15
Sara spent the next few days in a bit of a daze. She found herself bouncing between being happier than she could remember and always looking over her shoulder.
She was watering her flowerbed while the children played in the yard when an old beater car drove up. Her heart leapt into her throat.
“Janna, do you remember the word?”
Her daughter’s face blanched, and she grabbed Brand’s hand.
“No,” her son cried. “It’s Ezreal.”
“Wait. What?” Sara stopped from pulling the children behind her.
The man was getting out of the car, his face partially covered by a baseball cap.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, looking alarmed.
For a second Sara stared at him, relief and anger warring inside her. Then she stomped down the steps toward him.
“Don’t youeverdo that again. If you’re going to show up in a different car and change how you look, you have to let me know first.” He’d taken a step back, but she threw her arms around his neck and started to cry.
“Hey, I’m sorry.” Ezreal wrapped his arms around her. “I didn’t think it might scare you.”
“Mama, don’t cry.” Janna clung to Sara’s leg.
“Pick me up,” Brand insisted, trying to pull Ezreal’s arms from around her.
“Hang on you two,” he said. “Let’s talk about this inside the house.”
Sara pulled herself together and wiped her eyes. She took Janna’s hand while Ezreal pulled Brand up on his shoulders.
“I made some cookies,” Sara said once they were inside, her voice still a little shaky from the swinging pendulum of her emotions. “Let’s get some milk to go with them.”
The children let go of their hands and ran ahead. Ezreal tossed his hat onto a table and took Sara’s hand.
“I’m really sorry I frightened you. I talked to our head of security, and he said we needed to be circumspect. I had one of my assistants buy a couple of old cars that would look like a dozen other cars around town. I’ll alternate using them to come see you. And Rafe told me once about how they wore baseball caps so people wouldn’t recognize him and Ahri.”
“It’s all right.” Sara gave him a quick kiss. “That was really smart. Just let me know first. Seriously, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”
Ezreal pulled her close and would have done more kissing, but Brand came out of the kitchen and made a sound of disgust.
“I won’t do that when I get big.” He took Ezreal’s hand and tried to tow him toward the kitchen. “I can’t reach the cookies.”
Sara had to fight back a laugh. She followed the guys and arrived in time to help Janna get down some glasses. They sat around the table. Sara didn’t say much but enjoyed watching her children talk with Ezreal about what they’d been doing that morning. Then her brain keyed into the word “fort.”
“What’s this about a fort?” she asked.
“Ezreal said he’ll help me build a treehouse fort.”
She looked at the man, one brow arched. He shrugged. “You have some great trees back there. They’re close enough that I thought we could build around them. Don’t look at me like that. It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t want my children falling and breaking an arm or a leg—”
“I’ll be careful, mama.” Brand turned his pleading puppy-dog eyes on her. “Please.”
“We have to let them live,” Ezreal said softly.
Sara melted a little at his use ofwe. With any other man the nerve of including himself in the plural word would have angered her, but not with Ezreal.
