Chapter 34
matt
I’d had a hell of a week at work, so I was glad to just chill with the girls on Saturday. Unfortunately, their idea of chilling involved having me braid their hair so they could look like Von Trapp siblings. Apparently they’d watched The Sound of Music with Peggy while I was at the fete.
“Ow, that hurts!” Zoey said as I finished tightening the elastic band in her hair.
“Sorry, sweetie.”
Her eyes filled with dismay as she regarded herself in the hallway mirror. “It’s all crooked and lumpy.”
Sadly, it was true. One pigtail was lower than the other, and a clump of hair was pouching up above the other one. I took the comb and tried to smooth the lump to no avail. “Maybe we should go across the street and let your grandmother do it.”
“No. I want Jillian.”
“She’s not here.”
“She would be if you’d marry her.”
I was spared from having to answer by a knock on the kitchen door. Sophie opened it.
“Snowball!” she exclaimed. “You came!”
I followed Zoey around the corner and saw Hope holding her grandmother’s little dog. My heart picked up speed. “Hey there.”
“Hey.”
“Snowball wanted to come see me,” Sophie said. “She was barkin’ through the fence and Hope was in her backyard, so I asked if she could come over.”
“Sophie, you shouldn’t be bothering the neighbors.”
“It’s no bother,” Hope said. “And she’s exactly right. Snowball wanted to pay a visit.” She set the dog on the floor and held out a small ball to Sophie. “I’m sure she’d love to play outside with you.”
“Me, too!” Zoey said. Both girls ran out the back door, Von Trapps forgotten, the dog following happily behind.
“They’ve been begging me for a dog of their own,” I said, just to have something to say. Seeing Hope scrambled my thoughts.
“You should get them one. It’d be good for them to have a pet.”
I noncommittally lifted my shoulders.
Hope’s eyebrows rose. “Don’t you like dogs?”
“I think they’re great. It’s just . . . Christine wasn’t a dog person.”
To her credit, Hope didn’t say “So?” She didn’t even look at me like I was an idiot. She didn’t need to. I heard how ridiculous my comment sounded as soon as I said it.
“I guess it would make me feel . . . disloyal or something,” I tried to explain.
“As if the girls were being raised contrary to the way she would have done it. I don’t know if Peggy and Griff .
. .” I stopped myself. I ran a hand down my face.
“I’m realizing how lame my reasoning is as I’m talking. Guess it’s time to move on, huh?”
Her gaze was like being wrapped in a blanket taken straight out of a warm clothes dryer. “There are no timelines for these things.”
When was the last time I’d felt okay after sounding like a dunderhead in front of someone? I hated sounding sappy or being wrong, and yet Hope made me feel all right about it. I gave a self-conscious smile. “Yeah, well, I guess old habits die hard. I’ll give it some thought.”
We stood there, just looking at each other for a moment. “It’s good to see you,” I said.
“Good to see you, too. I hope I’m not interrupting. Gran’s taking a nap, and I thought I could use the chance to touch up the mural and hang the hardware for the canopies. I’m nearly finished.”
“The girls will be so thrilled. But I’m going to miss having you over here so much.”
“Even though you’re hardly ever here when I am?”
“I like the idea of you being here,” I said. “I think about you a lot.”
The air around us heated. Her mouth curved in a smile. “What do you think?”
“About doing this.” And just like that, I bent down and kissed her.
It seemed like the most ordinary thing in the world, but the sensations it stirred in me were anything but ordinary.
Her mouth was soft and succulent, and when her arms wound around my back, it felt like time and place just melted away.
The patter of small feet warned of a child’s imminent arrival. We both pulled back as the back door opened.
Hope’s lips were red, her cheeks rosy. “I, uh, better get to work on the mural.” She turned and fled up the stairs to the girls’ bedroom as Zoey walked in.
Zoey looked at me accusingly. “Why were you standing so close?”
I didn’t think she’d seen us, but I didn’t dare deny it. “None of your business,” I said.
“Well, I don’t think that’s ’propriate.”
“What?”
“My teacher taught us about ’propriate and in’propriate behavior. Like how you don’t yell and run around indoors, and how you don’t let strangers get too close and ’vade your personal space. An’ I don’t think that you and Hope were being ’propriate, ’cause you were ’vading personal space.”
I have to say, I was flustered. “I, um . . .”
“Besides, I want you to marry Aunt Jillian,” Zoey continued.
This refrain was getting tiresome. “I’ve told you, sweetheart. I don’t like Jillian like that.”
“Maybe if you kissed her, you would,” Zoey persisted.
Damn. Maybe she had seen us. “It just doesn’t work that way.” I rubbed my hand across my face. “Hey—I thought you wanted to play with Snowball. What are you doing in here?”
“I came in to get her a bowl of water in case she’s thirsty.”
“That’s very responsible of you.”
She nodded solemnly. “I’m responsible enough to take care of a dog of my own.”
Zoey had the makings of an excellent attorney. In the span of less than a minute, she’d thrown me off balance and made her case. I would hate to come up against her in court. I pulled a disposable plastic bowl out of the cabinet and handed it to her.
She carried it to the sink and stood on tiptoe to fill it. “Come outside and play with us.”
I thought about Hope upstairs in their bedroom and was tempted to decline—but I couldn’t trust myself not to invade her personal space again. Besides, Zoey was watching me closely.
“Are you playing Von Trapp family?” I asked. “Because I refuse to wear lederhosen and sing.”
“What’s lederhosen?”
“Shorts with suspenders.”
Her face broke into a sunshine smile. “Well, you don’t have to wear that, but I bet we can make you sing.”
It was not a bet I was willing to take. Because the truth was, my girls could coerce me into doing just about anything.
Anything, that is, except get involved with Jillian—or keep my distance from Hope.