When You're Back (Rosemary Beach #12)(39)

He frowned and put his magazine down, then continued sipping his coffee. He didn’t look like he believed me. In reality, he was as sad as Kiro. He didn’t know true, raw emotion. He didn’t know that one woman could make you feel everything.

I could tell he was thinking of saying something, but he changed his mind.

“Kiro won’t crawl out of bed for another two hours. I suggest you let him get up on his own. If you wake him, you’re just going to have a more difficult time.”

“Fine. I’ll eat and then call Reese.”

Dean set his cup down. “Marlana is making pancakes and sausage. Or she was, until she ran off to get your paper. At least look at the damn thing. The woman is too old to be running around so much.”

That was all he said before he walked out of the kitchen with a swagger that was similar to my father’s. I decided a long time ago that only rock stars knew how to walk that way.

Marlana came shuffling in and put the paper in front of me. “Breakfast ready soon,” she assured me, then went back to the stove.

I opened the paper, not giving a shit what it had to say, but, like Dean said, she’d gone and gotten it for me. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

Reese

I had called and gotten Maryann to pick me up an hour early yesterday so I wouldn’t be there when Captain returned. The more I thought about it, the more I wished I hadn’t told him about my dyslexia. What was it about him that made me blurt stuff out?

Mase had called me when he landed in Los Angeles. We talked during his ride to his father’s house in Beverly Hills. I could tell he was tense and nervous about what he was going to find when he got there, and I felt guilty about not being there with him.

To make up for leaving work early yesterday, I had come in early this morning. I had slept better than the night before because I was so tired from lack of sleep. If all went well today, Mase would be coming home.

Piper would also be back today, and I wanted to make sure everything was neat and ready for her. I checked on the horses and swept the floors of the dust that had blown in overnight. Then I headed back to my office.

The rest of the morning went quickly. I kept waiting for a call from Mase, but I focused on getting all my work done in case anything new came up today.

Right after Piper left for lunch, the door opened, and in walked a little boy who couldn’t have been more than ten. At first, I thought he was a student of Piper’s whose parents had gotten the time wrong. Until Captain walked in behind the kid.

What?

“Glad you’re here. Henry and I made the drive out yesterday to find you’d already gone home. Early.”

He had planned on bringing a kid to see me? I was confused. “Um, yes, I finished up early,” which was a lie. I felt a twinge of guilt.

“That’s all right. Henry and I made plans to come back here today. We even brought steak fajitas from the restaurant. Henry’s dad is the head cook at Stouts and Hawkins here in Dallas. He’s become my bud. I wanted to introduce him to one of my other friends.”

What was he doing? Bringing me food again and using a kid so that I would eat with him and be nice? Captain made no sense. He said he wasn’t flirting with me, but then he did things like this.

“My daddy makes the best steak fajitas,” Henry said proudly. He was a cute kid. “He made you special ones. With his secret sauce.”

“Oh, thank you. It smells delicious,” I said to Henry as Captain began laying the food out in front of me.

“Can we have a picnic? It’s more fun to eat outside. Besides, this place smells like horse poop,” Henry said, looking up at Captain and crinkling his nose.

Captain laughed and brought his gaze to mine. “Would you be OK with that, Reese?”

Like I was going to tell this kid no. He knew that. Dang him. “Of course,” I said through clenched teeth, then forced a smile as I picked up the box Captain had put in front of me.

“Great. I’ll grab the blanket out of the back of my truck,” Captain said. He headed out to his truck, leaving Henry and me with our hands full of food.

“He has a blanket in his truck?” I asked.

Henry nodded. “Yep. We look at stars on nights my daddy has to work too late.”

So Captain watched a little boy while his daddy worked. Not what I was expecting. That didn’t go with the image of Captain in my head.

“Kinsley went with us the other night. She was off work, and we got milkshakes and went to see the stars. But Kinsley didn’t like it much. She griped a lot.”

That didn’t say a lot about her character. I hoped Captain wouldn’t force her to be around Henry anymore. He didn’t need that. I wondered where Henry’s mother was, but it didn’t sound like she was around, so I didn’t ask.

“Got it. Lead the way, Henry. Take us to a prime picnic spot,” Captain said, grinning at the boy. I had never seen that grin on him before. It was real. It wasn’t calculated or planned. It wasn’t a bad smile.

Henry walked a short way from the stables and stopped where I assumed he couldn’t smell the horses anymore. He nodded his head to let us know we should settle here, his shaggy brown hair falling into his eyes. I wanted to tuck it behind his ear, but I was sure he wouldn’t appreciate it.

Captain spread the blanket out for us, took the food from me, and placed it on the blanket while Henry laid out the food he had been carrying. Captain reached into his back pocket and tossed Henry a can of soda. Then he looked at me. “Got you one, too.”