His Brown-Eyed Girl. Liz Talley

heart stopped.

      “Sorry,” she said, by way of apology when Aunt Flora clasped her free hand to her chest. “Did you lock the front door?”

      Aunt Flora blinked. “The front door? Well, I think I did. Chris is standing there, and—”

      “You have to always lock the front door, Aunt Flora. You know that,” Addy said, sliding past her aunt while tightening the sash of her bathrobe. Normally, she wouldn’t venture out in front of anyone in such a state, but desperate times and desperate measures called for showing the legs she hadn’t had time to shave.

      She jogged down the stairs so fast Chris jumped when she hit the landing.

      “Hey, uh, Addy,” the boy said, nervously shifting his eyes around the foyer she’d painted Wedgewood blue last spring. He’d never been in her aunt’s house before. Not many people had. “Uncle Lucas sent me over to get your list. I have to get my homework done and everything, uh, soon.”

      Addy reached over to twist the dead bolt, but just as her hand touched the handle the door opened.

      She screamed and stumbled back.

      Chris frowned and pulled the door open to reveal Charlotte standing on the porch in a pink nightgown and bare feet. “It’s just Charlotte.”

      Addy’s racing heart didn’t slow. She clasped her chest and closed her eyes. “Oh, God, you scared me to death, Charlotte.”

      “You wearing a wobe,” Charlotte said, sidling in, damp curls bouncing. “I have one. It’s purple.”

      “Go home.” Chris flung out an arm and pointed toward their house. “You’re not supposed to go outside without permission. And never out the front door, Lottie.”

      “I came with you,” Charlotte said, looking at her brother with eyes pure as snowbanks at midnight. “I love you. You’re my best brother.”

      Chris hesitated, brown eyes flickering down at his little sister. “Well, I don’t care. You still can’t leave without telling—”

      “Charlotte!” Lucas shouted, taking the porch steps two at a time. “What the hell do you think you’re doing running off like that? Do you know what could have happened?”

      The man’s eyes blazed and even Chris stepped back, bumping into an antique table holding figurines her aunt had bought in Italy.

      Charlotte screeched and scampered behind Addy, where she proceeded to crank up a good wail.

      Addy curved a hand around the child’s shoulder and held her to the back of her thigh. Charlotte wrapped her chubby arms around Addy’s leg, causing the terry cloth to part. Addy felt the cool night air on her bare thighs and tried to tug the robe closed. As she jerked the bottom closed, she felt the bodice part. She let go of the child, pulling both parts closed and clutching them as she faced the huge man filling up her doorway. “Stop yelling at her. Please.”

      Lucas stilled, shifting in his boots, eyeing the exact spot where she held tight to the fabric. His gaze lowered slightly before rising to her face. “I’m sorry, but she scared me. I sent Chris over for your list, and after I paid the pizza guy, I couldn’t find Charlotte.”

      The little girl still cried, holding fast to Addy. “As you can see, your yelling is not helping the situation.”

      “She’s not supposed to leave our house without Momma,” Chris said, folding his arms, very adultlike. He was quite the little parent.

      “Mommy! I want my mommy!” Charlotte wailed, her little body trembling against Addy’s leg.

      “Here.” Addy bent and scooped the child into her arms, praying she had not just shown her promised land to the two males in her foyer, and strode toward the living room on her left. Making calming noises, she stroked the little girl’s back. “Shh, shh, Charlotte. Your mommy will be home soon.”

      The child hid her face in the curve of Addy’s neck and squeezed her tighter. Addy sank onto the flowered couch, carefully tucking her robe around her and glanced at the two men standing silently in the foyer. She jerked her head, indicating they follow her, and tried not to worry about the front door standing wide-open, an invitation to the outside world.

      Lucas pulled the door shut and nudged Chris toward where Addy sat.

      “What?” Chris pulled back. “No, I wanna go. I’m hungry. Besides, I still gotta do some math.”

      Lucas nodded. “Go then. Three slices of pizza only. No soda.”

      “Cool. Later, Addy.” Chris didn’t wait for her response as he slid out the door, closing it with a loud bang.

      Addy couldn’t stop herself from eyeing the unlocked dead bolt. A second later she lifted her gaze to Lucas who noticed her preoccupation with the door, but hopefully thought she worried about the force the ten-year-old had used.

      He walked into her living room, gaze darting left then right before once again landing on her.

      “I’m sorry,” Lucas said, ducking his chin slightly. “I didn’t mean to scare her. Or you.”

      The irony was Addy wasn’t scared.

      Nervous to be practically naked in the room with a man she felt an uncanny attraction toward? Yes. Scared? No.

      And that thought surprised the hell out of her.

      She should be terrified of a man storming into the place she felt safest, yelling, disrupting, darting glances at the places that made her very much different from him.

      Moments before she had been terrified.

      The letter from Angola had been sent to terrorize her, and her heart still thudded from the adrenaline of pounding down the stairs and being startled by Charlotte. But Lucas arriving, filling up the foyer with his strength and somewhat sweet failing at being a caregiver stilled her. So odd, yet so welcome in the face of what she’d experienced earlier.

      Lucas quieted her trembling.

      “I know you didn’t,” Addy murmured, stroking Charlotte’s back again. “But you are a large man and somewhat frightening to a small girl.”

      “I apologized. I don’t know what else to say.”

      Addy shook her head and cuddled the little girl who sank into her, snuffling but no longer sobbing. Something sweet and tender toward the child awoke within Addy. Having her mother leave her with someone Charlotte didn’t know had to be traumatic. “I know you don’t know what to say, but you have to try on her shoes. She’s young and missing her mother. She doesn’t understand what’s going on, only that you scare her with your scowls and anger.”

      Something in his eyes softened, something different glowing within. “But I don’t scare a big girl like you?”

      Chapter Three

      LUCAS WATCHED ADDY as she held Charlotte, her elegant fingers stroking the child’s back. Rich hair fell in dark hanks around her serious face, and he had to practice extreme self-discipline not to slide his gaze to her bare thighs. Something about the turn of a calf, the delicacy of a knee and the sleekness of a woman’s thigh got him every time. Total leg man.

      And the glimpse of soft curve of breast covered by the child’s golden ringlets wasn’t helping any.

      “Should I be afraid of you?” Addy asked, her gaze earnest and steady. Flirty hadn’t worked on her.

      “No.”

      “But Charlotte is afraid, Chris is out of control and, from what little I’ve seen of the oldest, he’s declared you the enemy,” Addy said.

      He chewed on that nugget. Of course she was right, but could he out and out admit he was a failure? “Charlotte has said time and again I’m big...but I’m not much larger than her father.”

      “But