Special Forces Father

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Dani nodded. “If you need anything or have any questions about things around here, just holler. Or text me. There’s an intercom all through the house but it’s kind of complicated. You have to know the place pretty well to know which button connects you to which room.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine. Unless I hit the wrong button up there and launch myself into orbit.”

Another joke. She liked that he had a sense of humor. “You’re safe. I put duct tape over the launch button so you wouldn’t hit it accidentally,” she joked back.

He took a breath that expanded his impressive chest and sighed it out. “Guess I’ll start the great climb then,” he said as if he was at the foot of Mount Everest.

“You can use the elevator,” she goaded.

“I’ll pass. I’ve never been in a house with its own elevator either. Seems weird.”

Dani nodded.

“I’ll see you tomorrow and try to loosen up,” he pledged.

She nodded again.

“And by the way,” he said with a beautifully devilish smile, “your hair looks better today.”

Dani laughed, glad to finally have her weird hairstyle of the previous evening acknowledged.

“Thanks. I did it today instead of Evie.”

“I don’t think the kid has a future ahead of her as a stylist.”

Dani laughed yet again. “I don’t think so either.”

Then she watched Liam Madison walk out of the kitchen, hoping that tomorrow he might show the twins more of the human side he’d finally shown her tonight.

And enjoying the sight of tight buns in khakis as a secret reward to herself for a day that hadn’t been any fun until just now.

Chapter Three (#u18eff249-c4e2-5a45-b6ef-da25cd10e5bb)

“Bryan! Did you see our socks?” Evie asked by way of greeting Dani’s best friend as the twins rushed him Tuesday morning when Dani let him in.

“Let me see ’em,” Bryan Dreeson instructed, peering down at their feet. “Oh, my gosh! Those socks are great! Red Minnie and Mickey? Why don’t they make them in my size?” he lamented.

“Let’s see yours,” Grady said as he bent over and pulled up one leg of the attorney’s suit pants to reveal snazzy argyles. A love of flashy socks united Dani’s friend with her charges.

“Pretty,” Evie judged with awe.

“And he brought you one of his special quiches for breakfast, too—”

The twins cheered and jumped around like crazy people, laughing at themselves as they did.

“Okay, okay,” Dani said to contain them as she closed the front door behind her friend. “I want you to go down and finish getting dressed while I talk to Bryan, and then you can have breakfast.”

Bryan’s family had lived in the house next door to her grandparents. Being the same age, Dani and Bryan had grown up together and been best friends since soon after Dani had gone to live with Nell and Nick Marconi.

Bryan had called the night before and told her that he would stop by on his way to his office this morning to bring her papers. He was an estate lawyer and had handled the trust Dani’s grandmother had left.

“Mmm...fresh tomatoes, spinach and cheese,” Dani said as she carried the quiche to the kitchen. “The kids love this. And so do I.”

“Because it’s delicious,” Bryan said with no humility whatsoever.

“Are you eating with us or have you already had breakfast?” she asked as they got to the kitchen and she set the quiche on the island.

“I waited so we could eat together. And I’m desperate for a cup of coffee!” he said dramatically, going to the cupboard to get a mug—a familiarity that had developed since he became a frequent visitor after Dani had taken up residence here and left the apartment they shared.

“I have to warn you—I didn’t make the coffee and it’s really strong. Gramma would have called it battery acid.”

“The marine made it?” Bryan asked. They talked almost every day and there was nothing in Dani’s life that Bryan didn’t know about, including every detail of the situation with the twins, her efforts to contact Liam, his arrival and request to move in and that Monday had been designated as the day for that.

“The marine or elves. It was here when I got up,” she said.

“Am I gonna get a look at him?” her impeccably dressed blond friend whispered over his shoulder as he poured the dark brew.

“I haven’t even seen him this morning—he’s an up-before-dawn guy. He says he likes to run at sunrise. Then he had an appointment with a lawyer to deal with paternity if the DNA proves he’s the father,” she said just as softly so the kids didn’t overhear anything.

“Too bad. I wanted to see if he lives up to your description.”

“If he lives up to my description? How did I describe him?” She’d thought she’d described him as average. Even though he was actually far, far above average.

“You made him sound so hot that steam was coming out of my phone,” Bryan claimed.

“I did not,” Dani denied as she got out four plates, silverware and a knife to cut the quiche.

“You sooo did,” Bryan countered. “Down to every tiny little freckle—”

“He doesn’t have freckles.”

“And you should know because you didn’t miss a thing. You had me drooling and hoping he plays for my team.”

“Evie and Grady are probably his so I don’t think he plays for your team,” she whispered again.

“And wouldn’t you be crushed if he did,” Bryan teased.

“No,” she said. Maybe a little too emphatically because it made Bryan laugh.

It also provoked him to give her his fashion once-over. “Your hair is down. Instead of yoga pants or rolling-around-on-the-floor-with-kids jeans you have on a nice pair, and that come-hither pink sweater set? You are dressed for more than work,” he deduced before adding, “It’s all right if you kind of like this guy, you know? This has been a rough few months. You’re due for a little good.”

“Well, it isn’t going to come out of this,” she responded confidently without denying that, like yesterday, she’d primped more for work than usual. But she’d told herself that she had a busy day ahead and that that was the reason. Not Liam Madison.

“Then I’ll keep hoping that he’s gay,” Bryan challenged.

“And I’ll tell Adam on you,” she countered, referring to Bryan’s longtime boyfriend.

The exchange made them both laugh. It was the kind of back and forth they’d shared since childhood.

As Dani cut slices of Bryan’s homemade quiche he took papers out of his briefcase and slid them across the counter to her. “Gramma’s trust,” he said. He’d always called her grandmother Grammathe same way Dani had even though there was no relation. “Since you’re the only beneficiary all ownership has been transferred to you.”

That sobered her. “Already.”

“It’s been six weeks since she passed. We did the trust instead of a will because it would be quicker and easier at the end and wouldn’t have to go into probate like a will. And there’s the proof—no court, no court costs, over and done. You’re now the sole owner of the house and Marconi’s Italian Restaurant.”

Essentially that had been true ever since her grandmother had died, but still, the finality and reality of it, of the loss of her grandmother, landed heavily on Dani all over again.

Dealing with that made her go very quiet and when Evie came up the stairs with a request that she fasten the buttons in the back of her dress, Bryan intercepted her to do it while Dani got down glasses for the twins and poured milk.

Then Evie went downstairs with a promise to Bryan that he was going to love her shoes and Dani took a deep breath to fuel herself to go on.

“Your cousin wants to buy the house,” she said.

Bryan had several cousins. One of them was newly married and she and her husband had rented the house that Dani had grown up in. The house that had belonged to her grandparents and passed to her when her grandmother died.

“I know Shannon loves the house, but I told her not to pressure you about buying it,” Bryan said. “It could be a nice home for you, you know? When some time passes.”

“Or I could sell it and use the money to renovate the restaurant,” Dani said. “Or I could sell them both...” It was a conversation they’d been having since her eighty-year-old grandmother’s death.

So many changes were in the wind. Too many. All of them weighing on her.

And Bryan knew how overwhelmed she was, how torn she was about whether or not to let go of the house she’d grown up in. About whether or not to accept the end of her time with the twins as the end of her own career as a nanny so she could take over where her grandparents had left off with the restaurant. About whether or not to sell the business that had been the lifeblood of her family. The business that had kept her grandparents alive in some ways. The business that couldn’t go on as it had without Dani. About whether or not to genuinely close the door on the people and life she’d always known. And loved.

“Gramma would have been right about this coffee—battery acid!” Bryan said.

Dani knew he was attempting to distract her from her own thoughts and from drifting into the doldrums and grief that were just below the surface.

“Let’s try a little cream and sugar,” he suggested. “I can’t believe Hottie Marine actually drinks this black.”

“‘Hottie Marine’?” she echoed. “That’s the best you could come up with?”

“We haven’t even met,” Bryan defended himself. “Would you prefer Lovely Liam?”

“Oh, that is waaay worse.”

Bryan passed her on his way to the refrigerator for the cream and nudged her with his shoulder. “You okay?” he asked seriously, knowing her well enough to understand what she was feeling.

“Sure,” she answered.

“Lot of decisions on the table—go at them one at a time.”

“I will. But I’m not doing anything about my own future until I know the kids will be okay.”

He kissed her cheek. “That’s why I love you, lady.”

And that small comment brought tears to her eyes that she had to blink back.

“So tell me more about our marine,” he encouraged.

But the twins were finished dressing and both came into the kitchen. Grady was in red-and-white star leggings with a salmon-colored T-shirt—he called it his toucan shirt because of the long-beaked bird on it—and sparkling blue tennis shoes that lit up when he stomped his feet, which he demonstrated for Bryan. Evie wore her predominantly navy blue flowered knit dress with green striped leggings under it and her own light-up, sparkling pink running shoes.

“Wow! You guys are colorful!” Bryan said as if he was impressed.

“Dani let us pick out our own clothes because it’s our bacation and we don’t have to wear umiforms.”

“And what a great job you did,” Bryan commended. “Now come and eat my quiche and tell me how good it is,” he added.

The twins eagerly went to two of the bar stools to climb up and do as he’d instructed.

And Dani wished that Liam was there to watch her friend and maybe pick up a few tips on how to build rapport with the twins.

Although, for some strange reason, she’d been wishing that Liam was there since she got up this morning.

And it didn’t have anything to do with the kids.

* * *

“You say it pit-sails—not piz-els. And these are ours that get saved for us. They’re the broken ones Dani lets us have,” Grady informed Liam.

Liam had been alarmed that the kids had gone behind the bakery case at Marconi’s Italian Restaurant and begun to help themselves from a drawer below it. He’d warned Dani that they were getting into the Italian waffle cookies, pronouncing the name the way it was spelled on the sign where stacks of them were displayed for sale.

“It’s okay,” Dani assured him. Then to the twins she said, “But not too many. You can each have two broken pieces and put the rest in a bag to take home.” Then, using a tissue to take an unbroken one from a stack, she handed it to Liam. “They’re traditional Italian cookies—my grandmother’s recipe with anise oil and anise seed. It tastes like licorice and the cookie itself is buttery and crispy and light...if you’ve never had one.”