“When the detective at the police station suggested I call someone to come get me, I didn’t know who to call at first,” Talia said. “I was terrified and all I could think about was that I wanted to be with someone who made me feel safe. That person was Lennox.”
“But I thought you weren’t interested in dating him,” Katrina said, part curious, part confused. “That you didn’t want to be involved with someone who would never be around.”
“I’m not,” Talia admitted. “The thought of trying to date someone with a job like his seems like a recipe for disaster but I’ll be honest, when we were hanging out together last night, it was nice.”
Katrina lifted a brow. “Oh, really? Are you going to try a real date with him then or simply keep shamelessly using him as a bodyguard?”
“I’m not using him!” Talia exclaimed.
She quickly looked around, worried that someone might have overheard. But in an amusement park full of laughing, screaming kids, no one even looked their way.
“I’m not using him,” Talia said again, softer this time as she looked over at Lennox and Maria running through the turnstile for another ride on the airplanes. “In fact, I find myself liking him more and more by the hour. But while that’s certainly a positive, it doesn’t mean I’m ready to overlook all the negatives that would come with getting involved with a Navy SEAL.”
“Positives? Negatives?” Katrina repeated with a derisive tone. “You do realize that this isn’t some kind of problem to be evaluated and solved, right? It’s a potential relationship. You don’t weigh out the pros and cons. You take a leap of faith, date the guy, and see what happens.”
Talia let out a sigh. “I understand what you’re saying but I’m not like you. I’ve never taken a leap of faithin my life. I’ve carefully planned every decision I’ve ever made, from moving to San Diego to be an au pair to using public transportation instead of buying a car. And I sure as heck don’t pick a potential boyfriend on a whim.”
“Honey, not every whirlwind relationship is going to end up like your mom and dad’s,” Katrina murmured gently. “Sometimes, magic happens.”
“Has it happened for you yet?” Talia asked, already knowing the answer and feeling bad about pointing out the obvious.
Her friend only smiled and shook her head. “No, but that doesn’t keep me from looking, and from believing that it’ll happen someday.”
Talia didn’t know whether to laugh in amusement or sigh in exasperation, but before she could do either, a screaming, laughing group of children came running their way, dragging poor Lennox with them.
“Talia! Talia! Talia!” Maria came in running at warp speed, Beverly right behind them. “Lennox is going to go on the Coastersaurus with us next. It’s going to be so much fun!”
Laughing, Talia reached out to fix Maria’s wind-blown hair. “How about you take Katrina and some of the other ladies on the Coastersaurus with you?” Since Lennox was never going to complain, she decided it was time to protect the man from himself. “I think Lennox needs to take a little break.”
She expected Maria to argue, but instead, the little girl turned her head up to glance at him before looking at Talia. “Okay, he can take a break, but you should sit with him so he doesn’t feel left out of all the fun.”
Talia shook her head as Maria and the other kids ran off with Katrina and other au pairs. “Okay, what just happened?”
“Are you sure Maria’s only six?” Lennox asked with a chuckle as they followed. “Because I think she just played us like a pro. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she wants us to spend some time together alone.”
Sure that he was right but refusing to comment on it, Talia smiled as Maria and Beverly waved excitedly from where they stood in the ride queue, Katrina keeping a close eye on them. Of course, as she returned their wave, Talia quickly figured out she wasn’t the one they were waving at. Instead, it was Lennox.
She wasn’t surprised. Apparently, she’d been abandoned by the kids now that the fun adult had shown up to play. So typical.
“You’re good with kids,” she said, not bothered at all with how much Maria enjoyed Lennox’s company. Maria’s father was a busy man, so she didn’t get to see him as much as she probably would have liked.
“I have a lot of nieces and nephews,” Lennox said with a chuckle. “I get to be the fun uncle who gives them too much sugar and then dumps them on their parents to deal with.”
Finding a place to sit so they could get a good view of the kid-friendly roller coaster, Talia laughed, easily imagining Lennox plying his nieces and nephews with extra junk food just for the fun of it.
“How many nieces and nephews are we talking about?” she asked.
“Like I said last night, I have five sisters, all older than me,” Lennox said, leaning back on the bench beside her. “And they all have kids, so we’re talking fourteen little munchkins, ranging inage from four-years-old to late teens. When they’re all together, it’s a handful.”
“Wow,” Talia breathed. “I have three brothers, but all of them are so wrapped up in their careers that they haven’t considered having kids yet.”
She didn’t get into the fact that her brothers were essentially carbon copies of her father, all work and no family time. Those weren’t the kind of secrets she shared with a lot of people.
Lennox lifted his arm to rest on the back of the bench and Talia automatically leaned into him a little.
“Speaking of being good with kids, how’d you end up being an au pair for Maria?” he asked. “It’s like you two were meant for each other.”
Talia smiled, thinking that Lennox was exactly right. She got along with little Maria better than she could have ever imagined. In a way, she was like the baby sister Talia never had.
