“Well, you were pretty quick to unpeel for me.”
He leaned closer. “And you and Jennifer are the only two women I’ve ever done that with.”
I couldn’t stop a quiet gasp. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Doom slid his hand to my neck and stroked my pulse. “Whether it was subconscious or not, I was just waiting for you to calm the rage in me.”
“You think so?”
He nodded. “I knew it the night I told you about Jen and Ezra. You pulled me back from the brink and I could actually breathe after speaking their names. That hadn’t happened before. It’s why I freaked.”
“Honey,” I whispered, searching his eyes. “I see you. I have always seen you.”
He smiled. “I know. That also freaked me the hell out.”
“God, I love you.”
“Back atya. I’m gonna go let Doc know Dad will need him to look at his hand real quick.”
“Okay. I’ll just be here freaking out about meeting your dad.”
He patted my butt with a laugh. “He’s gonna love you. Promise.”
Then he walked out of the room.
* * *
Doom never came back to the room, so I made my way downstairs once I was dressed and went looking for him. He was in the great room, talking to a man who had his back to me and I assumed this was his dad, but when he turned I just about had a heart attack. “Oh my god,Sterling?”
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, opening his arms for me. “How are you enjoying the sunroom?”
I walked in for a hug. “Honestly, Booger uses it a lot more than I do.”
“You two know each other?” Doom asked.
“He pretty much rebuilt my house,” I said.
“Jesus,” Doom hissed. “You knew it was her all along, didn’t you, old man?”
Sterling shrugged. “Not a whole lotta Lyric’s in Savannah, bud, so, yeah, I figured.”
“You didn’t think to clue me in?”
“And miss seeing the look on your face right now? Not a chance in hell.”
I bit back a smile as Doom turned to me. “And you. How did you not put two-and-two together that we were related? Just how many Marxx’s are there in Savannah.”
“I had no idea his last name was Marxx,” I said. “His company’s Sterling Restoration. He introduced himself as Sterling and I just figured he went by his last name or he was one of those cool guys that only has one name. You know, like Bono… or Cher.”
Even though he was obviously a little irked, he laughed. “Are your cool guy references really limited to Bono and Cher?”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, no, because obviously, I know Sterling.”
“Damn straight,” Sterling retorted. “Besides, Cher and that Bono fella aren’t together anymore. Didn’t he hit a tree or something?”
I glanced at Doom and we both burst out laughing.
“That was Sonny, Pop,” Doom explained. “And he wasn’t with Cher when that happened.”
