His nephew cocked his head, glancing between John and Dana. Then he grinned and admitted, “Good point. And yet I’ll still be on my way.”
Leo could move awfully fast for a big man. His bare feet thumped up the wooden floorboards as he headed back inside to help Olivia watch over the thieves.
“You know what?” Dana mused from beside John. He found a delighted smile tilting up her pretty mouth. A mouth he knew tasted like sugar and sunrises and mysteries he was dying to solve.
“What’s that, darlin’?”
“I think Ilikescandalizing the younger generation.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. Why should they get to have all the fun?”
“Thisisfun, isn’t it?” Her voice was a little breathy, and there was more than amusement in her eyes when she looked at him.
He was too old to play hard-to-get. So he gave her god’s honest truth. “I’m havin’ the time of my life.”
She giggled and he decided it was the happiest sound on Earth. “Oh, good. Me too.”
When she went up on tiptoe, he met her mouth with a kiss that left him dizzy. It left her dizzy too if the way she swayed and clutched at his shoulders was anything to go by.
After reluctantly releasing her lips, he glanced at his black diver’s watch, noted the time, and cursed.
“What?” Dana blinked. “What’s wrong?”
“The Coasties will be here in forty-five minutes. That’s not nearly long enough for me to do all the things I want to do to you.”
She shivered and bit her lip. Her tone was the definition of flirtation when she asked, “So what do you say to acting like we’re kids again and spending the next forty-five minutes making out?”
“I’d say you read my mind.”
“Oh good!” She clapped her hands, darting toward the front door. Once inside, she turned back to him because he’d remained glued to the spot, his eyes raking over her retreating form. “What are you waiting for?”
“Nothin’. Just enjoyin’ the view, darlin’.”
There was that happy sound again. “You and your nephew are a lot alike.”
“Mmm. I think it’s safe to say we both know a good woman when we see one.”
“Come upstairs with me, John.” She extended her hand in invitation.
As he followed her up the stairs, watching her cute, heart-shaped ass tick-tock the entire way, he decided then and there that Dana Levine was going to be his next big adventure.
Maybe the grandest adventure of my life.
Chapter 25
10:58 PM...
Lily stood on the porch at the ranch house, the summer sun making her blond hair shine like cornsilk. The cloudless Montana sky matched the blue of her eyes, and the hem of her floral sundress rippled in the soft wind.
“Come here, Dalton,” she beckoned with a crooked finger.
His boots made a crunching sound on the gravel drive as he hastened to join her, his whole being full of love and contentment. Except with each advancing step, Lily’s image grew fuzzier until, suddenly, it was no longer Lily standing there.
It was Cami.
Cami with her sleek black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. Cami with her full figure encased in jeans and chambray shirt. Cami with her dancing dark eyes and wide, welcoming mouth. She bounced a drooling baby on one curvy hip, and her free hand smoothed the hair of the brown-eyed boy at her side.
Doc shuffled to a stop, blinking as he glanced around in consternation.
