Down Too Deep (Dirty Deeds, #4)(22)

Don’t respond, Nathan. Just act like you didn’t hear that.

“Thank you, Tori. You can go now.”

Tori’s quiet laughter followed her as she stepped out of the office.

The song changed overhead—another Top 40 nightmare. Some tool sang about loving the shape of a woman.

“Hey, Tori?”

“Yes?” Just her head popped around the doorframe. She was still smiling.

I pointed at the mounted speaker on the wall. “Pick another station.”

*



It was just after seven when I left work that night. I couldn’t remember the last time I got off while it was still daylight out. Even before Sadie died, I worked long hours. I typically always closed. It felt strange leaving Whitecaps when I did and even stranger pulling into my driveway without the use of headlights. But I couldn’t deny it, it felt good too.

I wanted to be here.

I pushed the front door open and stepped inside the house, expecting to hear the commotion I was becoming familiar with—and wishing for when I didn’t have it. Instead, the house was quiet.

The TV wasn’t on. There was no laughter coming from upstairs or quick footsteps against the floor. Olivia wasn’t firing random questions at me. If I hadn’t parked next to Jenna’s car, I wouldn’t think anyone was home right now.

After securing the door, I crossed the room and pushed the slider open, stepping out onto the deck. They had to be outside.

I’d hear someone if they were upstairs. Even when Jenna asked her kids to be quiet so they didn’t wake up Marley, I could still pinpoint their exact location in the house—something she always apologized for when it was never needed. I thought it was funny. Oliver had a particularly difficult time keeping his voice down. Especially when he got on the topic of football.

I moved outside and crossed the deck, stepping up to the railing. My hands curled around the worn wood as I peered out past the dunes.

The sun was beginning to set. The sand glowed orange and yellow where the water touched it, giving the appearance of colored glass. I watched Oliver run in when the tide threatened to wet his feet. He sprinted over to the sandcastle Olivia was hard at work on and passed off a bucket. Jenna was crouched beside Marley a few feet away, pointing to something in her hand.

I’d never had an opportunity to watch them all together. Typically, Jenna and her kids left within fifteen minutes of me getting home. I never had time to spend time, and now I was realizing how much I wanted that. I liked her kids. They were amusing as hell. And Jenna…Yeah, no point in denying it. I liked her too. That admission was easy and becoming really fucking obvious—at least to me. I was pretty sure Tori had an idea, considering our conversation today. What exactly liking her meant, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t pick apart what the hell I was feeling. Who knew if I was even ready to do that? But I wouldn’t pass up the chance I was being given right now. I knew that for a fact.

I toed off my shoes and socks before descending the stairs. I didn’t even consider changing out of my work clothes. A part of me worried Jenna was close to bringing the kids inside, and I wouldn’t risk missing out on this.

The shaded sand was cool beneath my feet as I walked down the path. My presence went unnoticed until I stepped out from between the dunes. Olivia’s head came up first. She smiled big and pushed to her feet, towering over her castle.

“Nate!” she squealed. “Mama, look, it’s Nate!”

I smiled at her, then passed that smile over to Jenna when she peered back at me over her shoulder.

Her face lit up with surprise. She spun Marley around, getting her attention off the ocean, and pointed in my direction. “Look who it is!” Jenna sounded just as happy about me being here right now as I was.

I couldn’t deny how hearing that made me feel. Compression pinched in the center of my chest. Then that pressure spread out and filled my lungs, making it damn near impossible to breathe when Marley looked right at me and grinned.

My daughter was always honest with her reaction. She was also mostly indifferent to having me around. If she ever smiled at me before, I was damn near positive it had been by accident.

There was nothing accidental about the way she was looking at me right now.

“Hey, Nate!” Oliver yelled from down the beach, spotting me when I reached the sandcastle.

I held my hand up for him to see, and getting that, he started making his way over.

“Daddy, wook! Wook dis seashell.” Marley reached her arm out, showing off the shell between her fingertips.

I couldn’t get to her fast enough.

“Let me see what you got,” I said, crouching beside her and Jenna. Marley let me hold the shell, then passed me a handful more after digging around in the bucket at her feet. On the third handful, I joked, “Baby, did you leave any on the beach?”

“We’ve been busy. Someone loves digging in the sand,” Jenna said.

Marley dumped the bucket over, squealing in delight at the little mess she made, then lost interest in the shells altogether when Olivia called out for her to help with the castle. She rushed past me.

“How come you’re home so early?” Jenna asked, collecting the shells in the bucket again, something I was certain she was doing for my daughter without being asked to do it.

I gave her a hand with it, dumping what I was already holding into the bucket and then moving on to the ones sticking in the sand.