Both of them pulled out their lips.
“It’s hard to believe they’re going to be part of civilized society in another twenty years, isn’t it?” she asked Mike.
He laughed. Not a loud laugh. But a throaty, sexy laugh. Turned her on all over again. “You promise it’ll only take twenty years?”
A forkful of egg arced in the air, landed in the lilies. “Hey, guys. That’s over the top. Who did it?” Amanda demanded.
“Not me,” Molly said.
“Not me,” Teddy said.
She pretended to buy into that bologna, turning a stern expression on Mike. “Mr. Mike, if you throw food again, you’re going to get a time-out, and I’m not kidding.”
That set the kids to giggling again. It was a lot easier, entertaining the four-year-olds than facing Mike alone. But eventually they got too squirmy to sit still, and Amanda gave them permission to go inside and play a game.
Unfortunately, once the kids deserted ship, the insanely messy table was the only thing between her and Mike. She’d felt his eyes on her, his smile on her, all through the picnic breakfast…but it was the first time she could really look back at him. At least in that naked way. That raw-nerves honest way.
“Did you sleep okay?” he asked her.
“Slept good. Just not long enough. You?”
“Like a log. Although I wish you hadn’t had to run home. Was Molly all right?”
“Yes. It was just her lizard nightmare. But I still needed to be there.”
“Of course you did.”
Conversation stalled like a dead battery. Mike’s eyes never left hers. Finally he put his elbows on the table, hunching forward. “My guess is the kids’ll interrupt us in two minutes or less. So either we dive into talking about last night. Or let it be. You have a vote?”
“Better talk.”
“Ok. The last thing I expected was a naked woman in my shower last night. Was there maybe something that triggered that happening? That I should know about?”
“Well…” How could she explain something that just all clicked in her head all at once? “It was because of Molly. In the fight yesterday with the second-grader.”
Mike frowned. “I saw the shiner. But somehow it’s hard for me to imagine how the two issues could be connected.”
“Because. When I was talking to Molly-about fighting and violence never being a good answer-she got her back up. Some days she is
“Amanda. Try to concentrate. Because I’m getting more lost instead of less.”
Why did she have to be such an incoherent mess this morning? When it mattered? When everybody told her she was articulate in a crisis, how come she had such a hard time with Mike?
She clasped her hands together. “This is the thing. We’ve had this…connection between us. Neither of us want our kids hurt. Neither of us want it to go too far. But I just kept thinking, Mike, we’re
“And why would that be?”
“For the same reason my daughter hit that little girl. And your son didn’t. Because you’re raising your son to be a gentleman. The same way you are.”
Something cooled in his eyes. A ruler stiffened his spine. “Trust me, Amanda. I’m not.”
“You are. In every way.” Her voice was warm, sincere…but from his expression, she seemed to be hitting him totally the wrong way.
“So.” His voice turned softer than butter. “
“No. Good grief, Mike. No. That wasn’t what I meant at all-”
“I think it’s pretty clear. You and Molly think we’re the kind of guys who can’t do our own fighting.”
Now she was getting confused-as well as palm-cold anxious. “This wasn’t about fighting. Neither of us want our kids to fight. Both of us are teaching our kids that violence is not a way to solve anything-”
“I’m not talking about the kids. I’m talking about us. And if the only reason you showed up last night is because you didn’t think I’d ever find the guts to-”
“Wait. Just wait. That’s not what-”
Teddy and Molly barreled out of the house at the same time, shrieking and laughing…and soaking wet.
Amanda couldn’t remember what they said they were going to play-fish? Candy Land? A marble game? So she wasn’t sure which culprit had unearthed the squirt guns from the closet in the back room. Of course, it didn’t matter who.
She shot an unhappy look at Mike-who didn’t look back. He grabbed his kid. She grabbed hers.
There wasn’t going to be any more private talking. Not now. Amanda felt a sinking sense of loss. She told herself that you couldn’t lose what you never had.
But Mike’s expression had become starched, his posture rigid.
She’d hurt him. Really hurt him.
She’d bumbled a moment that seriously mattered-and she had no idea how to make it right.
Chapter Ten
A half hour later, Teddy didn’t object to a ride in the truck, but he kept sneaking peeks at him. “Dad. Molly and I didn’t break anything or hurt anything. We just got wet.”
“I know.”
“But you look so mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
“Then how come you keep looking mad, if you’re not mad?”
Mike declenched his jaw, rolled the iron out of his shoulders, smiled at his son. “I think you and I have earned a big day off.”
“I think so, too!” Teddy agreed, and then added, “What does ‘a day off’ mean?”
“It means you and I are going to have a guy day. We’re going fishing. In a lake. In a boat. Where there are no phones and no doorbells and no one can reach us. You like that idea?”
“I love it! I love fishes! I’ve always loved fishes!”
The whole afternoon, Mike tried to get his head back on track. There were tons of places to snag a rental boat, buy some live bait, set Teddy up with a fun afternoon. The sun was blazing, the lake silvery-calm, the sky a pure blue canvas without a single cloud. Teddy caught a little bass that fought like the devil, then a bigger one, a catfish, one pretty pike.
The whole time, Mike felt lower than a skunk, although he did his damnedest to hide the clunky mood from his son.
But he was hurting.
From the day he’d met Amanda, he warned himself not to fall for her.
She was the wrong woman-the most contrary redhead he’d ever come across. And it was the wrong time-for all the reasons they both knew and had commiserated about.
But last night, when she’d shown up in his shower…he’d known.
He hadn’t just fallen. He’d leaped straight off the cliff, so deep, so hard, there was no climbing back. She’d scraped past layers no one else ever had. She’d
