Darn it.
A shiver ran through her, making her clit throb and her insides heat.
Why did she have this reaction to him?
To them?
She’d never felt this way about any man, but now there were two of them? She’d actually started to wonder if she just wasn’t a sexual person.
But it seemed that her body might be making up for lost time.
Eli suddenly placed his arm across the back of the booth and she had to refrain from leaning into him.
From sinking in deep.
“After breakfast, we’ll take you home,” Eli stated.
“Um, thank you, but I’ve got my own car.”
The sooner she got away from them the better. Thank God they didn’t live here or she wasn’t sure how she’d survive, knowing that she might run into them at any moment.
But if Shaw was here would they be visiting a lot?
“So you live here, Shaw?” she asked, aiming for casual as she ate her breakfast.
“Born and raised. I joined the Navy soon after finishing school, though. I was back here visiting the night we met.” He winked at her. “But I’ve moved back for a while. I’m living with my brother, Duncan, and his wife, Laken. He’s a deputy here in Haven.”
“How many siblings do you guys have?” she asked.
“There’s ten of us,” Eli told her. “All boys.”
“Holy heck. Your poor parents.” She couldn’t even imagine. She’d always dreamed of having a brother or sister.
“Our mother had her hands full,” Eli said in a strange-sounding voice.
“Our father was a jackass who didn’t care what we did,” Shaw said bitterly.
She winced. “I know what having a terrible father feels like.”
Shit.
Should she have said that? All of them went still, staring at her.
“What did your father do?” Kellan asked.
She glanced up to find him staring straight at her. The level of interest in his face surprised her. Up until right now she’d thought that Kellan could take or leave her. Sure, he occasionally surprised her. Like when he’d paid for her hotel room.
However, she wouldn’t call him uninterested right now.
“Oh, he was just very uninterested in who I am or what I wanted to be. I guess he considered me to be a pawn rather than a daughter.” She grimaced, feeling like she’d said too much. It wouldn’t take a lot of research to work out who her father was.
But did it really matter when he was dead?
Would anyone care that much about what he’d said and done to her?
It wasn’t like she owed him any sort of protection or respect. He’d never given that to her.
“I’m sorry,” Eli told her. “That sounds like he was an awful father.”
