-velvet eyes that shot right through his body.
“I promised to help both of you, didn’t I? As soon as Bree here is comfy with her new friends, you’ve got yourself a real date.”
* * *
Gavin didn’t knowwhether to be taken aback or turned on, but as he watched Sloane’s hips swivel in the same flawless, drop-dead sexy rhythm that had been driving him mad all week long, he had the feeling he was in for a long night. While he’d managed to tamp down the memory of their heated kiss enough to avoid a repeat performance, something about Sloane’s pouty, pink mouth and the unadulterated laugh that spilled from it without warning made him want to chuck the rules. In another life, that might’ve been okay, but now? There was more to think about than simply what he wanted.
Even when what he wanted was packaged in a dress that could cause nations to crumble.
From his vantage point by the bar, Gavin surreptitiously watched Sloane lead Bree past groups of people knotted in conversation to arrive at their destination by the door. After just a couple of animated gestures and a deep peal of laughter that shot through him from halfway across the room, Sloane had managed to single-handedly integrate his standoffish sister into the small group of girls standing by the entryway.
For someone claiming to be the anti-nanny, Sloane was one hell of a quick study.
He was about to turn his attention elsewhere and give Bree a bit of privacy when she leaned her head in to listen to something one of the blond girls said. Her lips tipped upward, breaking into a sweet, unabashed smile. The sight of Bree’s face, lit with something other than anger or sullen nonchalance, detonated in Gavin’s gut like a firecracker with a too-short fuse.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen that smile.
“Occasionally, I have a good idea, don’t you think?” Sloane reappeared at his side, nodding over her shoulder at the girls, who clustered together like brightly colored grapes on a summer vine.
How bad for him could Sloane really be if she was willing to do something like that for his surly sister?
“Or do you not think it was a good idea? I mean, they’re right over there, and I just thought…well…”
Gavin had been so distracted by his thought that he’d almost failed to notice the strange expression trickling over Sloane’s face, as if all her seductive certainty had been carried away by a stiff breeze. For a breath, she seemed unvarnished, like a completely pure version of the brazen woman he knew, and his pulse log-jammed in his veins.
With that vulnerable look casting shadows over her face in the low light by the bar, he wanted her now more than ever.
