“Figured I’d let you sleep and take Delia to school. How long until she can go back?” he asked me over his shoulder as he popped a waffle into the toaster for himself.
“Two weeks.”
“Must have been one heck of a beatdown.”
“Two bruised ribs and six stitches.”
Nick looked impressed but did a good job of hiding that fact from Delia, who was too busy licking syrup from her empty plate tonotice. I reached to take it from her before she could get any more syrup in her hair.
“Mommy,” she asked as I wiped her face and hands, “will the police let Daddy come over today?”
I paused, her question taking me off guard. I wasn’t sure how long they could keep Steven without bringing up charges, but I didn’t imagine Mike Tran would be eager to let him go. I wiped her sticky forehead and kissed the wrinkle between her eyebrows. “I don’t think so, sweetie. I think Daddy might be suspended for a little while longer. But we’ll take him out for ice cream when he gets home.” She brightened a little. “Go wash up,” I said, dabbing at her bangs. “And remember to use soap. You’ve got syrup all over you.”
“Are you and Nick going to take a bath, too?” she asked cheerfully.
Nick cocked an eyebrow as I shooed her up the stairs.
“Don’t ask,” I said as he handed me an Eggo and put his arms around me.
“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I forgot to set my alarm and I overslept. Delia has no idea I spent the night. I was dressed and making coffee by the time she got up. I told her I just got here.”
“Thanks,” I said, grateful that he had spared me the need to have any more conversations with Delia about my choice of bathtub partners.
While I wasn’t hiding the fact that Nick and I were dating from my children—and they had seen their father living with someone else within weeks of our divorce—I wasn’t ready to share that piece of our relationship with them yet. Some part of me still felt guilty for enjoying it as much as I did. Maybe it was the lingering doubt that I deserved this much happiness. Or maybe it was the fear that itcouldn’t possibly last. They had already lost so much. And if Steven went to jail for murder, they were about to lose a whole lot more.
“Morning, Detective,” Vero said, rubbing her eyes as she shuffled into the kitchen.
“Hey, Vero.” Nick checked his watch and reached for his coat. “I hate to run, but I’ve got some things to do before I head to the station.” He poured his coffee into one of my travel mugs and came to stand in front of me. “Today,” he reminded me, pointing toward my bedroom where Mrs. Haggerty was still sleeping. He leaned down to steal a kiss on his way out the door. “I love you. I’ll call you in a couple of—” He froze, his face inches from mine, wide-eyed and speechless, as we both registered what he’d just said. He scrubbed a hand over his mouth, his fingers rasping over the stubble. “I should go,” he said softly. “I’ll call you later.” He dropped a tentative, quick kiss on my lips. I stood motionless in the kitchen as the front door closed behind him.
“Thatwas an interesting development,” Vero said as she poured a mountain of sugar in her coffee.
“That wasn’t a development. He obviously wasn’t thinking and it just slipped out.” I dropped an Eggo in the toaster for Vero and wiped the crumbs from my hands, as if none of this mattered. Which was a big fat lie. It totally mattered, and I was pretty sure I’d spend the next few hours playing back Nick’s parting words, dissecting every syllable. “It was probably force of habit.”
“Force ofhabit?” She cocked a hip against the counter, her low-riding pajama bottoms dragging on the floor. “You think he gets up every morning before dawn to make coffee and breakfast and sayI love youto someone else?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. He clearly didn’t mean it.”
“Just because he wasn’t ready to say it doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. Look at Javi. He was in love with me for three whole years and never once said it. Face it, Finn. Detective Hottie is head over heels in love with you and it just slipped out because he happened to let his guard down.”
“Thank you, Dr. Ruth.”
Vero’s phone vibrated on the counter. Javi’s name flashed on the screen. She jabbed it, sending his call straight to voice mail.
I raised an eyebrow. “If you’re such an expert on relationships, why did you just hang up on your betrothed?”
“He’s not mybetrothed. And I hung up on him because he’s being an idiot.”
I frowned. “What did he do?”
“He refuses to tell me how many women he dated before we got back together.”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Of course I want to know! What if he slept with a hundred people while I was away at college?”
I doubted that. Javi had been madly in love with her since they were kids. “Maybe he didn’t sleep with anyone.”
“Have youseenhim? He’s ninety-nine percent pheromones, Finlay. He should come with a warning label. There had to besomeone. Oh, god…” She clutched the counter like she might be sick. “That’s even worse. What if there was only one. What if they were serious? What if she met hismom?”
