Chapter Ten #2
Siobhan was still watching Brian with wide eyes.
He’d caught Cat around the waist and set her on the ground before pointing at Kevin and laughing.
His uncle was pointing back, but he wasn’t amused and she thought it was probably a good thing everybody was yelling, so she couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“Buckle up,” Terry said. “This one’s coming our way.”
Siobhan wasn’t sure what that meant until everybody on the grass seemed to turn in their direction at the same time.
Right. It was line judging time, or whatever they called it.
The other women seemed content to shout out their opinions, so she just sat quietly, hoping they’d go back to playing before she had to say anything.
“Siobhan’s the tie-breaker, then,” Leo boomed, and all eyes turned to her.
“Oh. Oh, no.” She knew nothing about volleyball. She had no idea what the score was or how important this ruling would be. She didn’t even know if there was a score being kept.
Her gaze flew to Brian, who was her best hope for getting some help, but that was a mistake. He was the one being ruled on, of course, so just a little bit of bias there. But also, he seemed to land on a judge manipulation tactic pretty quickly.
He gave her that smile. Those blue eyes crinkled and that crooked grin asked her how she could possibly say no to him. Her pulse quickened and she folded her hands in her lap to keep from crossing her legs as heat pulsed between her thighs. The man’s charm was potent. She’d give him that.
But she wasn’t giving him the point. “That’s totally not legal.”
As his team groaned and the other cheered, Brian put his hand over his heart and gave her a wounded look.
She grinned. The man had underestimated her ability to say no to pretty blue eyes and cheeky grins. But right before he turned back to his teammates, she saw something else in his expression.
Amusement. And a challenge. There was going to be some kind of payback for this, and a thrill of anticipation sizzled through her.
“Well done, Siobhan,” Hannah said with a chuckle. “That’ll keep them riled up for a while.”
Riled up was a good expression for it, Siobhan thought. And they weren’t the only ones feeling it. She probably should have let Brian score the point.
“Do you need help with that?”
Brian looked down to see Siobhan standing near the foot of the ladder, watching him.
She was wearing a loose V-necked T-shirt, and he guessed she wasn’t aware the angle gave him a generous glimpse of cleavage.
Clearing his throat, he lifted his gaze to her face and was thankful she was looking at the lights he’d finished stringing and hadn’t caught him staring.
Not that she had a lot of room to talk when it came to staring.
He had exceptionally good peripheral vision and Siobhan had done her fair share of staring at him during the volleyball game.
Playing an extreme version of the sport on a warmer-than-forecast day wasn’t the only reason he’d left the field hot and bothered.
He cleared his throat and started down the ladder to derail that train of thought. “I’m about done, but thanks.”
She turned but didn’t walk away. Instead she looked at the fairy lights they’d strung through the trees on either side of the dirt road leading from the field where the wedding would take place to the bride and groom’s cabin. “Your brother will be able to get beautiful pictures of them here.”
“That’s what we’re going for. Of course, the first time we didn’t get enough lights, so we had to wait for more to arrive and then redo the whole thing.
And we did all that without really testing them, so then we learned we couldn’t get the solar collectors in a good enough spot to power them.
Emma’s now the proud owner of a ton of barely used solar-powered fairy lights, and these plug in to the outlets in the site on the corner, which means we have to credit the camper for the power we use.
One of the many aspects of this wedding that sounded simple in the group chat, but turned into a pain in the ass for me and Rob. ”
“It’s worth it. They’re magical.”
He believed her, because standing here in the dark with the tiny lights warming her face and reflecting in her eyes did feel magical. His fingers twitched, desperate to touch her, and he curled his hands into loose fists.
“Ellie went and got Nora a little bit ago and she said Oliver was out like a light on Steph’s bed,” she told him. “I was on my way to get him earlier, trying to avoid that, but then Emma was telling me how she and Sean met and that’s not really a story you can walk away from.”
“Once the family stories get rolling, there’s almost never a good time to duck out, but I think everybody will head inside early tonight. The volleyball game took a lot out of us.” He arched an eyebrow at her. “Especially those of us who didn’t win.”
“I think the word you’re looking for is lost,” she shot back, and her grin lit a fire in his blood.
“I thought we were friends,” he said. “The fries, Siobhan. The unmatched popcorn chicken. I introduced you to them and then you go and rule against me?”
She started to laugh before stifling the sound with her hand. It was quiet in this part of the campground. And dark. And about as private as they could get outside with most of his relatives around them.
But he wasn’t thinking about that. Not at all.
“You tried to charm me,” she said, and maybe it was his imagination, but did she move closer to him? To be able to keep her voice low, he told himself. “The smile. The eyes. I saw what you were doing.”
“In my defense, it usually works.”
“I bet it does. But apparently you forgot that, whether it’s cold leftover pizza for breakfast or sticking things in electrical outlets to see what will happen, I say no to pretty blue eyes and cheeky smiles on a regular basis.”
And there it was—a reminder of the thread already connecting them.
Even though there was no official confirmation yet, on some level they’d both accepted they shared a child.
And he didn’t need any kind of official documentation to know that any kind of intimacy between him and Siobhan should be avoided at any cost. His best move was to go back to his original plan for dealing with her—ignoring her presence entirely.
But the version of him that had come up with that plan was gone and he’d never be that guy again.
There might be some question as to whether he was a father now, but there was no question about the fact that this version of him knew Siobhan was sweet and funny and sexy.
Now he knew that her laughter immediately lifted his mood, even from a distance.
And he knew that magic was the reflection of fairy lights dancing in her hazel eyes.
“Just remember, when it comes to losing, a Kowalski can really hold a grudge,” he said, injecting a lightness he didn’t feel into his tone.
“Oh, I saw the look you gave me when I lost you the point,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “It promised payback.”
The way he remembered it, a lot of looks had passed between them during that volleyball game, and most of them hadn’t been promising retribution. Every time their eyes met, he felt singed by the sparks arcing between them, and he didn’t think he was imagining it.
Then Siobhan rested her hand on his forearm and instantly it felt as if the blood in his veins had been replaced with lava.
“Promise me that payback won’t come in the pool, though,” she said earnestly.
Nothing could stop him from touching her, and he smoothed wisps of her hair back from her face before cupping her cheek. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
Siobhan leaned into his touch, her fingers sliding down his arm to circle his wrist. He trailed over her cheekbone as their gazes tangled and caught, neither of them looking away.
Her lips parted as he closed the distance between them.
She didn’t back away, and as she tipped her head back, her anticipation-quickened breaths matched his.
Finally whispered through his mind as he lowered his mouth to hers.
He slid his hand from her cheek to the back of her neck as she released his wrist. For a second he thought she was pulling away, but then he felt her hands on his back and groaned against her lips.
Brian lost himself in the kiss, everything fading away as his tongue danced over hers. Siobhan’s hunger matched his own, and he kissed her harder and deeper as her fingernails bit through his T-shirt.
The jingling brought him back to reality.
He broke off the kiss, backing away from her as the sound of Stella’s metal tags bouncing off each other grew closer.
Please don’t let anybody be with her, he thought as he looked into Siobhan’s eyes and saw his awareness of what they’d just done reflected back at him.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—” Stella reached them, thankfully alone, and bending down to greet her with a good back scratch gave Brian an excuse to have somewhere else to look besides Siobhan’s eyes. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too. That was…” She didn’t say what it was, instead letting the words fade away. “I should go get Oliver and wrangle him into bed.”
Now that he’d had a minute, Brian forced himself to straighten and look her in the eye. “Do you want me to carry him for you?”
He watched her consider it, knowing she’d probably rather see the last of him for the night. But Oliver was heavy and the walk from Steph’s cabin would be even longer than from the playground.
“I’d appreciate it. Thank you.”
They walked in silence to Steph’s cabin. She opened the door before they could even knock and put a finger to her lips before waving them in. Kyle was as deeply asleep as Oliver, and neither of them stirred when Brian scooped the little boy into his arms and lifted him.
Stella walked with them until they got to Siobhan’s camper, and then she ran off to find somebody more interesting to hang out with. Once he’d navigated the steps, he laid Oliver down on the edge of the bed.
“Thank you,” Siobhan said quietly, not meeting his eyes.
“No problem. Good night, Siobhan.”
He left without trying to say anything more. He wasn’t even sure what he could say. Kissing her had been a mistake. He knew it. She knew it. The only thing he could do was promise he wouldn’t do it again.
But that wasn’t a promise he was sure he could keep, so he just kept walking.