Tempting Mr. Wrong (Wrong Man) (4 page)

“This,” Carly repeated.

“Was just playtime?”

“Yep.”

“Not a robbery?” he asked.

“Not so much.” To her credit, Carly did look contrite as she bit her lip. “I’m sorry again. Jeez, I’ve apologized more to you today than I have my entire life.” She chuckled. “But I’m really impressed with how protective you were of us. That’s sweet.”

Sweet? Freaking sweet? Was she kidding? Maybe it was the fact that he’d traveled all day long or that he was still wearing cold, wet, uncomfortable clothes. But something snapped. “I can’t believe this. The two of you made a tent and a huge mess to go with it, and you didn’t think to clean up when you were done?” Somewhere, his mother was rolling over in her grave.

“Well, no. I mean, we decided to go to the playground instead. No biggie.”

“No biggie?” he repeated.

She smiled. “Of course not. I mean, it’s Saturday after all.”

He pointed toward the couch. “This? This is a freaking disaster.”

Her smile faltered. “That’s a bit extreme.”

Lance sighed and turned from her. He took in the space. This room looked great. The flow from the kitchen to the dining space to the family room worked well. Chris had obviously put time and attention into this area of the house. The floors appeared to be on the newer side, the paint on the wall looked great, and attention had been paid to the fireplace.

But the windows definitely needed to be updated. He could feel the draft coming in through one of them from where he stood. That said nothing for the locks. Did they even work?

“What’s up?” Carly’s voice interrupted his silent assessment.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you staring at the windows like they did something to you?”

He chuckled and pulled Chris’s letter from his pocket again. “Did you read this letter?”

She shook her head.
Impressive.
He would have been all over it.

“I didn’t think it was my place. Chris addressed it to you.” She sneezed.

“Tell you what. Why don’t we get out of these wet clothes and I’ll tell you about this letter?”

Carly agreed and after he grabbed one of his bags from his Jeep, Carly showed him to a powder room.

Fifteen minutes later, they were seated at the island in the kitchen drinking hot tea while Mya colored on the floor.

Lance couldn’t help but take in Carly. Her wet, clingy clothes were gone, only to be replaced by a bright blue tank top that showcased her curves and form-fitting jeans. All of that curly red hair spilled over her shoulders. He could just imagine running his hands through it…

“Lance.”

His head snapped up and he could feel heat flush over his cheeks. “Sorry?”

“I said, are you going to tell me about that letter or what?”

“Yeah, or what?” Mya echoed from the floor, even as she deliberated between a green crayon and a purple crayon.

“Of course. Well, it appears your crazy brother wrote me a letter with instructions on the off-chance he should…” His voice faded but Carly’s eyes lit with awareness.

“Ah, I see. I can’t imagine what he asked you to do.”

“Check in on you guys. But mainly, he wanted to make sure everything was good with this house.”

Carly put her mug on the counter and gestured around the room. “As you can see, the house is great.”

He snorted. “Carly, come on.”

“What?” she asked, pure innocence in her eyes. “Chris did a ton of work before he…well, before.”

“It looks like he did a lot of cosmetic fixes, which are great. This room and what I’ve seen of the others looks amazing. But—”

“But what?”

“This is an old house, Carly.”

“So what?” she asked.

“Yeah, so what?” Mya once again added.

“So the windows look ancient. They need to be replaced. You need an alarm system. Some of the doors need to be reinforced. And then there’s that monstrosity out back.”

Confusion washed over her face. Carly glanced over her shoulder. “What? The fence?”

“It’s falling down. Do you have any kind of security here?”

“Well…I mean, um…I never really thought about it.”

“I think Chris put his time and attention into the inside. Like I said, it looks great.”

Carly stood. “Look, Lance, this is sweet of you to come all this way. Especially right after you got out of the army. But Mya and I are just fine.”

Lance rose as well and shook his head. “Your brother, my best friend, asked me to make sure this house was in good working order and I’m not going to fail him. There’s work that needs to be done here.”

Carly’s hands went to her hips. “Don’t you have anything better to do than play HGTV on my house?”

“Um, yeah,” he said, not even attempting to keep the exasperation out of his voice. “I have a whole bucket list of things I want to do. But Chris wrote this to me.” He tapped on the letter which he’d placed on the counter. Hard.

“Lance, you don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do. I’d do anything for him. And anything for Mya.”

After a long moment, Carly relented. “Fine. Do what you have to do. But how long do you think it will take?”

“I don’t know. I’ll need to take a better look around. A couple weeks maybe. I made a hotel reservation for two weeks but told them it might need to be longer.”

“At the Inn on Main Street?” she asked.

“I tried but they’re actually booked for a couple different weddings and events. I’m at the hotel out on the highway.”

Her mouth fell open. “Lance, that’s thirty miles from here.”

“It was the closest I could find.”

She nodded. “Well, I’ll keep checking with the Inn. See if something opens up.”

“You should stay here with us.”

They both looked down to find Mya’s sweet face looking from one of them to the other.

“Mya, Uncle Lance doesn’t want to stay here with us.”

“Sure he does. Don’t you, Uncle Lance? Please? Pleeeaaase,” she begged as her lower lip puckered.

“Well, I don’t want to intrude. I’m sure you have a very busy tent-making schedule to adhere to.”

“Don’t you want to stay with me?” Mya asked, tilting her head to the side. One of her many curls plopped over as well.

The kid was killing him.

“We have all these bedrooms here. Don’t we, Aunt Carly?”

“Um, well, we do…”

“If Daddy were here, you’d probably stay. Wouldn’t you?”

That did it. Carly’s shoulders dropped, her resolve melting away in front of his eyes.

“Yes, he would,” Carly said.

“Seriously, I have that reservation already.”

Mya reached up and clasped her tiny hand into his. He made the mistake of glancing down into her angelic face.

“What do you say, Lance?”

“Yeah, what do you say, Uncle Lance?” Mya repeated.

He looked from one female to the other. Between Mya’s pleading eyes and Carly’s appealing body, he didn’t stand a chance. “I say it looks like I’m going to stay here for a couple weeks.”

Chapter Three

The days of waking up naturally with the sun streaming through the window were a thing of the past, Carly thought as Mya jumped on her bed excitedly.

“Wake up, Aunt Carly. We have to go to school. Today is pink shirt day.” She bounced happily, her red hair a curtain around her beautiful little face.

Every day was pink shirt day if you went by Mya’s wardrobe, she thought with a grin. Carly glanced at her clock and that grin faded fast. It was five thirty. She took a moment to orient herself with being awake. That’s when she remembered. “Sweetie, it’s Sunday. You don’t have school until tomorrow.”

“But, but…” Mya protested.

In an attempt to ward off a possible early morning meltdown, Carly added, “How about we go downstairs and get some cereal?”

“With Uncle Lance?” Carly asked.

Uncle Lance. She’d forgotten about Uncle Lance until this very moment. But now that he’d been mentioned, the events of yesterday came crashing around her. From the impromptu water fight at the playground to Lance showing up in Pine Springs and subsequently becoming drenched, not to mention his fear they’d been robbed, the afternoon had been a whirlwind. Then he made his announcement that he was there to check in on them and fix up the house. Carly blew out a labored breath at that one.

Check in. On her. What the hell. It wasn’t like she was still some stupid college girl. Chris Quigley’s little baby sister. She knew that was how Lance saw her. A memory shot into her mind so fast, she almost lost her breath.

Carly stood on the dance floor, surrounded by other bridesmaids and groomsmen, flowers, and twinkly lights. The scent of lilies and wedding cake hung in the air.

She’d been dancing with Lance for the last four songs. She knew he was interested. She could see it in his eyes, hear it in his quick intake of breath, feel it when he held her close.

The dance floor was becoming more and more sparse as people called it a night. Even Chris and Gretchen had left.

Carly looked up into Lance’s eyes and offered her coyest smile. “I have a room here at the hotel.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Yeah, me, too.” His voice was gruff.

“Well, would you like to see mine? I mean, we could have another drink,” she added quickly.

His gaze flicked down to take in her mouth. She puckered her lips and let her eyelids flutter closed. And nothing.

“Carly, I’m sorry. Nothing like that is going to happen between us.”

Her eyes shot open and her mouth fell open. “But you’ve been giving me signals all night.”

“I’m sorry if I misled you. Truly.” His eyes were looking everywhere but at her.

“You don’t want to hook up with me? Why?”

“Because, because…I’m not feeling it. That’s all.”

That’s all. All these years later and she still felt the humiliation of standing on that dance floor as Lance walked away from her.

Now he was in her town. Hell, he was in the next room. The least he could have done was get fat or ugly or something. But no, he was still the perfect physical specimen he’d always been. Plus, Lance was taking Chris’s letter seriously. She respected that. It was honorable.

Mya snuggled next to her. Mya. She loved her godfather. And that was the only reason Carly was letting Lance stay with them.

Mya sat up, put her hands on Carly’s cheeks and stared into her eyes. “What’s wrong, Aunt Carly?”

“Nothing’s wrong, sweetie.”

“Are you upset that Uncle Lance is here?”

She often forgot how intuitive Mya could be. “No, I’m not upset. He wanted to come see you. And he’s going to fix some things in the house.”

“I want him to stay forever,” Mya announced.

Not gonna happen.
But she didn’t say that to her ever-hopeful niece. “You know, peanut, that might not be what Lance wants. He just got out of the army and I know he has other things he has to do. But isn’t it nice that he took time to visit us now?”

Mya nodded dramatically. “Yes, but I want him to live with us.” She tilted her little head in deep thought. “Maybe if I’m really good and adorable he will want to stay.”

“Maybe,” Carly said with a chuckle. “But you would have to be super-,
über
adorable to pull that off. Now, come on, let’s get breakfast.”

As Mya ran happily from the room, Carly made her way toward the bathroom. She couldn’t help but notice that the door to Lance’s room was open, the bed already made with perfect hospital corners, but Lance was nowhere in sight.

When she walked into the kitchen, she saw Mya had the television on, cartoons already queued up. The sun was beginning to rise, but the backyard was still awash in gray tones and shadows. Peering closer she saw a movement near the shed at the far end of the yard. Curiosity had her quickly crossing the room and reaching for the back door. It was unlocked.

“Can I have Lucky Charms?” Mya asked, oblivious to Carly’s nosiness.

It had to be Lance outside. Who else—besides a four-year-old—would be up this early? Carly moved sideways, intent on figuring out what in the world he was doing out there, but then her niece’s question registered.

Shaking her head, she turned toward Mya. “Nice try. No Lucky Charms. I think we’ll hold off on the sugar until at least nine a.m.” But she felt like the biggest hypocrite in the world. Not only could she go for the marshmallowy goodness herself, but how often had she also had sugary cereal growing up? Hell, some of her relatives had let her get away with eating ice cream for the most important meal of the day. Mya simply giggled and returned her attention to the TV.

Carly started a pot of coffee. While it brewed, she meandered over to the window again. Thank God she wasn’t holding her coffee cup because it would have most definitely been dropped and splattered into a million pieces on the floor. Lance was working out in the backyard. But not just working out. Half-naked working out. And currently he was doing one-armed pushups as his rippling muscles quivered with the exertion.

Damn. She knew something else that was currently trembling, and she had to cross her legs to keep from losing it completely. Her mouth dropped open, and she knew that drool was soon to drip out of it. She knew Lance was built, but witnessing his naked top half working out really drove that point home.

Holy hell.

As if he felt her presence and knew she was standing there gawking at him, Lance looked up. No time to even pretend to be doing something else, she was totally busted. Taking it in stride, Carly winked and then strolled back to the kitchen and fixed her coffee. As Lance sauntered in the back door a few moments later, she took a long, deep gulp, the hot liquid scalding her throat. Not that she felt it because Lance still remained shirtless and her brain therefore remained inoperable.

“Morning,” he said with his deep, chocolatey voice.

“Oh, hey,” she said, determined to avoid the fact that she’d just been ogling him.

“Hey, kiddo,” he called to Mya, who waved back.

“I made coffee,” Carly said, pretending a super-hot army guy wasn’t standing in the kitchen staring at her.

“Thanks.” Lance leaned on the counter. “You guys always get up this early?”

Carly began moving around the kitchen, grabbing bowls and cereal boxes. “Today is a little extreme, but Mya usually wakes pretty early. What are you doing up at this hour?”

“I think you know. Did you enjoy the show?”

Hell to the yes, but Carly could barely admit that. So she played it cool. “I’ve seen better.”

He chuckled. His upper lip was glistening with sweat. And that might be the hottest thing she’d ever seen. “Well, I’ll work on my performance. Hopefully, you’ll improve your opinion.”

Oh, yeah. She couldn’t wait for the encore. Carly wanted to offer another clever quip, but she chose that moment to look up. There, right smack in her line of sight, was Lance’s remarkable chest and ripped six-pack. Her own chest was rising and falling dramatically as he took her in, and suddenly she was glad she’d run a brush through her hair and splashed some water on her face.

“Hey,” Mya said, skipping to the counter. She pointed her finger at Lance’s back. “My daddy had that drawing, too. I saw a picture of it.”

Confused, Carly scrunched her nose, removed her gawking eyes from Lance’s bangin’ body, and leaned around him. Ah. Mya was commenting on his tattoo—the large eagle tattoo that spanned the width of his shoulder blades. Chris had gotten the same one.

Lance chuckled. “It’s called a tattoo and your daddy and I got them together.”

Mya tilted her head and tugged on her hair. “Does it come off in the pool?”

“Nope. It’s permanent. Your daddy and our other friend John and I all got these about eight years ago.”

“Is it like a friendship bracelet?”

Now it was Carly’s turn to laugh. “Okay, Mya, let’s not bombard Uncle Lance with questions. Why don’t you pick the cereal you want, out of these choices,” she quickly amended, knowing her niece would try with the Lucky Charms again.

Mya didn’t move. Instead, she launched into a rendition of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” her favorite song from
Frozen
.

Carly still maintained that Mya was the most lovable kid on the planet who was graced with many inherent talents. However, singing was not one of them.

Mya half-croaked, half-screamed the lyrics as she swayed back and forth, her pink nightgown swishing around her legs.

Lance’s eyes darted from Mya to Carly and back to Mya. But after the first chorus, his face softened, and he grinned. At the end of the song, they both clapped and Mya bowed, then she stepped closer to Lance and tilted her head up.

“Am I adorable?” she asked, drawing out the word.

Carly almost choked.

But Lance took Mya’s question in stride. “Pretty much the most adorable kid I’ve ever seen.”

Mya jumped up and down. “I did it, Aunt Carly. I’m adorable. Now Uncle Lance will live with us forever.”

With her hands on Mya’s back, she urged the little girl toward her bowl of cereal. “Let’s start with eating breakfast. Then we can discuss major life changes.”

Lance watched Mya for a few minutes. “What was that all about?”

Carly sighed. “Nothing. She just wants you to live here forever.”

He sipped his coffee. “It’s been hard on her.”

“Yes,” she said honestly. “But kids are resilient. A lot more so than adults.”

She sat at the table with him and Lance covered her hand with his. “I’m so sorry about Chris and Gretchen, Carly. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be at the funeral.”

She shrugged. “You were deployed. I understand that. We got your flowers and the food you had delivered. Honestly, if you’d been here, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. That whole time was a bit of a blur.”

She grabbed a bowl for herself, but as she poured the Corn Flakes, she felt Lance’s gaze on her.

“What?” she asked.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“What are you doing for money?” At her quizzical stare, he continued. “You said you’d been working for a temp agency, but is that en… I mean, are you okay financially?”

“Ah, see, I knew you cared.” Jokingly, she leaned over and punched his arm. Only he didn’t even flinch, because his arm was crazy strong and muscled. Wow. Just wow.

He shoveled a large spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “I’m serious, Carly. How are you supporting yourself?”

Her instinct was to continue joking, but Mr. Serious’s pinched expression had her sobering up. “I’ve had steady work with the temp agency and it’s actually paid pretty well.” She failed to include the fact that her loan payments from grad school were going to kick in soon, and she was pretty certain they were going to need to replace the furnace.

“But what about full-time employment?”

“As in, what do I want to be when I grow up?”

He nodded, although he did not appear amused.

“My degree was in development and fund-raising. Despite how small and bucolic it may be around here, there are actually quite a few nonprofits that I would like to work for.”

“Any leads?”

“A couple. One of my best friends works in HR and she said she has some info for me. We were supposed to meet for coffee today but my usual sitter has the flu and my friend Maria can’t watch Mya.”

“I can watch her,” Lance said around a large spoonful of cereal.

Carly quirked an eyebrow. “Come on. I don’t just leave my niece with anyone.”

Lance dropped his spoon with a
thunk
. “I’m not just anyone. I’m her godfather.”

“True. But it’s not like you’ve spent a lot of time with her. Have you ever babysat any kid?”

“I mean, not technically. But I’ve gotten plenty of soldiers out of harm’s way in the Middle East. I’m sure I can handle a
Frozen
marathon.”

Carly considered him. Then she glanced over at Mya who was bobbing her head in time with whatever song was playing in the cartoon. She wanted to say yes. She really wanted to talk to her friend Anna about some job opportunities. But she just didn’t know how Lance would be with Mya.

“Come on, Carly. I don’t see any other responsible adults in the room. I can handle watching Mya for a couple hours.”

“You don’t even know our emergency numbers or where her doctor is located.”

Lance held his cell phone up. “I do have one of these bad boys. And you could, I don’t know, leave me a list.”

“What if she’s hungry?”

“I’ll make her a sandwich.”

“What if she gets a cut?”

“I’ll put a Band-Aid on it. Jeez, Mrs. Doubtfire, I think I can handle a little girl for a couple hours.”

She frowned. “I don’t know.”

“Hey, Mya,” Lance called. “Would you like me to watch you for a couple hours so Aunt Carly can meet her friend?”

Mya jumped up and started dancing around. “Yay, yay, yay!”

Carly narrowed her eyes. “Oh that is so not fair,” she said to him in a hushed voice.

“Can Uncle Lance watch me? Can he, Aunt Carly? Can he?” Mya was now jumping up and down in front of her.