Harlequin Special Edition February 2019, Box Set 2 of 2 by Helen Lacey

Author:Helen Lacey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

After the burgers and before the s’mores, Evan saw more of the damage Rob had left in his wake.

Juliet wasn’t the only one who’d learned to shield herself. So had Matthew. The best mother in the world still couldn’t fill the hole an uncaring father left. The evening was revealing glimpse after glimpse of that hole.

It was too cold to sit outside after the sun went down, but Evan owned an outdoor space heater, a stainless-steel tower that was a foot taller than he was. He’d lit its central flame, which shot up a glass tube, providing an arresting visual effect as well as radiant heat.

“No waaay,” Matthew had said.

“Impressive.” Juliet had laughed at him. “Heating the outdoors. Such an ultimate dude thing to buy.”

He’d winked at her. “Man toys.”

Matthew had said, “Yeah, we don’t have one.” Because we don’t have a man.

Was that his childish rationale? They didn’t have a man toy because they didn’t have a man?

Evan had decided he was reading too much into it. Then Matthew had patted the metal tower. “This would be a good present for my dad. He’d want one for Christmas. Did you get it for Christmas?”

That damned hole sucked all kinds of happiness away from that boy, even the pleasure of an eye-catching flame.

Evan was certain now that Juliet was hoping he’d be able to fill that hole, while the two of them played friends with benefits. He could see that her experience with Rob was shaping part of the equation. She was afraid the sex would become lovemaking. She was scared to fall in love.

Evan didn’t like it, but it made sense to him, knowing what a bastard she’d married. The part that didn’t make sense was how Juliet had come to the conclusion that Evan would make a good substitute father. They’d had so little contact since college. What had he done as a nineteen-and twenty-year-old that translated to father material in her mind?

He added another log to the iron firepit he used in the winter. Between the heater and the firepit, he’d turned his patio into a place where a man could look at a fire, sit and think. Tonight, it was a place where a man could make s’mores with a kid who gave him a lot to think about and no peace to think it in.

Maybe Juliet thought of Evan as a potential father because he’d said, Kids don’t scare me. He’d said it on that college green, and he’d said it again in his office. It was true.

Juliet had said, That’s because you’ve never lived with one, which was probably even more true.

The one he was going to live with accidentally set his marshmallow on fire. He blew it out more quickly than he had the first time he’d burned one.

“That’s still good to eat,” Evan said. “You’re getting better at this.”

“I don’t like them burned.”

Evan held out his graham cracker. “I do. Slap it here.”

Another marshmallow was speared and began its transformation to charcoaled near-inedibility.

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