3. Lily
3
LILY
I added a layer of newspaper between some framed prints I’d collected over the past few years. My current landlord was obsessive about not putting holes in the walls, so I hadn’t displayed much of my artwork. Since Colin, for all his apparent fastidiousness, had given me permission to decorate my apartment at his house however I liked, I planned to take advantage of that offer and finally put everything on display.
I moved to the next box, which contained my attempts at sculpture. I had little formal training, but I’d been playing around with clay for a while and had a few respectable-looking pieces. If I had some spare time, I’d continue to work on that while being Sofia’s nanny. Maybe even encourage the girl to do some molding. Kids usually loved that stuff. I wasn’t sure if Colin would be okay with me breaking out crafts projects in the middle of his very, very white house—but we could always work in my apartment if necessary.
Then again, we’d honestly be doing Colin a favor if we livened his living space up a little. He clearly needed color in his life, even if he didn’t seem to realize it. Maybe I’d be able to change his mind. I’d like to see him in a place that had character and personality—a space that showed him to be more than just a blank slate. Because he was so much more than that. You only had to see him with his daughter or hear him talk about his family to realize how warm and loving he could be.
And of course, you only have to look at him to see how gorgeous he can be…
I shook the thought aside and focused back on my packing. I was grateful that I could make the basement my own for the time I was there. How long that would be, I couldn’t say, but working for Colin was a good opportunity to save some money and figure out what my next move should be.
A knock sounded on my door, and I glanced at my watch. Precisely ten. That was the time Colin had said he’d arrive. I wasn’t surprised by his punctuality, but I also didn’t take chances. Before opening the door, I checked through the peephole, a bit of tension releasing from my shoulders when I saw that it really was him there, rather than my creepy neighbor. Thank goodness, I’d be away from here soon and would never again have to worry about creepy John Stout.
Colin stood in the hall, his focus directed away from the door. As I swung the door open, I saw what Colin was watching, and then tension came back, twice as strong—sitting in a knot in my stomach. John was just entering the hall, accompanied by another man I didn’t recognize. Damn. I’d hoped to avoid him altogether.
“Come in,” I said as I stepped back, hoping John didn’t see me. Colin didn’t hesitate, and a second later I had the door closed again. He’d noticed my quick action. I felt the urge to explain, to justify my reaction, but I was a little embarrassed to straight out say. “I’m scared of my creepy neighbor,” so I said nothing, other than, “Thanks for helping me move.”
“Happy to,” he said, scanning the boxes scattered on the floor.
I could guess what he was thinking. None of them were labeled, and half were still open, even though I’d known when he was coming. If he’d been the one moving, he’d have probably had every box ready, labeled, and stacked by the door by now. “I’m done with the ones in the kitchen. As it turns out, I don’t own much.” He raised an eyebrow. “Much in the way of housewares,” I clarified. My kitchen was in three boxes, my bathroom in one. Two suitcases were full of clothes. I did have an entire box of shoes, but a woman needed variety. The majority of the boxes were my art supplies and decorative pieces that would make the white canvas of my new apartment homey. The furniture had been mine, but the landlord was interested in renting the place out furnished, so he’d agreed to buy it from me. It was only the personal items that needed to be moved.
“I’ll get the ones in the kitchen,” he volunteered.
As I finished with boxes, he carried the sealed ones to the door, stacking them neatly. More than once, I had to refocus on my task. His long, broad-shouldered frame, clad in a pair of faded Levi’s and a US Navy T-shirt, kept drawing my attention away. He was six feet of hard muscle, making him the sexiest moving man I’d ever seen.
I glanced down at my favorite pink sweatshirt and yoga pants. Both items of clothing had seen better days. My hair was twisted up in a messy bun to control it. Not a flattering look, but attracting him wasn’t my goal. We had a business relationship, nothing more. Still, I found myself needing to make conversation to distract me from watching the flex of his biceps.
“Where’s Sofia?” I asked.
“Zach and Carolyn have her.”
“She’ll get to play with their son,” Lily said. “Austin, was it?”
“That’s right. He was a surprise.”
“Surprise baby?” Unexpected pregnancies certainly happened, but where was Colin going with this?
“Surprise to my brother.” Colin shot me a grin. “Zach had just gotten out of the service. When he came home, his former fiancée had a little boy.”
“His?” I asked. This was getting good.
“No doubt about it. Austin is a mini version of Zach. Turned out, she found out she was pregnant not long after they split up. She tried to get ahold of him, but she didn’t know that he’d changed his number after a teammate played a prank on him.”
“Teammate? Is he on a bowling team or something?”
“SEAL team,” Colin explained. “Just like me. Or since he’s the oldest, maybe I should say, I became a Navy SEAL just like him. He retired from service about a year and a half ago.”
“Wow,” I marveled. “Two SEALs in the family.”
Colin laughed. “Make that four. Our youngest brother, Alex, is a SEAL, too. And Chance used to be a SEAL. Not to mention, his brothers were Special Forces, too, in different military branches. Harris used to be a Marine Raider, and Lee was an Army Ranger. Alex is the only one still actively serving, though. Chance runs the garage with Mandy, Harris and his wife have a B&B in South Carolina, and Lee handles security for his wife—she’s a bigshot business tycoon.”
“Good Lord,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s quite a lineup. Your parents must be proud.”
He shot me a look that was dark and unfathomable, but I didn’t feel it was directed at me. Maybe it was his warning that I shouldn’t pry any more. I scooted a box across the floor toward the door, straightened, and dusted off my hands. But I was terribly curious about Sofia’s mother, and he had readily volunteered information about the rest of his family. Would he be as willing to open up about his own past?
He was watching me, hands on hips. I shouldn’t ask more questions, but what the heck?
“You don’t have to give me an answer, but I was wondering if Sofia’s mother is in the picture.” Would a mom show up at the house and want to see the toddler? I thought I ought to know that, in case it happened when Colin wasn’t home. I wouldn’t want to interfere with any custody arrangement they might have.
“She’s dead.” His tone was blunt.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I rushed to say, regretting that I’d broached the subject. “I didn’t mean to?—”
“She wasn’t my wife or girlfriend, and Sofia’s not my daughter, biologically. I adopted her when she was a year old,” he said. “It was her mother’s dying wish.”
I cocked my head, silently encouraging him to explain and hoping he’d accommodate my unspoken wish. I’d burn up with inquisitiveness if he didn’t.
“I met her mother on a mission,” he continued, “from my time as a SEAL. The details are classified…but I wasn’t able to protect her. Before she died, she asked me to take care of her daughter. So after a whole lot of diplomatic wrangling, I became Sofia’s legal father.”
“You left the service to care for her?” I guessed, imagining how impossible it would be as a single dad and a SEAL. Still, giving up his career was a big thing.
He nodded but didn’t seem like he wanted to say more. I had a thousand more questions, but I kept them to myself. It was none of my business, I supposed, but I wondered about Colin.
It seemed my employer was an interesting and complex man in more than one way.
Colin
“That’s it,” Lily declared a few minutes later. “Ready to load them in the elevator?”
I glanced around the room. She had surprisingly few possessions. Maybe that was part of finding herself, not wanting to get weighed down by belongings. Suited me fine. I’d spent enough years on missions that traveling light felt natural. Among the things I’d found hardest to get used to about having a daughter was the sheer amount of stuff involved.
Lily and I worked together in comfortable silence as we transferred the boxes to the elevator and then to our vehicles, drawn up to the building’s entrance. Most went to my truck, since her car was a tiny subcompact. The car, in its outlandish color, suited its owner. She wasn’t a wallflower, but neither was she the kind of chatterbox who never let anyone else get a word in edgewise. In fact, she was surprisingly easy to talk to, She’d gotten me to talk about personal matters that I usually kept to myself. But it felt natural to open up to her.
If I’d met her two years earlier, I’d probably have asked her out. She was beautiful, interesting, fun to be with—everything I looked for in a date, back before I had responsibilities. But I did have responsibilities now. I needed to find Sofia a mother—and it couldn’t be Lily. She wasn’t even willing to commit to a job for the long term. I didn’t think any less of her for it—she should take all the time she needed to figure herself out. But if she wasn’t ready to settle into a job, then I highly doubted she was ready to settle into a lifetime commitment in her personal life. That made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t in the market for a serious relationship.
I slammed the tailgate of my truck and grinned when I saw her shoving a box onto the passenger seat of her car, her butt sticking out. I wasn’t going to ask her out, but I didn’t see any harm in enjoying the view. And what a view it was… Her ass was out of this world—but then, she looked good from any angle. Everything about her attracted me. I couldn’t decide if it was the dark-rimmed glasses that said sexy schoolteacher, or her quick smile and quicker laugh that I liked best. I’d heard the latter plenty when we’d played outside the day before. We’d taken turns running alongside Sofia while she careened down the sidewalk on her trike. At one point, Lily had collapsed onto the grass in a fit of laughter when she and Sofia collided. I’d thought they were hurt at first, but the giggles and happy squeals told me differently.
Lily was going to be good for Sofia. Her last nanny, Brenda, had been perfectly nice, but she’d also been quieter and far more reserved. I could already tell that Sofia was going to thrive under the care of someone who would really play with her.
A shiver ran through me, making me stiffen. I had the distinct sensation that someone was watching me. I turned my gaze up toward the building. No one was visible in a window, and no one on the street seemed to be paying attention to us, but that wasn’t enough to get me to let down my guard. When my instincts gave me a warning, I always paid attention.
I’d gotten a lighter sense of being watched earlier, when we’d first come outside, but I’d written it off as people’s natural curiosity when someone was moving. It no longer felt like that. I mentally scanned through everyone we’d encountered coming in and out, trying to recall if anyone seemed to be behaving suspiciously in any way. My mind went straight to those two guys who had been in the hall when I’d arrived.
It wasn’t their behavior that had seemed odd so much as Lily’s reaction to them, though. She had practically yanked me into her apartment to avoid them seeing her. What was up with that? Maybe Lily had had some kind of a relationship with one of them? Or maybe she used to have a relationship that had recently come to an end? It would explain why she was eager to avoid them. And if that was true, I would understand why they might be watching me. If I’d had something with Lily, I’d definitely keep my eyes open if I saw her with another guy.
Lily hadn’t mentioned anything about either of the men. One I had never seen before, but the other…there was something vaguely familiar about him. I had the impression we’d met, but I couldn’t place the guy.
Nothing about the situation made me think we were actively in danger, but I swept the area with my eyes, nevertheless. The slam of a car door brought my attention back to Lily. She was leaning against her yellow car, finished with her task.
“I’m afraid of what will fall out when we get to your place and I open the door.” She was smiling, her head tipped back in the winter sunshine. “Will you come back upstairs with me for a sec? I want to do a final check to make sure I didn’t miss anything, and I could use another set of eyes.”
“Sure,” I agreed, even as I found myself wondering over the invitation. She could easily manage that herself. What was her motivation for wanting me along? Was she worried about the guys across the hall? Or did she really just want another set of eyes?
I didn’t know, but I fell in step beside her. She brushed close against me as I held the door for her. A light, sweet fragrance drifted off her as she went past, making me aware again of her attractiveness. That was a feeling I was going to have to learn to ignore—but it was a lesson I hadn’t quite learned yet.