He accepted the steaming tea she offered him just as a woman he realized was Leslie turned around from where she’d been digging out a new sleeve of plastic-wrapped cups from a largebox.
“Stop bothering Declan, auntie,” she said. She met his gaze for just a sec as she handed the man next to him a cup of tea, and Declan was aware of a sudden jolt of heat that had nothing to do with the cup he washolding.
Her eyes looked particularly big and dark, partly because she was wearing a thick hat pulled down nearly to her brows. It was knitted of cobalt and cream with a big puffball on the top. She looked adorable with the tip of her nose red and her hands in bulky fingerless mittens, and Declan forgot all about E-with-a-heart and the fact that he was merely a laborer in hereyes.
“Declan gets sweaty enough in his smithy, Aunt Cherry—he doesn’t need your hot yogatoo!”
Whoa.He blinked, then hid his surprise by taking a big slurp of tea.Too hot.Damn. He nearly scalded the inside of his mouth, and managed to hide the fact behind a nervous smile. What did one say to something like that? Was that comment meant to be as flirtatious as it sounded…or was it just meant to be a rebuke forCherry?
Not only did he not know, but clearly Emily, who was still looking back and forth between him and the tea ladies, did. “We’d better get some seats before the marching band comes out, Declan, or we’ll be standing all night. See you later, Orbra. Thanks for the tea! It’s wonderful.” She took him by the arm and tugged himaway.
Before Declan realized it, he’d been replaced at the front of the tea line by other eager customers and was back to navigating through the crowd with Emily alongsidehim.
He couldn’t believe how many people were here for a high school football game. It was a mob scene. Wall-to-wall people. He didn’t ever remember it being like this when he was in high school…though, come to think of it, he’d been on the field playing tight end, so he wouldn’t ever have experienced the crowds—except what he saw in thestands.
Shortly after he and Emily managed to find two seats in the bleachers—really, it was so packed it was more like one and a half seats—she asked casually, “Who was that with Cherry and Orbra backthere?”
Warning bells jangled in his mind. This was not a good sign—this subtle possessiveness, the taking of his arm and directing him away, this questioning—no matter how casual. She was a nice woman, Emily, and great looking, and their daughters were friends…but they hadn’t even been on a date. Orkissed.
And, well…there wasLeslie.
Who may or may not be seeing a hotshot lawyer named Eric fromPhiladelphia.
Andwho was hisemployer, he reminded himself. Well, a client,really.
Who was mostly interested in him getting some work done forher—
Not that kind of work, he told his hormones when they leaped to attention at the doubleentendre.
“That’s Cherry’s niece, Leslie Nakano. She bought ShenstoneHouse.”
“She’s Cherry’s niece? Oh, right. I saw the article in the paper the other day.” Emily sounded less than enthused. “She doesn’t look anything like the photo that was in thearticle.”
He had no idea what she meant by that, so didn’tcomment.
“I’m restoring the wrought iron stairway for her in the front foyer,” Declan said, then realized maybe he should have just changed the subject. Because now he felt Emily stiffen a little next to him, and then move a little closer. Even though they were already thigh to thigh on the hard bleacherseat.
“I’d love to come over and see you working sometime,” she said, looking up at him with a very warm smile. She was wearing a warm hat, too, with a big POM MOM stitched on the front of it in silver glitter. Her cloudlike blond hair sprang in soft, perfect curls from beneath the hat. Little pompom earrings dangled from her ears, and her lips were expertly colored in with a subtle shade of pink. She—or maybe it was her coat and scarf—smelled like some very nice expensiveperfume.
“Sure,” he heard himself saying before he could stop himself. “Come by anytime. I’m usually in the smithy from noon till four or so, depending how things aregoing.”
“Great. How about I come by on Monday? The salon is closed on Mondays, and then I could cook you dinner after. I make a mean lasagna. The girls can do their homeworktogether.”
“That might work,” he said cautiously. “I’ll have to see what’s on my schedule that evening. You know how it is with teenagers—they always have things going on they don’t tell you about, then spring it on you at the last minute.”Please have something going on, Steph.Anything.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Emily. It was just that…whatever twinge of interest he might have had before meeting Leslie Nakano had somehow fizzled out. And now he felt like crap, because clearly Emily wasveryinterested, and thought he wastoo.
Had he given her thatimpression?
Hell, how was a guy to know where the line was between being friendly and beinginterested?Dammit.
Their daughters carpooled, so of course he was friendly and hospitable to the woman who drove his daughter around. He wasn’t an idiot. Somehow, suddenly becoming the father of a teenaged girl had made even his personal life more complicated. And for all he knew, Stephanie might have helped exacerbate the situation by encouragingher.
Emily was about to say something else when the sounds of the marching band reached their ears, and everyone bolted to their feet to welcome the musicians—who were followed by the cheerleaders and pom squad. The football team was introduced to the roar of the crowd, the national anthem was sung, and then the home team kicked off to theirvisitors.
After that, Declan made certain to be very interested in the game (which was easy, because it was a good game against a nearby rival school), and to talk to everyone around them instead of limiting his conversation to Emily. He exchanged knowledgeable comments and some lamentations over bad plays with a few parents of both genders, all of whom were rabid football fans and not just there to watch the marching band, cheerleaders, or pomdancers.
The game clock showed ten seconds left in the first half, and the home team had possession. The ball was hiked and the quarterback caught it just as the clock ranout.
