Chapter 9 #2
“How did you learn how to draw?” Izzy sat next to Zeb at Char’s kitchen table, trying to copy the swift, sure strokes of his pencil as he sketched out a very detailed monarch butterfly.
“I taught myself. Lots of practice.” Zeb’s forehead furrowed in concentration.
“Why don’t you give him some space?” Alex suggested.
I set my hand on my brother’s arm. “He’s fine. He’ll let her know if she starts to bother him, won’t you, Zeb?”
“Yep, sure will.”
Zeb had already sketched out the first four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle before the girls had finished their takeout.
“Everyone done with dinner?” Alex reached for the paper wrappers from the burgers and empty french fry containers his nieces had left at the table.
“Let me help with that.” I picked up cups and crinkled napkins. “Trash under the sink?”
“Thanks.” He held the cabinet door open for me. “I need to make sure Frankie put the bird back in his cage. I’ll be back in a sec.”
I nodded as he turned. I’d never get tired of watching him walk away, not with the way his backside filled out a pair of jeans.
I waited until he’d disappeared into one of the doors at the end of the hall, and then wandered after him, wanting to check out the dozens of family pictures decorating the walls.
I recognized his sister in several of them, along with a younger version of Alex. He still had the same dimple on his left cheek, but his eyes weren’t nearly as bright now as they were in the faded photos from his youth.
“That’s my son, Charlene and Alex’s father.” Alex’s grandfather stood behind me, pointing a shaky finger at the large family photo I’d been looking at. “You know what it’s like to lose a child?”
I shook my head. “I can’t imagine.”
“Sucks the life right out of you. Dragged my wife to an early grave.” He lowered his hand. “Here they are at Disney World. Took us two days to drive to Florida but it was worth it for the smiles on those kids’ faces.”
“You have a beautiful family,” I said.
“Doesn’t feel much like a family anymore. Charlene doesn’t have time to catch her breath, and Alex can’t seem to run far enough or fast enough to get away.” He shook his head.
“You’re not giving away all the family secrets, are you, Gramps?” Alex joined us, a smile making that damn dimple pop.
“He’s just showing me how cute you used to be.” I turned my attention back to the photos on the wall. A small photograph of a young boy in his underwear with a cape flung over his shoulders caught my eye. “Is this you?”
Alex glanced at the picture, his cheeks flushing just the slightest shade of pink. “No, that can’t be me.”
“It sure as hell is you.” Morty lifted the frame off the wall and passed it to me. “He used to run around naked with nothing on but that cape. Called himself Captain Jaybird.”
I pressed a hand to my lips to try to keep from laughing. “That’s adorable.”
“Hey, I was like four in that picture.”
“You must have been pretty tall for a four-year-old.” I tapped on the glass. “You sure you weren’t older than that?”
“Maybe six.” Alex’s eyes shifted away from the picture.
“Boy hated to wear clothes. He was naked all the time.” Morty raised a brow. “I’m pretty sure you were about ten here. Your grandmother had to wrestle you into a pair of briefs or you would have had the neighbor girls running away screaming.”
I could only imagine what grown-up Alex might look like in a pair of skimpy briefs. The mere thought made my heart pound and my cheeks heat. There was no way he’d send women screaming at the sight of his naked ass now unless they were running toward him.
“Give me that.” He grinned and reached for the picture.
I held it behind my back.
“I’m going to go lie down.” Morty ambled down the hall, leaving the two of us alone.
“You sure you’re up for wrestling?” Alex stood in front of me, a smug grin on his face.
“You want it, come and get it.” I backed down the hall, the picture clenched in my hands.
His arms circled me, drawing me against his chest as his fingers fumbled to free the frame from my grasp. “That can’t be me. It’s probably a picture of my brother-in-law when he was a kid.”
“So you’re denying you liked to run around naked?”
“I wasn’t naked, I had on a cape.” He backed me up, sandwiching me between the wall and the concrete planes of his chest.
“So the picture is of you.” I bit my lip, trying not to laugh right into his face.
“What if it is?” His gaze dipped to my lips. “It’s not like I still run around with my ass hanging out, pretending to be something I’m not.”
The tone shifted. We’d started off teasing, playful, but there seemed to be a lot more meaning to his words now.
“What do you mean ‘something you’re not’?” I asked.
“Nothing. Can I have the picture back?”
I let my arm drop to my side, my fingers still holding the frame. There wasn’t room between us for a sheet of paper, much less a picture frame. “You know, not all superheroes have to wear a cape.”
One side of his mouth quirked up in a half-hearted grin. “And not all little boys outgrow wanting to run around naked. At least not if they’re in the right company.”
My eyes widened even as heat sparked in my core. Kissing the man on the side of the road in a moment of weakness was one thing. But letting myself take the bait he offered now would be a huge mistake.
“I’d better get going.” I dragged my gaze away from his mouth.
“Mm-hmm.” His hand closed around the picture and he took it from me. “A lot of people around here seem to think you’re like a local superhero.”
I scooted a few inches away, my back still up against the wall. “Anyone who says that is either drunk, nuts, or lying.”
He didn’t respond right away. Just stood there grinning at me. “See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” I whispered, still caught up in the intoxicating feeling of being too close to him. If I wanted to, I could reach up and press my lips against the little divot at the base of his throat, the place where his heartbeat pulsed.
He lowered his head toward mine and pressed his lips against my cheek, the contact too fleeting, not nearly enough to satisfy the building desire. “I’ve got to go get the girls to bed.”
I jerked my head away, shaking off the haze. “Yeah. I need to get Zeb home. I’ve got another early morning tomorrow.”
“Maybe we can talk about my underwear then if you really want to.”
I laughed. “You’re something else, you know that?”
But as I drifted down the hall, my thoughts still lingering on Alex and just what he might look like in nothing but a cape, I wondered if something else might be just what I was in the mood for. If something else might be just what I needed.