“I’m not dating. Mitch is Rhett’s half brother.”
Tina’s blue eyes went wide.
“But keep their relationship to yourself, okay? The press would make a big deal of it. I’m sorry for springing him on you, but he wanted to spend the day with Rhett, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I tried to call—”
“But one of the twins knocked the phone off the hook and I wasn’t carrying my cell phone. It’s okay, Carly. Mitch is dessert for those of us who can’t have cake and ice cream.” Tina glanced over her shoulders to make sure none of the other mothers were within hearing range. “I can’t believe it. Rhett’s one of the more-money-than-God Kincaids?”
Carly nodded. “I didn’t tell you because Marlene asked me to keep it quiet until after Rhett was born and she’d worked things out with Everett. But she died before she and Everett could come to an agreement, and then three months later Everett died. I’ve been a little crazy trying to sort out everything.”
“But you did, right? Renting your house isn’t an attempt to clear up a financial mess Marlene left behind, is it? I mean, it was one thing when she moved in and started mooching off you, but—”
“She didn’t mooch off me,” Carly defended her twin automatically and out of habit. She had to turn away from Tina’s give-me-a-break expression. Carly’s gaze found Mitch on the far side of the yard. He had the twins and their friends involved in a game of touch football. The man was a work of art, all ropey muscles and athletic grace. A spurt of something wild pulsed through her. She ignored the unwanted feeling and returned her attention to her friend.
“There is no financial mess.” Well, other than that missing hundred thousand Mitch claimed he’d given Marlene, but her attorney was looking into that. “The terms of Everett Kincaid’s will require Rhett to live in Kincaid Manor for a year if he’s to inherit his share of the estate.”
“So that’s why you were so stingy with your new address.”
Carly shrugged. “I don’t think I’ll be hosting any mothers’ mornings out while I live there.”
“Mitch invited you to stay?”
Carly grimaced. “Not exactly. He just wanted Rhett.”
“Without you? Carly, we both know you’d never give up Rhett. How did Mitch expect to pull that off?”
She hesitated, but after last night’s kiss she needed to say the words out loud to remind herself of how low Mitch would go. And Tina knew the truth—the whole ugly truth—of Carly’s past. “He offered me money—a lot of money—to relinquish guardianship of Rhett.”
“The bastard.” Tina slapped her fingers over her mouth and glanced at the toddlers in the tent. “He didn’t?”
Carly nodded. “Between that and what Marlene told me about him trying to break up her and Everett, I’m afraid to trust him. No matter how charming and sexy he might be.”
“He’s being charming and sexy?”
“He is now, but in the beginning…” She shook her head and shuddered.
Tina tapped her chin and then a wily smile slid over her lips. “First, remember your sister tended to be a drama queen. She might have—probably—exaggerated. And second, Mitch might be Rhett’s kin, but he looks at you like you’re the corner piece of cake and he can’t wait to dive into all that rich, creamy icing.”
Carly jerked around and her gaze slammed into Mitch’s. She sucked a sharp breath at the hunger he telecast over the five-year-olds’ heads.
“Oh, baby, I want some of that,” Tina whimpered.
Cheeks hot, Carly whirled back to her friend. “Stop it.”
“Admit it, you want some, too. And when we close up shop in ten minutes you can go home and get some while Rhett naps.”
“Didn’t you hear a word I said? Besides, even if Marlene exaggerated—and I don’t think she did—the last thing I need is a rebound romance. Even if I am tempted.” She muttered the last under her breath.
“Honey, you’d have to be dead not to be tempted. And nobody says you have to take an affair seriously.” Tina studied her nails with faked nonchalance. “I’d do him just for the memories.”
Carly’s skin burned like a blowtorch. “Your husband should hear you talk.”
“Hey, my husband loves it when I talk dirty.” Tina winked and then turned pensive. “Maybe Mitch wants more than just Rhett. Maybe you could have your cake and eat it, too.”
“You have got to stop dieting. I can’t follow your starvation logic.”
“All I’m saying is, why can’t you have a few nibbles of Rhett’s big brother while you’re sharing his house? At the end of the year you’ll return to your home and your real life…unless you land yourself a shipping tycoon in the meantime.”
“Remind me why we’re friends again? Because you’re encouraging me to embark on certain disaster.”
Tina grasped Carly’s hands and squeezed. “No, honey, I’m trying to bring you back to the land of the living. Sam’s gone. Good riddance, I might add. And Marlene’s gone. Until today, I thought you had, too. This is the first time in months I’ve seen you excited about anything or anyone besides Rhett. Go for it.”
Carly planted her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. “Tina, that is so not the advice I needed to hear.”
“You handled the children well today,” Carly said as she joined Mitch in the living room just before noon.“I spent every summer since high school working on Kincaid cruise ships. Corralling and controlling kids was part of the job.” He waggled his water glass and raised a dark eyebrow, silently asking if she’d like a drink.
“A glass of Della’s lemonade would be great.”
He turned to the wet bar to fulfill her request.
“What kinds of jobs?” She placed the baby monitor on the coffee table and sank into the overstuffed sofa cushions. Her sleepless night was catching up with her. She probably should have requested something with caffeine.
“Have you ever been on a cruise?” He passed her the glass, and their fingers touched.
She fought a shiver and shook her head. “Thanks.”
Instead of taking the high-backed wing chair he’d been using since she moved in, Mitch sat beside her. His weight tipped the cushion and Carly toward him, and even though their bodies didn’t touch, he settled near enough that she could feel the heat radiating off him and smell the potent combination of his cologne mixed with fresh sweat and grass from running around Tina’s yard with the boys. Heady stuff. The subsequent squeezing of her stomach had nothing to do with hunger due to the approaching lunch hour.
Her gaze fixed on his muscular legs below the hem of his shorts. A spattering of dark curls covered his tanned skin. She yearned to test the texture, but tightened her grip on her cold glass instead and gulped her drink, hoping the bite of the tart lemonade would shock her hormones back into line.
“There are a variety of activities on board, from day-care-type settings to swimming and rock climbing lessons. When we dock at Crescent Key, KCL’s private island, there are scuba lessons, parasailing, kayaking, wind surfing, Jet Ski rentals and an inflatable kids’ water park.”
“The Kincaids own an island?”
“The company does.”
She digested that and the slight chill in his voice, and then backtracked to the rest of what he’d said. “So you don’t hate children?”
He frowned, leaned back against the cushions and stretched an arm along the sofa behind her. The shift of his body caused his knee to nudge hers. Atoms of awareness coalesced at the contact point. She inched her leg back, but he moved to fill the tiny gap she’d created. Her pulse sped up. “What gave you the impression I did?”
“Besides the snowman act?”
He lifted his water glass and took a sip. “I don’t get attached to the ones who are only passing through. I’ve done that before and I didn’t enjoy the aftermath.”
“Your fiancée’s children?”
If she hadn’t been only inches from him, she would have missed his slight flinch. He nodded. Once.
Her heart ached for him. “Do you keep in touch with Travis and Ashley?”
He sat forward, braced his elbows on his knees and studied the contents of his glass. “I tried at first. But it confused them. So I stopped.”
He wasn’t a heartless bastard after all. He’d done what he thought best for the children. The stiffness of his shoulders and the rigid line of his jaw revealed more than words about the pain he’d suffered. No wonder he’d tried to keep his distance from Rhett.
The fragile shell of her resistance cracked and the need to reach out and offer comfort almost overwhelmed her. “Then you understand why I’ll never willingly walk away from Rhett. He wouldn’t understand how both his mother and I could leave him.”
“He’s young. He probably won’t remember…her.”
Did she imagine that pause? Did Mitch understand how much it still hurt to say her sister’s name?
“I hope you’re wrong. I hope a child never forgets feeling loved and wanted, even if the ones who loved them are only a part of their lives for a brief time.”
She prayed that was the case and that one day her daughter would understand how much love it had taken to make the painful, unselfish decision to relinquish. Because Carly had so desperately wanted to be selfish and keep her. But she’d been sixteen and her baby’s father had wanted nothing to do with her or their child. What kind of mother could she have been? She’d had no job and no high-school diploma. What kind of future could she have given her daughter? All the love in the world wasn’t enough to put food on the table.
Mitch’s green gaze probed hers. He had a way of looking at her that made her feel as if he could see her secrets. She struggled to camouflage her pain.
“What happens when you fall in love again and your future husband, like your ex, doesn’t want to raise someone else’s kid?”
“Then he won’t be my husband. Loving means accepting the entirety of a person. The good and the bad.” The men in her life hadn’t been able to do that.
“You’ll have to find someone who shares your interest in Rhett’s future.” He paused for several heavy heartbeats. “Someone like me.”
Everything inside her went still, but the sudden tinkling of the ice cubes in her glass revealed her hands weren’t as steady. “Wh-what are you saying, Mitch?”
He set his glass on the coffee table and then took hers and did the same. “Perhaps we should explore this attraction between us. For Rhett’s sake as well as our own. We could have something here, Carly.”
He lifted his hand and dragged the back of his knuckles along her cheek. Her reaction to the gentle caress mushroomed through her like an atomic blast.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She dampened her lips, and his eyes tracked the movement.