“So you’re denying you liked to run around naked?”
“I wasn’t naked, I had on a cape.” He backed me up, sandwiching me between the wall and the concrete planes of his chest.
“So the picture is of you.” I bit my lip, trying not to laugh right into his face.
“What if it is?” His gaze dipped to my lips. “It’s not like I still run around with my ass hanging out, pretending to be something I’m not.”
The tone shifted. We’d started off teasing, playful, but there seemed to be a lot more meaning to his words now.
“What do you mean ‘something you’re not’?” I asked.
“Nothing. Can I have the picture back?”
I let my arm drop to my side, my fingers still holding the frame. There wasn’t room between us for a sheet of paper, much less a picture frame. “You know, not all superheroes have to wear a cape.”
One side of his mouth quirked up in a half-hearted grin. “And not all little boys outgrow wanting to run around naked. At least not if they’re in the right company.”
My eyes widened even as heat sparked in my core. Kissing the man on the side of the road in a moment of weakness was one thing. But letting myself take the bait he offered now would be a huge mistake.
“I’d better get going.” I dragged my gaze away from his mouth.
“Mm-hmm.” His hand closed around the picture and he took it from me. “A lot of people around here seem to think you’re like a local superhero.”
I scooted a few inches away, my back still up against the wall. “Anyone who says that is either drunk, nuts, or lying.”
He didn’t respond right away. Just stood there grinning at me. “See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” I whispered, still caught up in the intoxicating feeling of being too close to him. If I wanted to, I could reach up and press my lips against the little divot at the base of his throat, the place where his heartbeat pulsed.
He lowered his head toward mine and pressed his lips against my cheek, the contact too fleeting, not nearly enough to satisfy the building desire. “I’ve got to go get the girls to bed.”
I jerked my head away, shaking off the haze. “Yeah. I need to get Zeb home. I’ve got another early morning tomorrow.”
“Maybe we can talk about my underwear then if you really want to.”
I laughed. “You’re something else, you know that?”
But as I drifted down the hall, my thoughts still lingering on Alex and just what he might look like in nothing but a cape, I wondered if something else might be just what I was in the mood for. If something else might be just what I needed.
CHAPTER 10
ALEX
The next morningI woke to the sound of a siren. I startled, jumping up from the air mattress Char had blown up and set in the middle of the living room. I’d been displaced from my short stay in the back bedroom when Gramps moved in. I grabbed my jeans and stuffed in one leg, then the other. Was it an ambulance? Surely Char would have woken me up if something happened to one of the girls.
As I pulled my T-shirt on over my head, Frankie came into the room. “There you are.”
“What’s happening? Is everyone okay?” I rushed to my niece, who calmly took a bite of a banana as she stood at the foot of my makeshift bed.
“Yeah. Mom said to wake you up, so I sent Shiner Bock in to do the job.”
I glanced to my right. The damn bird sat on top of the credenza, shaking his head and plucking at his feathers. “You’re kidding me.”
Frankie shook her head. “He can make all kinds of noises. Watch this.” She held a small piece of banana out to the bird. “Shiner, cry like a baby.”
The bird bobbed his head and then began to wail. I could have sworn there was a newborn infant somewhere in the house.
“See?” Frankie held her finger out to the bird, who took a delicate nibble of the banana.
