Oh, God, he was already married, he was a priest, he was dying of cancer... There were lots of reasons he might need tosaynoto her impetuousLet’s get married, and most were absurd. Although... Okay, she didn’t know much about him—and virtually nothing about his family or the parents who raised him. She’d only been to his house in Woodland Hills once—early in their relationship—but that really wasn’t weird, since even though his place was nice, her bed was bigger and far more comfortable. Still, she’d never met any of his close friends, which in this moment seemed odd.
But he wasalwayswilling to go out to dinner, or to the movies, or on walks in very public parks. He’d invited her to the premiere of a movie where he’d mixed the sound. The only slightly—maybe—weird thing about that was his absolute refusal to walk the red carpet and pose for photos in the lobby. But then again, his avoidance of that kind of attention was so very Mick that she really hadn’t thought much about it at the time. They’d sat with other members of the post-production team in the theatre, and he’d seemingly happily introduced her to the people that he’d worked with, so...
“There’s a lot about me that you don’t know,” he told her.
“I’m listening,” she said, but of course her stomach growled again—which made them both smile.
“Let’s just pretend I didn’t say what I said,” she continued. “You’re right. It’s too soon. Let’s have that early dinner and feed my inner beast.” She pulled him toward her for a kiss, which he gave her so sweetly. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. I just wanted you to know how I feel.”
“I do know.” Mick was looking searchingly into her eyes, and he nodded as if he’d come to some silent decision, and God, she hoped whatever it was, it wasn’t the realization that he needed to break up with her because she wanted too much from him—gently and kindly because he was, after all, Mick. But then he leaned in and kissed her the way he always kissedher—as if he wanted it to last forever. Somehow though, as he always did, he pulled back, leaving her breathless.
“Let’s start,” he said, “with dinner.”
Studio City, California
Robin’s brother-in-law, Cosmo Richter, was out in front of his wife Jane’s enormous old house as Jules and Sam pulled up. He was on the phone, no doubt rounding up the security team that he and Jane had put together through the years. They didn’t need security at their home often these days, but when they did, they reached out to some of Cosmo’s former SEAL teammates who’d wound up living in the Greater Los Angeles area after they’d retired.
Hmm. It’d be worth talking to Cosmo about possible candidates for expanding the manpower in this new LA office that Jules was building.
Cos looked at Jules over the tops of his mirrored sunglasses, then glanced down the end of the driveway to the street and back—his question clear. He was assuming—correctly—that they’d made an effort to ensure they weren’t followed on their way over here, and Jules gave him a solid affirmative nod. Cos then pointed over to where he wanted them to park their newly rented car—their third, so far, since taking this case, God help them—as he continued his phone conversation.
He was making sure there’d be room for his security team to park when they arrived. He may have left the Navy, but he was still a SEAL chief.
Sam swiftly parked, backing in.
Robin must’ve been watching for them, because he opened the front door before Jules even hit the first of the front steps. He had his nephew Billy up in a piggy-back.
As Jules came into the big front foyer, Robin swung Billy off his back and down to the floor, which made the little boy shriek with laughter that immediately turned into dismay as he realized that his ride was ending.
“No, no, no, no, no, Uncle Robin,no!” Billy proclaimed, and it came outUnca Wobinwhich was pretty hysterically adorable combined with the look of total tragedy on his face. Although, this child hadlungs.
“Hey, don’t worry, buddy, I just want to say hi to Uncle Jules.” Robin got down on Billy’s level to reassure the little boy, even as his sister Jane, coming down the stairs, chimed in ironically loudly with, “Inside voices, please!”
“I’m gonna be here for days and days, okay?” Robin said. “Lotsa piggy back rides, I promise.”
Robin really did have the magic touch, or maybe he’d just always delivered on his promises, because Billy nodded, then turned and looked up at Jules, with that sweet, trusting little face. “Unca Jules, you here for days and days, too?” He really did speak at a very high decibel level.
“That’s the plan,” Jules told the boy.
It wasn’t the definite yes that Billy was looking for and his eyes narrowed. “You gotta go wheels up?” he asked, using the time-honored Navy SEAL expression for flying out of the country to places unknown. He leaned in, and spoke in what he clearly meant to be a whispered warning, but wasn’t quite inside-voice level. “Unca Wobin get sad when you gotta go wheels up.”
“Well, if I do have to go, at least it won’t be too far this time,” Jules said, smiling as Robin straightened up and leaned in and...
Handed him a pair of tweezers.
Jules laughed, then kissed his husband hello. It was far too briefly and unsatisfactorily from the expression on Robin’s face, but that swift G-rated greeting was gonna have to do for now, considering this foyer was currently Grand Central Station.
At least Robin didn’t do his spot-on, ridiculously inspired Billy impression—nohad long been the kid’s favorite word—but Jules knew just from looking into his eyes that he wanted to. Instead they just smiled at each other, both thinking the same thing—that they’d do a steamier version later, a hello-I’m-happy-I-didn’t-die-today kiss that could last for a more appropriate number of minutes or even hours. Yeah, that look in Robin’s eyes saidhours. Which was more than fine with Jules. The adrenalin that he still had way too much of in his system agreed.
He pocketed the tweezers.
“You okay?” Jane asked, her eyes filled with her concern, no doubt because both he and Sam looked exactly like they’d run quite a few miles in the blistering SoCal heat. Sweaty and disheveled but gloriously alive.
“Yeah, getting shot at during this investigation was... unexpected,” Jules told her as she hugged him despite the sweat—as Billy, too, joined in, wrapping his arms around Jules’s legs. “I was a little off-guard.”
Tall and statuesque, Jane was pregnant and just starting to show, which made the hug interesting. The ability of women to grow another human being in their bodies had always seemed so weirdly science-fiction—and dangerous, especially nowadays. But Jane was matter-of-fact about the tautness of her expanding belly, just pressing it up against Jules as she hugged him tightly.
With her long, rich, chestnut hair and exquisite olive-toned skin, she was darkly gorgeous to Robin’s blue-eyed fair. Her mother had been Greek, whilehishad had Irish ancestry—they shared a real asshole of a father, who was currently on wife number six. Or maybe seven? No one really knew because no one really cared. The foolish man played no part in their lives. Although not from Robin’s lack of trying.
