Bringing Home the Bad Boy (Second Chance #1)(87)

It was kind of beautiful.

“So I would call Aunt Charlie ‘Mom’?” Lyon asked.

“Well, bud,” Evan said softly. “That’s a big deal, isn’t it? It’s something you’d have to ask Charlie, not something you can decide over Oreos.”

Lyon nodded and smiled his cookie-crumbed face at Charlie.

She gave him a watery smile back, losing the battle and the hold on her emotions.

Evan reached for her knee under the table but focused on Lyon. “Yeah?”

Lyon grinned at his dad. “Yeah. Can I play Clashing Clans? I almost rescued the queen yesterday!”

Who reminded him of his mom, Evan had told her.

Oh, her heart.

“Sure, bud.”

“Excuse me for a second.” Charlie took the opportunity to bolt. Hustling, she moved quickly through the kitchen, down the hall, and paused in the laundry room. Her chest had tightened with an almost panicky feeling. Making a snap decision between the bathroom, the deck, and the studio, she stepped into the bathroom and shut the door.

After several minutes passed, a light knock came on the door, followed by, “Ace?”

She was settled on the edge of the tub, a wad of toilet paper in one hand she had used to quell the stream of tears running down her cheeks. Thankfully, she’d pulled it together before Evan’s arrival at the door.

“You decent?” he asked.

She should have known she couldn’t avoid him for long. “Yeah.”

The door popped open and Evan sat on the closed toilet seat. He took in the tissue in her hand and the way she was slouched—knees pressed together, feet splayed in opposite directions.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She shrugged. “Of course.”

He reached for her hand, took the tissue, and dropped it into the trash can. Keeping hold of her fingers, he brushed his thumb over her hand. “Sorry about that conversation. That’s what having kids is like. They say what they think, drop verbal grenades when you least expect it.”

“I was thinking land mines.”

Evan’s smile did a lot to loosen her tight lungs. “That’s a good description, too.”

A few more strokes of his thumb on hers and she commented, “You handled that well.”

His smile was smaller, but no less handsome. “Thanks.”

“I guess we should have explained what we were before we sent him to school with some know-it-all boy who asks highly age-inappropriate questions,” she muttered.

Evan laughed again, but it was short-lived. A shadow of seriousness covered his face as his dark lashes closed over his eyes briefly. He met her gaze with his. “Maybe we should explain what we are to each other first, Ace.”

Eep!

She moved to stand and Evan clutched her hand harder. “Too soon?”

Stuck between half up and half down, she sank back onto the edge of the bathtub. It shouldn’t be too soon. Evan and she knew each other intimately; had known each other for years. He’d taken her to the pinnacle of her sexual experience—to, up, and over—several times. She was sleeping in his bed, eating dinner with him and his son, who she considered way closer than a nephew.

But somehow talk of family, talk of “mom,” talk of permanence and the future had freaked her out.

Freaked her right out.

“It’s… a lot to think about,” she ventured.

“Yes,” he agreed. “It is a lot to think about.” His eyes redirected to various spots in the room, none of them in the area she was sitting. Then he dropped her hand and stood. As he walked to the hallway, he said, “Lyon’s going to watch a movie. You hanging around?”

She nodded.

He gave her a soft smile, followed by a softer, “good,” but worry lined his brow. Charlie wanted to ask why, but in a lot of ways she also didn’t want to know.

So she didn’t ask.


*


It occurred to Evan he’d made a lot of assumptions about Charlie.

He thought her rooting herself into their lives since they’d moved here meant she was accepting not only him but also all that came with him. And the things that came with him were Lyon, a deceased wife, a big family spread over three states, and a career that sometimes caused him to keep weird hours.

Evan made the mistake of assuming after he’d warmed her up, loosened her up with a few dozen orgasms, that she’d wedge herself in tightly at his side. What he had learned this afternoon was she wasn’t sure where she stood with him.

Or Lyon.

Not that Evan had expected her to propose to him the moment Lyon asked if they were going to get married—because he’d known that was a huge step for her—but he hadn’t expected her to dart from the room and hide for the next ten minutes.

When Evan thought about marriage… hell. He was ready.

He married Rae because he loved her and wanted a family. His mom and dad stayed together until cancer took her away, but if she hadn’t been ill, he knew his parents would have stayed together forever. His family was full of promising relationships. Shane and Crickitt, Aiden and Sadie, even Landon and Kimber seemed to have their shit together in the marriage and kid department.

No, getting married again didn’t spook Evan in the least. And getting married to Charlie… He may have had a few relationships with very loose strings since Rae, but he would have never, ever started something with Charlie if he didn’t think they had staying potential. She was too involved in Lyon’s life, in his life.