The next afternoon…
“Watch me, Mommy! Watch me!”
Liam couldn’t help but grin as he sat in one of several lounge chairs positioned around the pool. With her long, blonde hair, eyes the color of the sky, and a set of dimples that matched her mother’s completely, it would be easy to convince himself that Madeline Gallo was her mother’s clone.
“I’m watching, sweetie,” Allison assured her daughter from the seat beside him. “I promise.”
He, too, kept his focus on the little girl as she put all her effort into a slightly crooked, underwater somersault.
“Way to go, Maddie,” he called out loud enough she could hear. “I give it a solid eight.”
The little girl squealed with delight before challenging herself to do better.
“I’m going to do another one.” She bobbed up and down excitedly in the indoor pool’s shallow end. “Only this time, I bet I get a ten!”
“A ten, huh?” Liam playfully winced, pretended to doubt the child’s claim. “I don’t know,” he let his voice trail. “Onlyperfectsomersaults get a ten.”
“I can do it! Watch!”
He was watching her, all right. Both her and her tantalizing mother.
How a plain, one-piece bathing suit could be so damn tempting, he’d never know. Maybe it was the whole mystery of it all. Or perhaps he’d inadvertently stumbled upon some deep-seated mommy issues he never knew he had.
Nah. Definitely not that.
Either way, Liam had lost track of how many times he’d snuck a quick peak at her from the corner of his eye. Whatever the number, it had to be huge.
“Let’s see it.” He ignored his primal attraction toward his client and encouraged Maddie to give it another shot.
The look Allison swung his way was accompanied by an ominously arched brow. “You do know she won’t stop until she gets a ten, right?”
His smile only grew wider. “Got yourself a little perfectionist on your hands, huh?”
“You have no idea.”
His deep laugh echoed throughout the thick, humid air as Maddie began her second attempt. When her dimpled smile broke the water’s surface, he lifted both hands in the air, stretching out all but one finger.
“Oooh, so close.” He feigned a highly exaggerated state of disappointment.
“Nine’s better than eight,” Maddie called out from her place not far from the pool’s edge. “I’ll get it this time.” She lifted a hand to her tiny button nose and gave it a tight pinch. “Ready?”
“Ready!”
Water splashed as she tucked her body into a ball, her little legs kicking with all their might as she spun in an almost perfectly submerged somersault. When she was upright once again, Liam didn’t hesitate to give her a perfect score.
“Way to go!” He stretched out all of his digits that time. “That was a perfect ten if I ever saw one.”
The squeal of joy that escaped her lips momentarily drowned out all the other sounds that surrounded them.
“I did it! I did it!” Maddie yelled. “Did you see, Mommy? Were you watching?”
“I was watching, baby girl.” Allison chuckled. “You did great.”
With the somersault challenge having been deemed a success, Maddie moved on to swimming in random patterns around the nearby area.
“Man.” He blew out a breath with a smile. “Wish I had half her energy.”
“Yeah, you and me both.”
