Stevie knew that her daughter heard her, although Halley was already racing off to the backyard towards their swing set-fort area. She dove head first onto the swing, landing on her belly and started pushing off.
“Right,” she grumbled. Pulling two of the fabric bags loaded with groceries out of her trunk, she balanced the bags, her purse, her tote and the keys as she walked the four steps up to the back door.
“Need some help?” a deep voice asked.
And with those words, spoken in that deep, sexy, familiar voice, everything in her arms hit the porch. Clutching her throat, she turned slowly, knowing who she’d find.
For a long moment, she couldn’t move. Stevie stared at him and he stared back. And for a brief moment, her heart soared. He’d come back! He’d finally come back to her!
“Momma!” Halley called out. “Can we…who’s this?”
That’s when Stevie remembered. Everything! The past five years, her mother’s passing, the funeral, trying to call Janus with no answer, wanting…needing a shoulder to cry on during those first, horrific months. Cleaning out her mother’s clothes, then discovering that she was pregnant. The humiliation of being told that Janus would press charges against her for harassment if she didn’t stop trying to contact him and…well, it was all too much.
Her anger and fury boiled over, smothering the happy memories. “Get the hell away from me!” she snapped, then turned to unlock the door.
Unfortunately, she’d stood at the door too long. As soon as the door opened, Herbie bounded out, knocking her down. Stevie felt herself falling backwards and tried to grab the stair railing. But she missed and fell...right into strong arms that cradled her close.
Stevie opened her eyes, shocked to find Janus holding her. She stared up at him, lost in those mesmerizing silver eyes. Memories flooded her. Memories of Janus holding her after making love, laughing with him, pressing herself against his naked body while she slept, completely sated and madly in love.
Janus stared back, his arms tightening, almost as if he might be remembering those moments as well.
Herbie’s huge, pink tongue darted out, leaving a smear of slimy, doggie saliva on Stevie’s cheek.
Trust Herbie to ruin the moment.
“Ugh!” Stevie groaned. She pushed away from Janus’ arms and stepped back. Herbie barked, then nudged her hand with his nose. Automatically, Stevie scratched his ears while glaring up at Janus. “Thank you for…catching me. Now, go away.”
With that, she reached down and collected the bags, stuffing the groceries back in and lugging everything up the stairs.
Unfortunately, Janus followed. Herbie was out with the kids in the fenced backyard, so Stevie had a moment to confront Janus.
“Why are you still here?”
Janus hated to admit it, but Stevie looked even more beautiful now than she’d been before. There was a softness to her, a maturity that made her…more confident? No, that wasn’t really it because she’d been strong and confident before.
“I’m not leaving.”
She walked out the door and Janus couldn’t stop his gaze from dropping to her butt.
Following her, he watched as she unloaded the rest of the groceries. He considered ignoring the rest of the bags of groceries, but his male instincts kicked in, so he took the bags from her. “Give that to me,” he grumbled, taking all six bags into the kitchen in a single trip.
Janus turned around, but Stevie wasn’t behind him. When he peered outside again, he realized that she was lugging a bag of dog food nearly as big as she was up the stairs.
“Damn it, Stevie! Let me do that!”
“I’ve got it!” she snapped right back, trying to move the bag out of his reach. But he hadn’t played decades of football, avoiding massive linebackers, for nothing. He plucked the bag from her arms and hauled it into the kitchen.
Herbie, obviously realizing that his dinner was in the bag, bounded away from the kids and loped eagerly up the stairs.
“Down!” Stevie ordered. Herbie obeyed immediately, but stood expectantly, tongue hanging out of his mouth and that long tail demonstrating his happiness by almost knocking a jug of milk off the table.
“Go outside, Herbie,” she ordered the dog. Herbie looked longingly at the bag of food. “Where’s Halley?” Stevie whispered. Herbie’s ears perked up as he searched for, and found, his charges. A moment later, he launched himself out the kitchen door, racing over to the kids who laughed when Herbie nudged them. Halley grabbed a stick and threw it for him. She was a tiny little thing, and the stick didn’t go very far. But Herbie didn’t mind the game. He picked up the stick and danced around Halley who laughed and reached for the stick. The game proceeded until Harrison found a neon tennis ball. Herbie loved balls even more than sticks.
“Is that a dog or a horse?”
Stevie turned and Janus was struck all over again by those soft, brown eyes, the luxuriously dark hair that had probably been in a tidy bun this morning, but was a bit mussed now. She looked incredibly sexy and beautiful.
But he wasn’t here for that. Not anymore!
“Herbie has some Great Dane in him,” she explained flatly, crossing her arms over her chest. “If you’re going to prosecute me for invading your privacy when you came into my house, uninvited I might add, then I’ll fight you.”
Janus heard the words and they didn’t make sense for a moment. Then Tom’s words came back to him. “I’m not going to sue you for harassment, Stevie!” He leaned against the countertop. “But if you don’t give me a damn good answer for why you didn’t tell me about my children, then I’m going to sue you for full custody!”
He watched her eyes, saw the relief for a brief moment, then horror. “Don’t you dare!”
