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There was nothing like a glass or two of crisp pinot grigio to protect a person’s emotional instability. Okay, so many people, including her sensible self, might argue the plausibility of that sentiment, but still, wine was her chosen chain mail for tonight.
She pushed open the bar door.
The place was as busy as she’d expected at nine o’clock on a Friday night.
That afternoon—somewhere between suturing a guy’s knee and extracting a splinter the size of a small missile from a teenager’s hand—she’d decided that affecting a breezy attitude with Ethan was the name of the game. She might have a whole lot of uncertainty with regards to how to deal with him, but the important thing was to gain his trust so he’d see the right thing—the only thing—to do was to at least take the police into his confidence in case anything else should happen. Even if he wouldn’t press charges against his ex after her attack, the police being aware of any potential danger made absolute sense.
Propping herself against the bar, she lifted her hand to Vanessa, one half of the husband-and-wife team who owned the Coast, as she finished serving a group of raucous young men. Leah smiled softly. Vanessa could be a force to be reckoned with.
“You boys just behave yourselves, you hear?” Shaking her head, Vanessa smiled as she walked toward Leah. “Hey, you. Not very often you’re in here at this time. Do you have tomorrow off?” She peered over Leah’s shoulders. “And you’re alone?” Vanessa frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Leah laughed. “Nothing’s wrong. I just came in hoping to buy a bottle of wine to take away.”
Vanessa’s eyes lit with interest as she wiggled her eyebrows. “To a man waiting for you at your house dressed in nothing but a loincloth, by any chance?”
“No-o-o, but there is a man waiting in his own home...and I’m guessing fully dressed.”
“Guessing? Or hoping?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters. Who’s the mystery man?”
Leah tapped the side of her nose. “Uh-uh. A bottle of your finest pinot grigio, please.”
Vanessa scowled. “Spoilsport.” She turned to the fridges behind her and pulled out a bottle of white wine, placed it on the bar. “Ten pounds, please...” She raised her eyebrows again, still clasping the bottle. “But I’ll make it eight if you spill his name.”
Smiling, Leah took a ten-pound note from her purse and held it out. “Ten pounds exactly.” She pulled the bottle from Vanessa’s scarily firm grip. “Thank you.”
Vanessa narrowed her eyes.
Smiling, Leah turned from the bar with the wine and walked toward the exit.
“Hey, Leah. How are you?”
She’d stopped to speak with Tanya Todd, her best friend’s sister, when she caught sight of Ethan sitting at one of the high tables by the window. Surprise lodged any further words in her throat. What was he doing here? She’d been pretty clear when she’d told him she would come to the cabin to see to his hand, tonight and every night until it was healed. Was the thought of seeing her again enough to make him hide out in a bar? Leah frowned. Wait a minute... Was Daisy here, as well?
“Leah?”
She blinked and faced Tanya, forcing a strained smile. “Sorry, Tanya. I’m good. How are you?” She flitted her gaze to Ethan.
“I’m fine, but you, on the other hand, look suspiciously distracted.” Tanya turned and glanced in Ethan’s direction before facing Leah once more. “See something you like?”
Leah scowled. “Not at all. Just a certain someone I need to speak with. We’ll catch up soon, okay?”
Without giving Tanya a chance to respond, Leah headed toward Ethan. She placed the bottle on the table next to his open laptop.
He slowly raised his eyes from the screen. His gaze was glazed, as though he didn’t see her at all, before he blinked and his eyes widened. “Leah.”
She planted her hand on her hip, the other still around the wine bottle. “Weren’t we supposed to be meeting at your place?”
“What time is it?”
Had his ex-wife beaten him about the head, too? “It’s just past nine.”
“What? Damn it.” He hastily shut the lid of his laptop and stood. “Could we take a rain check? I promised my agent a Skype call at nine thirty.”
“And where’s Daisy when you’re sitting here...” She glanced at his empty pint glass, the froth from his beer still clinging to the inside. “...drinking beer and playing video games.”
“Playing vid... I’m working.” He glared, his bright blue eyes flashing dangerously. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Hi, Leah.”
Leah turned at the tug on the bottom of her shirt, to be met with eyes amazingly similar to Ethan’s, and delightfully more friendly. “Daisy.” Relief pushed the air from Leah’s lungs. “Where did you appear from?”
“Over there.” She pointed to the kids’ soft play area through an arch toward the back of the bar. “I’m making friends.”
“Oh, I see.” Happiness and a whole lot of forgiveness toward Ethan’s forgetfulness squeezed Leah’s heart. She faced him and lifted her eyebrow. “That was nice of Daddy to bring you out this evening.”
“Uh-huh.” Daisy tugged on her shirt again. “Are you coming home with us? Daddy promised me ice cream when we get home. He said it’s way overpriced in here.”
Biting back a laugh, Leah smiled. “Did he, now?” She leaned closer to Daisy’s ear. “You’d better ask your daddy if I can join you. I don’t think he’s very keen on my interrupting your evening’s plans.”
Daisy faced Ethan. “Please, Daddy. I’ve made new friends and Leah can be your new friend. Please...”
Leah lifted her chin and fought the guilt that Ethan was quite possibly being beaten into an extremely uncomfortable corner by two very forceful females. He held her gaze for a moment, his eyes annoyed and cold. Then he looked to Daisy and back to Leah, before his shoulders slumped. “Are you sure you still want to come over? It will mean waiting for me to finish speaking with my agent.”
“That’s no problem.” She lifted the wine. “It’s important I check your hand. I’ll follow you back in the car. We can always save this wine if I need to come over to check your hand again tomorrow.”
He stilled. “Tomorrow?”
Maybe she was bothering him more than she realized. She couldn’t imagine for one minute he wanted her coming back and forth to his place. “I’m sorry if I sound pushy, Ethan. I really don’t mean to be, but on top of everything else that’s going on with you, I don’t want to be responsible for letting your wound get infected. Can’t I at least hold up that part of my job?”
He met her gaze before glancing at Daisy, who looked at her father with a soft pleading in her eyes.
“Fine.” He raised his good hand in surrender. “You can check on my hand.”
“Thank you.” She looked from the reluctant defeat in his eyes to Daisy’s happy ones and held out her hand. “Want to walk me to my car?”
The little girl grinned and slipped her hand into Leah’s. “Sure. Come on, Daddy.”
Without looking at Ethan again, Leah walked with Daisy out into the falling dusk. Her heart hammered and her body was tense, but she battled to keep her face impassive. Now that she’d seen him again, her heart told her she hadn’t just been going to Ethan’s tonight to make sure his stitches were okay. She’d also been looking forward to seeing him again. Him and Daisy.
And that realization was terrifying. Time and again, she’d avoided just this type of personal involvement with a man, when her work and obligations took priority. She still suffered from having personal decisions made for her that had resulted in a lifelong guilt over not doing enough, never being enough.
How could any romantic relationship work when she had so much work to do on herself, let alone anyone else? Plus Ethan had a child. That was most definitely an emotional commitment too far.
She’d always been the bubbly one, the funny one, the one who was serious at work and fun to be with the rest of the time. The pretense had gone on for as long as she could remember. She’d skillfully used her humor and smile to keep the walls she’d built around her heart firmly cemented in place. Dating was easy. Simple and untethered. The trouble with meeting someone who set her heart racing, who made her care enough for him and his child, was those feelings could all too easily cause the carefully tended bricks to wiggle loose.
She could not allow that to happen.
If she did, the chances were pretty high that one or all of the parties involved would get a demolition ball smacked straight into the center of their chest. For the most part, life was a bitch. Her job never let her forget that and, in a weird kind of way, she was grateful.
Her cases kept her view of life grounded in reality.
Slipping her hand from Leah’s, the little girl touched her father’s arm. “Are we going home in Leah’s car?”
Leah froze. How could she have been so stupid? He couldn’t possibly drive with his injured hand and now she’d have to endure sitting side by side with the man all the way to Clover Point. Which, strictly speaking, was a ten-minute drive, tops...but still.
She forced a smile. “Of course you are. I’ll grab a booster seat from the trunk.”
Surprise widened his eyes. “You’ve got kids? I didn’t realize...”
“No.” She huffed a laugh. “But I am a little anal about being prepared for anything and everything.”
“Right.” His gaze softened with something that looked far too much like acceptance...as though he should have guessed as much. “Got it.”
Leah quickly looked away and walked to the back of her car. Shoving her first aid kit, car jack and mini toolbox to the side, she pulled out one of the two booster seats. After closing the trunk, she opened the back door and pushed the seat inside. She waved toward the open door. “All yours.”
She stood back as Ethan helped buckle Daisy safely inside, her gaze roaming over his strong back and perfectly edible ass encased in cargo pants. Ignoring the twitch deep in her abdomen, she walked around to the driver’s side...but was too slow opening the door. Ethan’s steady gaze met hers over the car’s roof, and for the first time in a while, her automatic smile was far too long in coming.
She stood frozen to the spot.
Until she broke the moment and found blessed escape by sliding into the driver’s seat.
* * *
SOMETHING VERY, VERY bad had just happened.
Ethan blew out a slow breath before opening the passenger door of Leah’s car. Once seated, he stared straight ahead, willing his racing heart to slow. Her hazel eyes had burned straight into his and he’d seen the attraction, the realization, and finally, the panic that rolled inside him reflected in her gaze. His pull toward her had to be quashed. He couldn’t get someone as lovely and caring as Leah involved in his messy life right now.
She started the car and he reached for his seat belt.
Yet he’d agreed to her coming to the house against all the warnings screaming in his head. But how could he refuse? Her care and attention to his injury was genuine—as was her clear concern that Anna might come back. Leah was obviously a good person who took her job seriously. Whereas he was little more than a control freak about his work, his life and Daisy’s life.
After the way he’d failed Anna and his daughter in those early years, it was no surprise he’d evolved into the man he was today. He refused to apologize or make excuses for doing all he could to keep Daisy safe.
It had just been him and her for the last five years. Sure, he’d dated and some of those dates had even stretched into an overnight stay when his mum had been able to have Daisy.
Yet no woman’s allure had smacked him upside the head like Leah’s.
And now they sat side by side, with only a shift stick and hand brake between them.
He had to push Leah away for her own protection—not to mention Daisy’s.
She was first and foremost in his every thought and action, and he’d been careful not to invite a woman into his life who could up and leave them at a moment’s notice. It had taken him months and months after Anna’s leaving to convince Daisy he was here to stay. Having her get attached to someone else who might one day let her down was something he couldn’t allow to happen. At least, not until Daisy was older and understood adults could let people down—could let children down.
His daughter’s happy humming filled the car and he glanced at Leah as they drove along the main street. Her jaw was set and her grip on the steering wheel looked tight enough to break the damn thing.
He stared ahead and cleared his throat. “You know, my hand feels fine, if you want to postpone looking at it until tomorrow. I’ve no idea how long I’ll be talking to my agent, and I don’t want to keep you waiting. Plus, I need to get Daisy showered and into bed. She has school in the morning.”
“It’s for the best that I look at it tonight. I’ve already seen the dried blood.” She glanced at him. “Your hand is clearly not fine. I’ll be out of your hair as soon as possible.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I just...” He just what? Wanted her far away from him so there was no risk acting on the sudden and crazy need to kiss her? She showed him so much more care than anyone else had in a very long time. That had to be the reason behind such irrational yearning, right?
She smiled. “You’re just scared I’ll hurt you. I’ll be gentle, I promise.”
Ethan swallowed. She had no idea how close to the mark her words had struck. Wasn’t the real reason she scared the hell out of him because there was every chance he could come to care about her, too? That maybe she could end up being someone special? Someone who would make his and Daisy’s lives a whole lot better?
But the last time he’d felt anything near what he felt now was when he’d first met Anna...and look how that had turned out.
He screwed his good hand into a fist. Well, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about preventing Leah coming to the house tonight, but tomorrow, he’d figure out a way to stop her that night and every night after.
They rode the rest of the way to Clover Point in relative silence, punctured every now and then by Daisy’s stream of chatter, blended with bursts of humming and, her latest discovery, whistling.
Ethan looked out the side window. Leah’s stubbornness ranked pretty high on a scale of one to a million. Well, whether she realized it or not, he could match her tenacity. All he wanted was to be a good father to Daisy and a successful author. To prove to his daughter, his readers and himself that he had something worth sharing with the world, after Anna’s demeaning verbal shots during the final months of their tumultuous marriage took their toll on his courage and self-belief.
In the past, he’d run from confrontation—not anymore. Not when he had learned what hiding from reality could do. A man losing his wife and a child losing her mother.
Anna was unlikely to disappear from his life again anytime soon. And neither Leah nor Daisy deserved even the slightest slash of his ex-wife’s poisoned tongue.
If Leah wanted to play nurse outside working hours... Thoughts not entirely suitable for his current dilemma filtered into his imagination.
“Something funny?”
He coughed and sat a little straighter in his seat. “No.”
“You were smiling.”
He faced her. God, she was beautiful. Beautiful and kind and caring...and sexy and pretty spectacular in every other way, as far as he could tell. Finding out more about her was something he might have wanted, but had to ignore if he had any hope of keeping her away from Anna.
He shrugged. “I was just thinking about something I saw on TV.”
“Hmm. Sure you were.”
She shook her head and the soft sway of her cropped, glossy blond hair about her face took a little of his breath away. He shifted in his seat and glanced at Daisy in the back. She stared at him mischievously, her mouth stretched into a grin.
His smile dissolved as unease rippled through him. Was his attraction to Leah so obvious a seven-year-old could see it?
He might not want to be alone forever, but now was the worst possible time for him to contemplate getting into anything...if Leah ever came to consider him romantically, of course.
Even if he took Daisy’s emotional stability out of the equation, Anna’s impulsiveness, her unpredictability and spiteful temper had caused a cold, hard spot to linger like death in his heart. His marriage had marred him, made him into a man prone to bouts of selfishness, unnecessary protectiveness and moods that had no place around a woman or child. Sometimes it took all he had to keep Daisy safe from his weaknesses. Month by month, year by year, his daughter had given him the ray of light he needed to strengthen his hold on his internal ugliness.
It was his baby who made him fight to get out of the box that still sometimes proved to be so firmly closed since Anna left.
He wasn’t sure he could keep his internal battle hidden from another adult—another woman in particular—as well as he did from Daisy.
The crunch of gravel beneath the tires told him they were home, and Ethan buried his thoughts. Yanking on the door handle, he got out of the car and headed to the back to help Daisy.
