Sweet Talking Man. Liz Talley

Sliding on the hatachigi pants he’d abandoned on the bathroom floor, Leif hurried toward the foyer. The darkening sky had thrown his living area into gloom. Flicking the porch light switch, he opened the door to find Birdie standing on the stoop. Cool air swooshed in, so he grabbed the Patagonia pullover from the nearby hook and tugged it on.

      “Birdie,” he said, peering out to see Abigail standing once again at the mailbox. Obviously the two had given him some recovery time before resuming whatever mission they were on. Something about drawing. Maybe Abigail wanted her daughter to have private lessons.

      “Hey,” the girl said, shifting nervously in her Converse high-tops. “Mom made me come back to apologize.”

      “For...?”

      “Uh, two things. First...” She glanced at her mother. Abigail gave her an encouraging nod. “I shouldn’t have said that woman smushing cake in your face was awesome.”

      Leif couldn’t stop the laugh. Right after Birdie had declared the awesomeness of Marcie’s actions, Abigail had hustled her daughter away with a quick farewell. She’d nearly dragged Birdie toward the adjacent access walk to the Laurel Woods Bed-and-Breakfast. “Well, it wasn’t awesome for me, but I can understand from your vantage point.”

      “Yeah. She was pretty mad at you.”

      Leif lifted a shoulder. “Eh, I deserved it.”

      “You did?”

      From her post Abigail cleared her throat. Loudly.

      Annoyance shadowed Birdie’s eyes. “And the second thing I’m sorry for is spying on you.”

      “Huh?”

      Birdie turned and called to her mother. “There. I told him. Are you happy?”

      Abigail gave her daughter the “watch it, missy” look mothers had been giving from the beginning of time.

      Leif braced his hands on the door frame, drawing Birdie’s attention. “You’ve been spying on me? Why?”

      Birdie swallowed, shifting restlessly before tilting herself closer to him. “It was last month. I accidently spied on you when I climbed a tree...for, uh, some sketching.” She inclined her head toward her mother and dropped her voice to a whisper. “That’s how I get away from her. She stresses me out.”

      He could see that. His observation of the buttoned-up Abigail had given him the impression someone needed to release a pressure valve inside the woman. Glancing at her now in her navy sweater, her mouth pressed into a serious line, he figured it was tough to have a mom who carried a label maker and a thick accordion binder of forms, calendars and sanitizing wipes. “Okay. Apology accepted.”

      The girl leaned even closer, so that he could smell the apple scent of her shampoo. Her gaze pleaded with him. “I didn’t tell my mom you were naked. Please don’t tell her.”

      Whoa.

      Leif sucked in air. Dear God. He’d never considered that while swimming his daily laps, someone would see him clad in his birthday suit. His privacy fence topped out at eight feet and he usually did laps in the cloak of darkness. It had grown colder the past few weeks so he’d started swimming at the rec center, but last month he’d been in his pool. “Jeez, Birdie, that’s, uh, not cool.”

      The girl rocked back on her heels, tears sheening her eyes. “I didn’t mean to, okay? I didn’t really see anything. Much.”

      “Okay, don’t cry. The human body isn’t something to be ashamed of so let’s not make this something skeevy.”

      “You’re not mad?”

      “No, but you need to tell your mom at some point. Keeping a secret like this isn’t a good idea.” He nearly choked on the last thought. He’d kept a big secret from everyone in the town. He was the son of Calliope—a woman they thought murdered someone. He was also the son of some guy who still lived in Magnolia Bend. He just needed to find out who that guy was.

      “She’ll make it into something bad.”

      Leif looked at Abigail, who had given up the aggravation and now appeared concerned about the quiet conversation her daughter was having with him. “Curiosity about the opposite sex is natural, Birdie. Not bad. It’s how we’re made. But the deal is I’m a teacher at your school. Things like this can get complicated.”

      Birdie squinted her eyes, obviously seeing it from his point of view for the first time. But then her expression grew pleading again. “It was an accident. I won’t do it again, and we don’t have to tell anyone you were naked. This is all my fault. Not yours. I’m the pervert.”

      “Is everything okay?” Abigail called.

      Leif raised a hand and gave her a flashbulb smile before directing his regard to her child. “Don’t say that. You did what any eleven-year-old would do.”

      “I’m twelve.”

      “Okay, but even so, you don’t have to be ashamed of being curious. I accept your apology, and I will make sure next time I pull on a suit, okay?”

      Birdie nodded, diamond teardrops clinging to her long lashes. “I’m really sorry.”

      “Okay. We’ve put this behind us. And you do realize that in some art classes, students sketch unclothed bodies. Artists see things differently, right?”

      “Of course,” Birdie said with a nod before easing off his porch. “Thank you, Mr. Lively.”

      Leif smiled, even while inside his gut clenched. He would have to tell Abigail about the “secret” he now shared with Birdie. But that would be hard. He could envision Abigail overreacting to her daughter acting on natural curiosity. She’d make it something it wasn’t. Abigail Orgeron wasn’t a helicopter mom—she was a tank who sat on her daughter. Poor kid. Birdie tried to escape someone who wanted control over every aspect of life.

      Shove a lump of coal up Abigail’s ass and he’d have a diamond in a week.

      But, damn, it was a nice ass. He’d noticed as she marched up and down the halls of St. George’s, outlined as it was in slim trousers that hung perfectly, the hem brushing sensible loafers...that he guessed she bought at Talbots. Abigail also had a nice rack and a slim waist. But most striking of all was the shiny black hair that fell just past her shoulders and held a single silver stripe that framed the right side of her face. The whole look was somehow sexy. The artist in him loved the contrast, the eruption of something so unexpected. It made him want to dig deeper, to know her better, to unwrap the fleeting vulnerability that shaded her eyes.

      He could see the sensuality in the curve of her bottom lip, the grace in the way she moved her elegant hands and the passion trapped beneath those ugly-ass sweaters.

      Leif had seen a lot of woman who needed a good screwing, but he’d never seen a woman who needed it more than Abigail.

      If she weren’t such a cactus with a lonely daughter, he would take up the challenge of giving her relief, but after the bad decisions he’d made with the last few women in his life, he would take a rain check.

      He’d come to Magnolia Bend for one reason, and one reason only—to clear up the past while finding out who his father was. After that, he would likely be off again. His papa wasn’t a rolling stone, but Leif was. When things got tough, he got out.

      Birdie jogged down his steps and just before she reached her mother, turned. “I’m going to ask Fancy to give me the art lessons as a Christmas gift.”

      “Fancy?”

      “My grandmother. She hangs my art all over her house.”

      “Great. Thanks for apologizing, Birdie. Takes a big person to do that.”

      Abigail gave him a smile then. Not a big one, but one that expressed appreciation for his being gracious.

      If only the woman knew.

      But