If You Were Mine (The Sullivans #5)(15)

A high-pitched series of barks had her jumping out of his arms.

Cuddles had picked one hell of a time to wake up.

Zach and Heather turned to watch the puppy dash across the room to make a flying leap onto Atlas. The big dog remained still as the puppy rubbed and wriggled against him, but Zach could see how happy he was about the affection.

Quickly turning to action, rather than letting them get close again, Heather grabbed two plates and ladled on scrambled eggs.

“I can’t believe how fast those two bonded. It’s like they were always meant to be together and were just waiting until they could finally meet.”

Zach tried to ignore the way his chest clenched again at her words. It was just that she was so damn sexy as she sat down at his dining table, kicked off her flip-flops, and tucked one leg under her.

“It’s really amazing how good she always is around Atlas,” Heather commented. “It’s almost like she wants to impress him.”

“In that case, you guys should move in for the next two weeks.” Purposefully ignoring her as if look, he sat down and took a bite of the eggs. “These are so good, you could cook for me every morning, too.”

“Really? Could I?” Sarcasm dripped from every word.

“Sure thing,” he responded with a grin.

She shook her head, but he could see her fighting the urge to grin back at him. If only he’d been able to sneak in that kiss in the kitchen, he wouldn’t have to work so hard for her now, or keep moving so slowly.

He thought about how long it took him to rebuild a classic car from the engine out, and how satisfying it was not just to get the final product, but every minute he spent wrenching on the intake manifold or working under the rear end.

Could it be that rushing things with Heather wasn’t the way to go, either?

“Oh, I almost forgot,” she said getting up from the table to hand him a photo, “I found this under a pillow. The frame is broken, but I don’t think Cuddles did any damage to the picture.”

It was an old black and white photo, one of the only ones he had with his father in it. His mom and dad had their arms around each other and Marcus, Smith, Chase, Ryan, and Zach were doing their best to hold still for the photographer.

“If it wasn’t black and white, I would have thought the man in the picture was you.”

“It’s what everyone says. I’m the carbon copy of my father. When I was a kid, we would spend hours under the hood of some junky car he was trying to put back together.”

“How old were you here?”

“Four.”

His father had died only three years after the picture had been taken. Three years and two weeks. The anniversary of Jack Sullivan’s death was never a good day. Zach’s crew at work had learned to steer clear of his shitty mood once a year.

“You look like you’re dying to rip off that bow tie,” Heather said with a small smile. One that told him more about the way she felt about him than she’d willingly given up to him so far.

“You know the way the living room just looked?” He grinned, remembering. “Multiply that carnage by five after this picture was shot and we were let loose.”

He loved the sound of her laughter, the way it pushed away the dark clouds that came from thinking about his father.

“I wouldn’t think a woman as beautiful as your mother could deal with so many boys,” Heather commented.

“Even when she was yelling at us, you could have sold a picture of her to a magazine.” He smiled down at the black and white, keeping his focus on his mother rather than his father this time. “Even now, after everything we’ve put her through, she’s still a great-looking broad.”

He looked up to see Heather staring at him as if she’d never seen him before this very moment. Damn it, he’d never had a problem with flapping his lips around women before. It was usually the other way around, when they couldn’t stop telling him how excited they were to be with him, how much they were hoping to meet his famous brothers.

“I thought there were eight of you?”

“Mom was pregnant with my brother Gabe in this picture. Lori and Sophie came a couple of years later.” He decided to break the ice for her, just in case she’d been holding out on him. “Smith is that one. And there’s Ryan.”

She looked at the picture again. “Who are the other two?”

He frowned. Didn’t she care that Smith was one of the biggest movie stars in the world and Ryan was the star pitcher for the Hawks?

“Marcus and Chase.” He studied her face carefully to make sure she wasn’t putting him on. Sure, if she wasn’t a sports fan she might not know who Ryan was, but she’d have to live under a rock to not know who Smith was. “You watch movies, right?”

“Of course I do.” She got up, picked up their empty plates, and took them over to the sink. “Seen anything good lately?”

Atlas pawed at the screen door and Zach got up to let the Great Dane go take care of business. Of course Cuddles went with him. He hoped she’d learn something about using the grass rather than his hardwood floor in the near future.

“You really don’t care that Smith Sullivan is my brother?”

He didn’t know why he was pushing her so hard on it. But he didn’t want to be disappointed later when it turned out she’d been secretly angling for an invitation all along.