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No obvious quirk or fidget to betray his nervousness, but I felt it just the same.
“You’re good at poker, aren’t you?”
A sidelong glance. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I can tell you’re nervous, but you don’t really do anything to betray it.”
“You can’t read me?” He sounded surprised. “I don’t have a guard up with you. God knows I tried.”
“I know how you’re feeling. I just don’t know how I know.”
He shrugged. “You can feel me.” A quick glance. “I can feel you, too, you know.”
“Yeah?”
He laughed. “Oh, yeah. Right from the beginning. I knew without turning around whenever you were in the room.”
“You’re so creepy,” I teased.
He laughed out loud. “If you weren’t such an exhibitionist, I wouldn’t be such a creeper.”
“You were nearing stalker-status.”
“I was,” he agreed. “I wanted to video you. Stills were not enough.” He flicked the indicator to turn onto Lucky’s street. “I did video you.”
My mouth fell open. “What? When?”
His mouth tightened. “The night in the sunroom.”
“Otherwise.”
He nodded in agreement. “Otherwise. I’m still sorry about that.”
“No need to be,” I reassured him then gave him my best mom voice. “Don’t do it again.”
He sighed as we slowed to a stop. “Give me the rundown again?”
Brayleigh chatted away. She’d found in Sia a captive audience. Literally. Strapped into the car seat beside her, there was no escape. She didn’t seem to mind. Those dark, fathomless eyes so much like her daddy’s seemed to take in every word.
“Well, you know Lucky, Minty, and Ava. Lucky has an older brother. Raiden looks like him but harder.” I drew an imaginary circle around my face. “He has four sisters. Ava is the youngest. Next up is Tracy. She’s married to Sean, and they have the terrible toddlers, Paige and Sloane. His other two sisters are older than him and Raiden. Darcy is divorced and has two tweens, Abby and Ben. Oldest is Dani. She’s married to Carlos, and they have three adult children. Rafael, Isabella, and Rosa.”
“Got it.”
Opening the doors, we began the process of extracting the girls and all the paraphernalia.
I took a breath. “I’m not going to lie. They’re a lot. Loud. Outspoken. Straightforward. And this being a birthday party for all our girls? It’s going to be worse. But they are all heart. They’re good people. I used to dream of being one of the kids in their family.”
“You didn’t want to marry into it?” He quirked a brow. Every now and then, he seemed compelled to confirm my relationship with Lucky.
“Well…” I began, laughing to myself as his head whipped around to look at me. “I did have a bit of a thing for Raiden at one time.”
“When?” he barked.
I laughed out loud as he circled around to my side, Brayleigh on his hip. I tipped my chin up for his kiss. Looked into those dark, flashing eyes. Anticipated his claiming later. “I was twelve.”
His entire countenance relaxed as his lips quirked up on one side. “You’ll pay for that little tease later.”
“I’m counting on it.”
