First comes fatherhood...

Then comes love?

Marine Liam Madison has always been focused on serving his country. But when he learns that he’s the father of orphaned four-year-old twins, service takes on a whole new meaning. Fortunately, the kids’ loving, gorgeous nanny, Dani Cooper, is by his side every step of the way as he learns the ropes. And as Liam falls hopelessly in love with his children, he might just be falling in love with their nanny, too...

VICTORIA PADE is a USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous romance novels. She has two beautiful and talented daughters—Cori and Erin—and is a native of Colorado, where she lives and writes. A devoted choco-late lover, she’s in search of the perfect chocolate-chip-cookie recipe.

For information about her latest and upcoming releases, visit Victoria Pade on Facebook—she would love to hear from you.

Also by Victoria Pade

The Marine Makes His Match

AWOL Bride

A Camden’s Baby Secret

Abby, Get Your Groom

A Sweetheart for the Single Dad

Her Baby and Her Beau

To Catch a Camden

A Camden Family Wedding

It’s a Boy

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Special Forces Father

Victoria Pade

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07813-9

SPECIAL FORCES FATHER

© 2018 Victoria Pade

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my editor, Elizabeth Mazer,

who kindly, tactfully and with humor embraces

my characters, kicks them in the shins and

complicates their lives in ways that make better

books. I have so, so enjoyed our collaborations

and would give much for it to go on and on.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

“It’s princess hair.”

Really bad princess hair, Dani Cooper thought as she looked at herself in the hand mirror that her four-year-old hairstylist Evie Freelander brought her.

But she said, “Oh, I feel like a princess now.”

“That’s not princess hair,” Evie’s twin brother, Grady, decreed when he looked up from his coloring book to assess his sister’s work. “Princess hair looks pretty.”

“It’s pretty because Dani is pretty!” Evie insisted.

“Thank you,” Dani said with a laugh, turning her head from side to side to get the full view of her long dark mahogany hair. Evie had attempted to braid four different clumps of it and then secured those clumps with neon hair clips haphazardly around her head.

Dani had applied light makeup that April morning to accentuate her golden-brown eyes, her thin nose and her full lips, and that was still in place this evening, but she was glad no one outside the Freelander home would be seeing her like this.

“Okay, clean up now,” she said. “It’s time for our ten-minute dance party to get the wiggles out, and then it’s pajamas and your wind-down for bed.”

“Dance party!” Grady shouted, quickly putting his markers in their box while Evie made a face and fell back on the sofa as if in a faint.

“Can Grady help me?” she moaned.

After three years as the twins’ nanny, Dani knew this routine. “Nope,” she answered Evie. “Grady is picking up his stuff and you need to pick up yours. Or we’ll dance without you!” she finished with a cheery reminder of what the consequences would be.

Evie groaned again, sat up as if it was a chore for her and gathered the mirror, toy hairbrush and what remained of the clips to put away.

“I’ll meet you in the dance room,” Dani called after them when they headed for their rooms to return their things.

The Freelander house was a large, starkly contemporary structure of glass, steel and concrete. It sat far back on a huge lot at the end of a cul-de-sac in one of Denver’s upscale gated communities in the Cherry Creek area. The distance from the street allowed for some privacy despite the undraped windows that comprised almost the entire front of the house.

The twins’ mother had taken ballet lessons several times a week as her workout and the in-home studio occupied one of the front-facing rooms. The kids liked to cut loose there. They got a kick out of the echo. So that was where Dani let them have their dance parties.

As she went into the dark room she could see outside, where the curved drive was illuminated by in-ground lighting. But the minute she turned on the lights the windows reflected only inside the room.

She got the music started just as the four-year-olds ran back in.

“Ready?” she asked them before all three of them launched into some free-form jumping, footwork and wiggling around that amounted to wild gyrations more than anything that resembled dancing.

Their ten minutes were nearly up when the doorbell rang.

Dani’s friend Bryan had said he might stop by tonight after the kids were asleep, so she hadn’t yet turned on the security system. He was early.

At the sound of the doorbell the dancing stopped and, as Dani turned off the music, both kids went to the window, where they bracketed their eyes with their hands and pressed their faces to the glass to see out.

“It’s a so-dyer,” Grady announced.

“A soldier?” Dani repeated the word he’d mispronounced.

“It is,” Evie confirmed.

With the twins following behind, Dani left the studio and went to the marble entry hall, certain that the eight-foot-high steel front door was locked. Beside the door were an intercom and a small screen that displayed the images picked up by the camera outside.

“You’re right, it is a soldier,” she mused, convinced by the officer’s service uniform and the straight, stiff military stance of their visitor that made him look as if he were at attention out there.

She pushed the button on the intercom and said, “Can I help you?”

“I’m Liam Madison. I got a message from someone named Dani Cooper. I’m looking for the Freelander house...”

Ohhh, she knew the name Liam Madison.

Not the man but the name.

But since she didn’t know the man and she was very protective of the twins, she said, “Do you have some identification?”

He produced a military ID, complete with a picture, and held it up to the camera.

Holy cow, he was handsome!

And that was only his ID picture.

She’d been distracted by the uniform, but when he took the ID away from the camera lens she took in the sight of his face, realizing that he was definitely hella-handsome. He also was, indeed, Liam Madison, and since it was Dani who had reached out to him, and the twins who were in need of him, she unlocked the door and opened it.

“Hi,” she said simply, taking in what neither the four-inch security screen nor the ID picture had done justice to.

Not only was the guy gorgeous, he was also over six feet tall, broad shouldered, toned and muscular. His hair was closely cropped and the color of unsweetened chocolate. His face was a masterpiece of chiseled bone that gave him refined cheekbones, a sharp jawline, a sculpted chin and a nose that was kept from being completely perfect by a bit of a boney bridge. He had slightly thin lips, and the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, streaked by silver to make them even more remarkable.

“I’m Dani Cooper,” she introduced.

“Ma’am,” he said formally to acknowledge the introduction.

“This is a surprise,” she said.

“I was granted an emergency family leave and just got off a plane at Buckley Air Force Base.”

“Even though you’re a—”

“Marine. Yes, ma’am.”

“Is he a so-dyer?” Grady asked, hiding behind Dani while Evie stood to one side of her.

“Soldiers are army,” he corrected.

He got points for understanding the word, but getting so technical with a four-year-old only made Dani smile.

Just before she remembered what Evie had done to her hair and how she looked meeting this man for the first time.

But if he’d noticed that she was unsightly there was no evidence of it. And there was nothing she could do about it now, so she merely said, “This is Grady and this is Evie,” nodding to each child in turn. “Guys, this was a friend of your mom’s. His name is Liam.”

Any mention of their late parents sobered them and this was no exception.

“Say hello,” she prompted when neither the kids nor Liam Madison responded to the introduction.

“H’lo,” both children parroted, eyeing him somberly the way they did all strangers.

“Nice to meet you,” the marine said as much by rote as the kids’ greeting had been.

It occurred to Dani just then that she’d kept their guest outside long enough. She invited him in and dispatched the twins to put on their pajamas.

“Get your blankets for wind-down and I’ll bring your yogurts and milk in just a minute,” she instructed as Liam Madison stepped across the threshold to stand at attention inside rather than out.

Hella-handsome but not warm and fuzzy. Dani was familiar with that military-instilled rigidity.

As the kids bounded out of the entry she closed the door, motioned behind her with a thumb over her shoulder and said, “Why don’t we talk in the kitchen? I’ll be able to hear them better from there.”

The marine nodded curtly and followed her as she led him in the same direction the kids had gone, to the rear of the expansive house.

“Can I get you something to eat or drink?” she asked along the way.

“Thank you, no. But you could tell me who you are, exactly.”

Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was industrial, and she offered him a seat on one of the metal bar stools at the stainless steel island in the center of it.

He didn’t accept the offer, remaining standing at one end of the island while Dani went behind it and got out bowls, spoons and glasses, and then took yogurt and milk from the fridge.

“I’ve been Evie and Grady’s nanny since they turned a year old and switched from a baby-nurse. Well, I’ve been their primary nanny. There was one who came in at bedtime for overnights, and another for the weekends. But after the accident—”

“What kind of accident?” he interrupted. “Your message said that’s how Audrey and her husband died but you didn’t give any details.”

Dani had no idea what kind of feelings this man might still have for Audrey, so she trod lightly when she answered. “It was a car wreck. I don’t know what you know about Owen, Audrey’s husband...”

“When she ended things with me she just said she’d met someone else,” he said matter-of-factly, giving no indication that he had any lingering resentments. Or tender feelings either.

“Owen Freelander was an acclaimed architect. He designed and built this place—it was his showpiece. His crowning glory just before he retired.”

“Retired?”

“He was a lot older than Audrey. He’d just turned sixty-eight a few weeks before the accident.”

“Sixty-eight?” the marine repeated in surprise. “Audrey was a year younger than I am so she was thirty-one... Her husband was thirty-seven years older?”

“He seemed like a young sixty-eight, but there was definitely an age difference. And even though he also seemed healthy, he had a heart attack driving home that night three weeks ago. He died when he lost control of the car and hit a tree. Audrey was critically injured. She only lived for two days...”

Still unsure how the marine felt about her late employer, Dani paused a moment and then said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s a shock—this whole thing is a shock—but I haven’t seen or heard from Audrey in over five years. I didn’t wish her any harm but I moved on a long time ago. I don’t think I’m in line for condolences.”

Dani nodded as she finished spooning yogurt into bowls. “Audrey lived just long enough to tell me about you, to ask me to try to contact you to take the twins.”

“Because I’m their father?”

The guy seemed tough as nails until he said that, and Dani heard an underlying note in his voice, clueing her in to how dumbfounded and unsettled he really was by the prospect.

“She told me that she knew she was pregnant when she broke up with you but there was something about a phone call when she hadn’t been able to talk to you for months? Whatever you said to her made her know that was how it would always be?”

“I’m Force Recon... Reconnaissance... That’s US Marine Special Forces. When I’m on a mission I’m out of touch. I can’t be reached. That’s how it had been for a while before I had the chance to call her, after we’d seen each other the last time. It’s how every mission is, how my next mission was going to be. And I never know how long a mission will take. Plus I couldn’t ever tell her where I was or what I was doing either. She couldn’t know anything,” he explained. “No one can.”

“Well, I guess that conversation, learning that, convinced her that she didn’t want a relationship anymore with someone who wasn’t available to her. She’d found out that she was having twins. She’d met Owen and he wanted her to marry him. He was even willing to claim the babies as his own. Owen’s name is on the birth certificates as Evie and Grady’s dad.” Dani said that last part gently because she also had no idea how it might affect him.

He scowled but she wasn’t sure whether that was out of anger or hurt or what. But since he didn’t say anything, she went on answering his initial question about who she was.

“Anyway, Audrey told me that you—not Owen—are the twins’ father. She knew she wasn’t going to make it and neither Audrey nor Owen had any family to turn to for the kids. She said you were all they would have left and that I needed to let you know about them. To try to contact you through the marines...”

He was still just frowning, saying nothing, so she merely continued.

“There wasn’t even a guardian named in their wills, so when Audrey passed, Evie and Grady became wards of the state. But I just couldn’t see them go into foster care. I sent you that message right away and talked to Owen’s attorney so he could approach the court to ask that I be named the twins’ temporary guardian. I told the judge what Audrey had confessed about you, and that I’d sent you word, and asked that they let me do whatever needed to be done so Evie and Grady could at least stay at home, with a familiar face, until this gets sorted through. So that’s who I am—formerly their nanny, now their guardian.”

“We’re ready,” Evie called.

“I’ll be right back,” Dani said, taking a tray with the bowls of yogurt and the glasses of milk across the kitchen to the stairs that led to the children’s portion of the house. It was four steps down from the main floor and devoted to the twins’ bedrooms and a nanny’s suite she was using. There was also a play area and a living room complete with the kids’ own entertainment center.

“Is that man still here?” Grady whispered as she got them set up to watch the animated shows they were allowed before bed.

“He is. We’re talking in the kitchen if you need me.”

“He’s kinda scary,” Evie whispered, too.

“You don’t need to be scared of him. Remember he was a friend of your mom’s. She wouldn’t have been friends with him if there was anything to be scared about, would she?”

There was no answer, so Dani said, “She wouldn’t have been. I think he’s just a little sad that she’s gone—like we all are.”

Their expressions were skeptical but they were more interested in getting to the cartoons, so she started those and left them to watch while she returned to the kitchen and Liam Madison standing where she’d left him.

“So...” she said when she got there, hoping to prompt him to say something.

“It’s been over five years. Not a word, not a hint that I have kids...” he said.

“Yeah...” Dani debated whether or not to address that. Then she decided that he needed the whole story so she said, “Audrey told me that she’d planned never to tell you. She said when she met Owen he was at a time in his life when he regretted that he’d put everything into his career and didn’t have any family. She said you weren’t in a position to be a dad, and she had been afraid to raise kids on her own. She said Owen could be there for them all, that he could take care of the three of them, and that was something she needed. Something she wanted—to be taken care of...”

“That sounds like her,” he acknowledged. “She wasn’t the most strong or independent person.”

And there he was, as strong as they came and exuding the ability to protect. Knowing the kind of woman Audrey had been, Dani could see how she would have been drawn to that. Until she’d had to face the fact that he wouldn’t be around for long periods of time to fill that role.

Dani watched the marine take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “When I got your message I called my older brother. He’s here, in Denver. He got me a lawyer. The lawyer says the first thing that needs to be done is to prove that I am the father. There needs to be a DNA test.”

“The court will need that, too, or they won’t even consider giving you custody... If custody is what you want...”

He didn’t confirm that was what he wanted.

Instead, in a clipped, just-stating-the-facts voice, he said, “The timing tracks. I know it’s possible that I fathered Audrey’s kids. I don’t know that anything would have ever worked out between Audrey and me—there weren’t any plans, and we were just having fun—but if those kids are mine...”

There was resignation in that, but he wasn’t jumping for joy at the possibility.

“I’ll do what’s right,” he ultimately admitted.

“And what’s right might just be finding them a good, loving home with people who want them...” She felt the need to say it. After all, she was there to make sure the kids ended up in the best home possible, and she wasn’t convinced that even a biological father was the right choice if that man wasn’t thrilled with being a parent to them.

“I’ve thought about it, though,” he went on. “And even if they aren’t mine... Well, I considered Audrey a friend—”

A friend with benefits, apparently, Dani thought. But she didn’t say it.

“—and I know she didn’t have anyone. So even if her kids aren’t mine, I want to make sure that they’re taken care of in the best way possible. That they aren’t just left in a bad situation.”

That was commendable.

“And if they are mine,” he continued, “I should get to know them.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” she agreed. Especially since Audrey hadn’t seemed to have any doubt whatsoever that the twins were his.

“So... I don’t know... What would you say to me maybe coming here to stay with the three of you? That way I could help out with them, too, learn some of the ropes, just in case...” His dark eyebrows arched suddenly, showing how baffled he was by this whole thing. “This place is huge and I can bunk anywhere you’d be comfortable with... If you would be comfortable with sharing a place with a complete stranger.”

Dani had to think about that. He was right. She would be agreeing to share a house with a complete stranger. A big, muscular, handsome-as-all-get-out stranger. None of which told her that he was a person she could trust.

On the other hand, Audrey really hadn’t left any question that he was the twins’ father. He’d come from who knew where the minute he’d learned that he might have kids. And while he was obviously shaken by the news, he was still willing to take responsibility whether or not the kids were his, to make sure they were well taken care of.

None of those things spoke of character she shouldn’t—or couldn’t—trust. At least enough to put him in one of the rooms on the upper levels of the house.

And she did think that it would be good for the kids to get to know him. It would be a good idea for her to check him out, too, in case it came to handing Evie and Grady over to him.

“I think it would probably be okay,” she said then. “I’m staying in a room downstairs near the kids, but there are four empty bedrooms up another floor from here, and a guest suite that’s in that sort of box that sits a level higher than that—”

“I wondered what that was. It looks like a tower for an air traffic controller.”

“I know. It’s nice, though. Plush. Plus the view is something to see and there’s a deck to go out onto. The kids and I went up there to watch the city’s fireworks display last summer and it was like being in the sky at eye level with them. Unless you don’t like heights...”

“I’m fine with heights,” he informed her as if there shouldn’t have been any question.

“There’s also an elevator up to it if you don’t want to climb all the stairs,” Dani added.

“I think I’ll be fine with the stairs, too,” he said in the same way he’d said he didn’t have a problem with heights.

And of course he would be all right with the stairs with thighs the size of tree trunks inside those uniform pants, she thought.

But what she said was, “Do you want to stay tonight?”

“My brother and his fiancée are expecting me tonight. I haven’t seen any of my family in over ten months, so I need to check in. But tomorrow—”

“Sure, you can just move in whenever you’re ready.”

He switched gears then. “According to my lawyer we can go to a doctor or to a lab for the DNA tests—it’s just a couple of mouth swabs—but it has to go through channels in order for the court to accept it. The twins must have a doctor, right? I was thinking that if their doctor would do it—somebody they know—they might not be scared. If something like that would scare them... I don’t know.”

But he was thinking of them, of how to make things easiest on them, and Dani appreciated that. “I can call their pediatrician first thing in the morning and set it up. I’ll try for an appointment tomorrow so we can get it in the works,” she offered.

“Good,” he said with a nod and the return of those arched eyebrows that seemed to give away whenever the possible reality of being a dad struck and rattled him. “I got a cell phone when I hit the States. Let me give you the number.”

He did and Dani gave him hers, assuring him that she would let him know if they could get into the doctor the next day.

“Otherwise, what’s a good time for me to move in tomorrow?”

“The kids’ preschool is closed for spring break this coming week and next so I’ll let them sleep until they wake up on their own—eight o’clock at best. After that tomorrow is pretty open.”

“So maybe we’ll just play it by ear?”

“Sure.”

He nodded, keeping his focus on her so that Dani again remembered how weird she looked and wished she didn’t.

But he still didn’t remark on it or question her about it. Instead, after seeming to apply her appearance to memory, he said, “I’ll take off then, get to my brother’s.” He glanced in the direction of the lower level and said, “Should I say goodbye or something?”

Dani almost smiled at the confusion in his voice that said he was at a complete loss of what to do with kids.

“It’s up to you. If you want to. But they get pretty engrossed in their cartoons at wind-down and I wouldn’t expect too much from them.”

“I like that you just said I’m a friend of their mother’s, though. I wasn’t sure who to say I am...”

“Yeah, let’s just start there. They’ve had a lot to deal with since the accident. Keeping things as simple as possible seems to work best.”

“And if I am their father...we’ll figure out how to say that?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“If we come to it.”

So he had some doubts. She supposed he was entitled to that after Audrey kept him in the dark.

Dani walked him to the front door, opening it for him and realizing only then that there was a big, black rented SUV parked in the drive just outside the dance studio, so he must have seen what was going on in there when he arrived.

And thinking about how she just cut loose during dance parties with the kids—all while her hair was in the state it was in tonight—was a little disheartening and a whole lot embarrassing.

But she decided against saying anything and only said good-night.

Then she watched him walk out to his rental, unable not to notice that his backside was as good as his front.

But it didn’t matter. The guy had a lot to deal with, and she was only there to care for, advocate for and protect the twins.

And once that was taken care of, she had decisions of her own to make. Big ones.

So the way he looked didn’t make any difference.

Chapter Two

“That was some hard-core sack time—eleven hours straight. You must have been beat.”

“I was coming off about thirty-six hours without, so yeah,” Liam confirmed to his older brother, Conor, on Monday morning over coffee and the bacon and eggs Conor had made. “Sorry, though, for being the lousy houseguest who comes in the door and just crashes.”

“No problem, I understand. And so did Maicy.”

Liam had barely said hello to the woman his brother was now engaged to and shared a house with—Maicy Clark. They’d grown up with Maicy in the small Montana town of Northbridge. Conor and Maicy had only recently met up again, resolved old issues and rekindled their romance.

But after a brief greeting when Liam had arrived from the Freelander place the night before, he’d begged off to get much-needed sleep.

“I was just glad to hit the rack,” he said. “But now that I have, the first thing I need to hear about is Declan.”

Liam hadn’t known anything unusual had been going on with his twin until a week ago when he’d returned from his latest mission—the same time he’d received the message from Dani Cooper about Audrey. The message waiting from Conor had been old and it had only relayed that Declan had been wounded in action.

After receiving the two communications, Liam had immediately called Conor. But even then his older brother had said only that Declan was all right. Liam could tell Conor had been holding something back but he hadn’t been able to get him to say more. Because their phone time had been limited, Liam had needed to move on to the other news that had rocked him. Since then Liam had been in transit and unable to make more contact.

Last night Conor had only repeated that Declan was okay, but now Liam wanted to hear the details.

“It happened two days after Mom passed—after I’d called you about that. But when I tried to get hold of you to tell you about Declan, you were already out of reach,” Conor began.

Their mother had died in October. It hadn’t come as a surprise. She’d been in a steep decline physically and mentally for over a year by then. In some ways it had been a relief to Liam to hear it on the eve of his mission because at least he’d left knowing she wasn’t suffering any longer.

“Mom died, I left, Declan got hurt—all in three days?” Liam said, giving a succinct timeline.

“Yeah, it was a helluva three days,” Conor said, showing some of the strain it had put on him.

“So what happened?” Liam prompted.

“Declan and Topher were in a Humvee when they drove over a buried IED.”

Topher was Topher Samms. Like Maicy, Topher had grown up in the same small town with the Madisons. Both Liam and his twin brother, Declan, had considered Topher their best friend. The three of them had even gone through Annapolis and joined the marines together.

“Is Topher okay, too?” Liam asked, suspicious that this was the first he’d heard his friend’s name mentioned in the incident that had injured Declan.

“I’m sorry, Liam,” Conor said, his words, tone and expression enough to convey that Topher hadn’t made it.

That news was another blow to Liam, who closed his eyes and leaned on forearms he set on the table on either side of his breakfast. He let his head fall between his shoulders and took a steeling breath that he held until his lungs burned, all while Conor gave him that moment.

It was a lengthy one as he tried to digest that his and Declan’s old friend was gone.

When he could, he exhaled, sat up straight and opened his eyes again.

“Tell me about Declan,” he said curtly because it was the only way he could keep emotions in check.

“It’s been rough,” Conor finally admitted. “There was more than once that we came near to losing him—”

“But we didn’t. You didn’t let that happen.”

Conor was a navy doctor and navy doctors treated marines.

“He’s family so I couldn’t take an active part in his care, but I took all the leave I’d accumulated so I could go with him from hospital to hospital, to make sure nothing was overlooked—he was in bad shape at the start. But yeah, he pulled through and even kept the leg I wasn’t sure was going to make it with him. I did some shuffling and he’s on his way here for rehab, so I can keep track of that, too. You’ll be able to see him.”

“So he really will be okay?” Liam said, still needing some reassurance.

“His body’s healing,” Conor seemed to hedge. “I’m a little worried about his head—”

“Brain injury?” Liam asked.

“No, thank god there wasn’t that. But I think he’s carrying a lot of baggage about Topher. Declan was driving the Humvee. As bad as he was hurt himself he did everything to try to save Topher. He even carried him away from the burning Humvee—although seeing Declan and how bad he was, I can’t begin to guess how he did that.”

“He’d have done anything to help Topher,” Liam said, knowing his twin, knowing it was what he himself would have done.

“But Topher took the brunt of the explosion. He died before anybody could get to them. Declan won’t talk about it—not to me, not to the counselors I’ve sent in. I’m afraid we’re still facing some rough waters there. But physically... He has some scars, he may have a limp, but yeah, he’s gonna be okay.”

Liam was grateful for that at least. “I do want to see him. As soon as he gets here. But in the meantime, can I call him?”

“Sure, I got him a cell phone. I’ll get you the number when you’re ready.”

“Yeah, I’m ready now,” Liam said. “I’m not going to be staying here...”

He explained the arrangement he’d made to move into the Freelander place.

“You’re gonna start playing dad even before you know for sure?”

He told his brother his reasons for that.

“Did you see the kids?” Conor asked.

“For a few minutes. The nanny—that’s the Dani Cooper who sent me the message—told them I was a friend of their mother’s. They weren’t too interested.”

“And what did you think? Did you feel any kind of instinctive connection?”

“Uh, no, I didn’t even know what to say to them. I was just glad I wasn’t alone with them and that the nanny is pretty smooth.”

And even though he meant Dani Cooper was smooth in her dealings with the kids and the awkwardness of him showing up the way he had, it was suddenly the nanny’s skin he was thinking about—flawless peaches-and-cream skin so smooth he’d wanted to run the back of his hand over it to see if it felt like it looked...

He reined in the odd wandering of his mind and said, “They’re cute kids, I guess... They have dark hair like ours. Blue eyes—”

“Like ours? The color Kinsey thinks ties us to the Camdens?”

“No, theirs are more the light blue that Audrey’s eyes were. There might be a little resemblance between the girl and Kinsey when she was a kid, though—I kind of thought I might have seen that.”

“So they really could be yours.”

“I told you that anyway. That week with Audrey before I deployed was a wild one. Audrey was a partyer and we were drinking like there was no tomorrow. And not always being safe...stupid as that is.”

“But that was five years ago and she never came after you for child support, for anything. Seems like if the kids were yours she would have at least wanted you to pitch in with some money.”

Liam repeated what the nanny had told him about Owen Freelander and described the house that made it obvious there hadn’t been a need for more money.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Audrey would have gone with somebody who was offering what this guy was,” Liam said. “Marriage, money, to take care of her and claim her kids as his own to provide for, too. And actually, the more I think about it the more sense it makes that the guy was so much older than she was—”

“She had daddy issues?”

“Maybe. She saw herself as a helpless kitten, I know that. She was raised by older parents with money. There were nannies and people paid to take care of her every need. Her parents spoiled her rotten and I had the impression that when they died she started searching for replacements to take care of her and spoil her the way she was used to. Finding herself pregnant? With twins?” He shook his head. “There’s no way she would have wanted to do that by herself. I’m kind of surprised that she didn’t terminate the pregnancy at the get-go.”

“Never an easy thing to do.”

Liam conceded to that. “And I don’t think she really understood what it is I do—we met when I was here, doing that training. That lasted two months, looked more like a normal job—”

“But then you deployed...”

“Right. And even though I’d warned her how it would be when I did, I don’t think it really sank in with her until she actually experienced it a few times. I know when I finally did call her that last time—the call that, according to the nanny, was when Audrey made the decision to take this Owen guy up on his offer—she was pretty upset that there hadn’t been one word from me in a long while.” He tried to get some breakfast down but the appetite he’d woken up with had disappeared, so he just pushed his plate away.

“Sooo...how are you doing with the idea that these kids could be yours?” Conor asked.

Liam shook his head. “I’m just kind of in a daze,” he admitted. “Like your message about Declan, the one from the nanny—now guardian—only caught up to me a week ago. I almost thought it was some kind of bad joke. Audrey was dead? She’d left twins that are mine? The kids have no one else and now need me to step in or risk being separated and put into the foster care system?”

He shook his head again. “It sure as hell seemed like it must be a joke. But then I got to a computer and found an obituary for Audrey that didn’t say how she died but said she was survived by four-year-old twins. Four years plus however many months since they turned four, add nine more—that puts it somewhere in that five-years-ago time slot that I spent with Audrey. And here I am.”

“Still, you just said yourself that Audrey was a partyer... You are going to test the DNA the way the lawyer told you to, right?”

“Oh, yeah. This afternoon. I got a text from the nanny saying she scheduled an appointment with the pediatrician to do it.”

“And what about the nanny?” his brother asked.

Yeah, what about the nanny...

That mere mention of Dani Cooper brought the image of her into his head again.

Not only did she have great skin, she was something to look at all the way around. Exquisite caramel-colored eyes. High cheekbones, a straight nose. Pretty, luscious lips. And a delicate bone structure that gave her a kind of sophisticated, unapproachable beauty.

Or at least it would have seemed sophisticated and unapproachable if her long, dark brown hair with its rich reddish cast hadn’t been in some kind of weird style that he couldn’t imagine she’d done on purpose. But the style was so weird—and silly—that it had softened the distant, classy beauty.

And she had one damn fine body to go with it—trim without being too skinny, not tall, curves in all the right places.

One damn fine body that she’d been using to gyrate like a crazy woman with as much abandon as the kids when he’d first pulled up to the house and could see what was going on inside.

And yeah, he had to admit that even though the kids had been the reason he was there, even though he’d been sleep deprived and freaked out at the thought that the kids might actually prove to be his, it was still the nanny who had caught his attention. And held it for a while, sitting in his rented SUV, unable to take his eyes off her.

But what about the nanny—that’s what his brother had asked.

“What do you mean?” he answered with a question of his own because all he could think about was the way she looked and he didn’t think Conor was asking about that.

“You said she was the guardian now,” Conor reminded him.

“Right. I guess she’s been their nanny for a few years, and when Audrey and her husband died she had Audrey’s husband’s attorney go to court to have her named as the kids’ temporary guardian so they could stay in their own home for now.”

“That’s nice of her. That’s got to mean she went from taking care of them as just her job to being completely responsible for them and playing single parent 24-7?”

“Yeah, that’s the way I’m understanding it.”

“That’s above and beyond the call of duty.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, realizing that he’d been so busy thinking about how she looked that he hadn’t given her credit for that. And he should have.

“Are you going to start trading shifts with her?” Conor asked then. “Taking care of the kids part of the time so she can get away?”

“Oh, god no!” Liam said, feeling a rise in his stress level at that idea. “I figure if the court appointed her as their guardian she has to stick around, right? And she needs to—I don’t have a clue what to do with them. I mean, I said I want to get to know them, that I thought it would be good for them to get to know me, in case I am their father. That it would be good for me to learn the ropes. And that if by some chance I’m not their father, I want to make sure they get well taken care of for Audrey’s sake. But I can’t be left alone with them.”

His brother’s expression was amused and sympathetic at once. “Okay. But you know that if you are their father eventually that could happen?”

“I... Yeah... But that isn’t right now. Right now the nanny will be there and I’m just planning to lend a hand. To follow her lead. I can’t be left alone with them,” he repeated.

His brother grinned. “So you’re really terrified of them?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“I had to do a rotation in pediatrics so I’ve had a little experience,” Conor said of his training as a doctor.

Liam got up from the kitchen table and took his plate to the sink to rinse it and do what he could to calm his nerves over a prospect he hadn’t considered before this: being left alone with twin four-year-olds.

Once he felt as if he had some control, he turned back to his brother and said, “I just have to do what I have to do. Whatever that is.”

“Sure,” Conor agreed. “And I’m here for you, if there’s anything I can do.”

“You can take me shopping for some clothes,” Liam said. “I don’t have any civvies with me—I pretty much just threw what I needed to travel in a duffel and took off. And I think the uniform makes me a little intimidating to the kids.”

“Whose names are?”

“Oh, yeah, they have names,” Liam said, sounding overwhelmed and at sea. “The girl is Evie. The boy is Grady.”

“Evie Madison. Grady Madison. I guess that works,” Conor mused.

“Yeah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Liam cautioned, thinking that he could only handle so much at a time.

And also thinking how grateful he was that Dani Cooper really would be there to hold his hand through what seemed like the most daunting mess he’d ever been in.

Well, not to literally hold his hand.

Although there was something about that idea that made the thought of going back to the house to face what he had to face much easier...

* * *

“That man from last day is coming back and we have to go to the doctor with him?” Evie said, questioning what Dani had just told her and her brother.

“The man who was here last night,” Dani corrected. “Remember his name is Liam, and yes, he’s coming with us to the doctor.”

She was combing Evie’s long hair and putting it into pigtails while Grady watched.

“But we aren’t sick,” he pointed out. “Why do we have to go to the doctor? Are we gonna hafta have shots?”

“No, no shots and nothing that will hurt. You won’t even have to get undressed. All you’ll have to do is open your mouths and let the nurse touch the inside of your cheek with a cotton swab.”

“But why?” Evie persisted.

“It’s a test. Remember last time you guys had sore throats? The nurse used a cotton swab to get some stuff from back there and sent it to be tested to see if you had strep—”

“I didn’t like that,” Evie said.

“Me either,” Grady chimed in.

“I know, but this will be easier than that. Here, let me show you.” She took three cotton swabs from the medicine cabinet, demonstrated what would be done on herself first and then persuaded them to let her do it to them.

“See? This one is no big deal. But then they can send the swab to a laboratory to test it and tell all kinds of things about you.”

“Like what?” Grady asked suspiciously.

“It could tell that Evie is a girl and you’re a boy. It could tell the color of your hair and eyes—”

“I can tell you that,” Evie reasoned.

This wasn’t easy to explain to inquisitive four-year-olds.

“It can also tell you stuff that you can’t see—what’s inside of you that makes you you and who your family is. Like if I had the test, it could tell me that my grandmother was my grandmother.”

“So it’s gonna tell us if we have a grandmother?” asked Grady.

“Well, no, we already know your grandparents are all in heaven, too, but it might tell us if you have any other family you don’t know about.”

“You think we do?” Evie asked.

“Maybe,” Dani said. “And that would be kind of nice to know, wouldn’t it? That there might be someone else in the world who would love to know you guys are their family?” And she hoped that would somehow prove true—that if Liam Madison was their biological father, he’d eventually make his way through what had seemed like shock last night and embrace the news and the kids and become a loving, caring parent to them.

“I s’pose it would be nice,” Grady agreed marginally.

“Then would we hafta leave the glass house to live with them?” Evie asked.

They’d referred to this place as the glass house since moving six months ago from what they’d called the brown house—the house they’d lived in while this place was being built.

“I don’t know,” Dani answered honestly.

She didn’t want to go beyond that so she changed the subject.

“Okay, how about if you guys do some of the new puzzles while we wait for Liam?”

It felt a little odd saying Liam Madison’s name with such familiarity but it was for the sake of the kids. She wanted to give the impression that he really was a friend to them.

Dani sent them into the common area just outside their bedrooms. Once she knew they weren’t going to fight she went into the room she was using and checked her own appearance.

She’d gone to a few extra lengths today to make up for the way she’d looked the night before. She wore a pair of her good jeans and a blue T-shirt over a tank top edged with a row of lace that showed above the T-shirt’s square-cut neckline.

She’d also gotten up early so she could pay special attention to her hair. Rather than a quick blow-dry, she’d let it air-dry so she could scrunch it and bring out the natural waves. Then, instead of keeping it contained in some fashion the way she ordinarily did for working with kids, she let it fall free to the middle of her back—what Grady had deemed real princess hair when he and Evie had seen it this morning.

She’d also applied a pale eye shadow to accentuate her eyes and a little mascara to go along with her blush and lip gloss.

But even though it was all what she might have done for a casual, daytime date, that wasn’t the reason she’d put in the time and effort, she told herself as she checked to make sure the hours that had passed since then hadn’t left her in need of touch-ups. She just wanted to improve upon the bad impression she was afraid she might have made on Liam Madison with her hairstyle by Evie the previous evening.

As nanny—and now as guardian—she had to play two roles. To the kids, she had to be a disciplinarian in a warm, caring manner so that her young charges could be at ease with her. But to the adults in their lives, she had to present a more professional image. A more professional image that she might not have presented to Liam Madison the night before.

So today she wanted to compensate. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Liam Madison was a fantastic-looking man.

So fantastic-looking that the image of him had stuck with her, even as she’d tried to fall asleep last night. And it had still been with her the minute she woke up this morning and the whole way through her shower and all that extra primping.

But picturing him in her head merely came along with thinking about him actually doing what Audrey had wanted him to do—coming to the kids’ rescue. It wasn’t about anything personal between the two of them. And there wouldn’t be. They had one thing and one thing only bringing them together: the current care and future well-being of Evie and Grady. And once what would happen to them was established, Dani would move on.

It came with the territory of being a nanny.

Yes, she did get a little attached. It had happened with kids she’d nannied for much shorter lengths of time before Evie and Grady. It was especially true of these twins because she’d been with them for a little over three years now. And they were great, smart, adorable, funny kids who she’d needed to provide for more than she had others whose parents were more involved than Audrey and Owen had been.

Add to that that she’d gone through weighty loss with them—both the loss they’d suffered and a particularly difficult loss she’d suffered herself at almost the same time—and now she was their stand-in parent, so a bond had definitely formed.

But still, her attachment to them had to have a limit because it all came with the knowledge that Evie and Grady were not her kids. That she would have to move on and leave them behind. It was something she never lost sight of. And since her sole connection with Liam Madison was through the kids, she’d be moving on and leaving him behind, too.

So the fact that he was great-looking was insignificant and the fact that she couldn’t stop carrying around the image of his great looks in her mind was also unimportant and meaningless.

Besides, she reasoned with herself as she turned upside down to brush her hair from underneath to add some fullness, even if they’d met at a party, locked eyes across a crowded room and been drawn together last night, nothing would have come of it. Too much had happened recently that had left her in no position for anything.

She’d ended her engagement to Garrett after too long indulging his need for control and living under his thumb.

She’d lost the grandmother who had raised her, the grandmother she’d loved dearly.

And then Audrey and Owen had died.

Now she had to make sure that Evie and Grady would be okay.

Plus her grandmother had left her with the biggest decision she’d ever faced—a decision that could not only affect everything for her from now on, but that could also affect numerous people and their jobs.

And if all that wasn’t enough—which it was—Liam Madison was in the military.

She knew only too well what that could mean because her own father had served. And suffered for it.

So no matter how fabulously handsome the guy was, she had a laundry list of things that all added up to one really big no when it came to Liam Madison, and made those good looks and the fact that she couldn’t stop carrying the image of him around in her head totally and completely irrelevant.

She straightened up and flipped her hair into place, feeling a strong resolve settle over her at the same time.

She’d enjoy the view of Liam Madison but that was it. The nurse at the pediatrician’s office had said DNA results took about five days. There would likely be a few more days before a final decision was made for Evie and Grady, and she would do whatever she could to help them transition to any new situation once that decision was made. After that she’d pack her bags, move on and leave that view behind.

Simple as that.

“Evie says this piece is for her puzzle but it’s not for her puzzle. It’s for my puzzle!” Grady hollered from the other room.

The doorbell rang just then, making Liam Madison ten minutes early but giving Dani an excuse to sidestep the kids’ conflict.

“That’ll be Liam and we need to get to the doctor’s office so we’ll sort it out later. Get your shoes on,” she said to the twins before snatching one last glimpse of herself in the mirror and then hurrying to the front door.

Denying along the way that what she felt was eagerness to see the big marine again.

* * *

“Is he really gonna stay here?” Grady whispered to Dani that evening when the four of them returned home. Liam Madison was outside, retrieving his things from the back of his rented SUV to move in. Dani was in the kitchen with the kids.

“He really is going to stay here,” Dani confirmed. “He’ll be up in the guest room. It’s what your mom wanted.”

“Because he’s her friend?” Evie said in disbelief.

“Yes. And because she wanted you all to get to know each other, and he wants to help out with you guys.”

“I don’t think so,” Grady added his own skepticism, which had some foundation based on the way today had gone.

But rather than confirm the little boy’s doubts Dani instead said, “I want you guys to be kind of patient with him, okay? I don’t think he knows much about kids.”

“I don’t think he likes us,” Evie amended.

“I don’t think we like him,” Grady added under his breath.

“We all just have to give each other a chance,” Dani said, making it a quiet command. “That’s why we get to know people—so we can find things about them that we do like.”

“He doesn’t smile,” Evie observed.

“He’s like a robot. But not a fun robot,” Grady contributed.

There was no disputing either criticism because both things were true during the time they’d known the man.

“It’ll get better,” Dani assured, hoping she was right. “Now go put on your pajamas and I’ll cut you some yellow cheese and tomatoes and avocados to go along with your yogurt since you didn’t have much dinner.”

“I want my adocados in salad,” Evie informed.

“And the magic word is...” Dani said.

“Please,” Evie complied.

“Please,” Grady said, too, even though Dani hadn’t been instructing him. “But I want my adocados sliced.”

Then they headed downstairs. But they were both eyeing the front door the whole way, not looking pleased with the addition that was about to be made to their household.

Dani couldn’t blame them.

It had been a long—and stilted—four hours since Liam had arrived that afternoon.

The first stop had been the pediatrician’s office where—after a half-hour wait during which the twins had played with the office toys and Liam had sat silent and straight-backed in one of the waiting room’s chairs—Evie’s and Grady’s DNA had been taken.

Unfortunately, between the time Dani had called and made the appointment—when the receptionist had said that yes, they would also take Liam’s DNA—the doctor had nixed that. Apparently the receptionist hadn’t been clear on just how strict the office policy was against addressing anything to do with an adult. Instead they’d been given an address for a lab they could go to for Liam’s swab.

The lab had been a twenty-minute drive from the doctor’s office. A twenty-minute drive during which Liam had not made conversation beyond asking for Dani’s navigations.

The lab had required another long wait in a small area with only three chairs and no office toys for the kids. Dani carried coloring and activity books in her purse but there also wasn’t a table the kids could use. So she’d set them up on the floor, out of the way of incoming and outgoing patients. Then she’d sat in one of the empty chairs but couldn’t persuade Liam to take one of the others.

“The kids should sit in them,” he’d said, standing as if he was on lookout, and seemed embarrassed that the kids weren’t using the remaining chairs.

After his test, Liam had suggested taking them all to dinner at a restaurant his brother had recommended. At the restaurant there had been another lengthy delay before a table opened up for them—during which the kids had again colored, this time using the seat of a chair as a desktop—something else that Liam eyed as if the irregularity made him uneasy. From his position again standing like a sentry.

Once they were led to a booth Liam had sat at one end of the table while the twins had huddled on either side of Dani as far away from him as they could get.

They’d agreed to grilled cheese sandwiches from the uninspired children’s menu and while they’d waited for their food, Grady had devolved into entertaining himself by tormenting his sister. That caused a small ruckus when Evie fought back, and while Dani managed them, Liam seemed not to know where to look, staring over their heads like a Buckingham Palace guard.

By the time the food arrived the kids were just plain contrary and had taken one look at the grilled cheese sandwich and refused to eat it because the cheese was white instead of yellow. And even after Dani had persuaded them just to try it, Evie had gagged on her bite and Grady had let his roll back down his tongue and onto the plate, delivering the verdict that it was yucky.

They did eat the french fries and fruit that came with the sandwich, so that was something, but through it all Liam Madison’s discomfort and embarrassment had been palpable.

And the twins hadn’t been all that happy themselves when they’d learned during the meal that Liam was going to be coming to live with them.

Dani had been grateful that they hadn’t said anything rude, saving their comments for Dani alone now that they were home and Liam was out of earshot. But the news had so sobered them that there was no mistaking they were not thrilled with the idea. From then on they’d become as quiet as Liam, so the car ride home had been stony all the way around.

And that was how a weary Dani had left it. She’d exhausted every effort to engage Liam in things with the kids, she’d failed at getting the kids to interact with Liam, and for the time being she just gave up.

But this needed to work, she told herself now that they were back at the Freelander house. If Liam was Grady and Evie’s biological father, she really needed him to save them from the system.

Just then Liam came in the front door carrying a large duffel bag.

Dani left the kitchen and went into the entry as he closed the door behind him, trying not to notice how good he looked in the khaki slacks and white shirt that had replaced the uniform of Sunday night.

“Stairs or elevator?” she asked.

“Your choice,” he said.

“Usually I’d take the stairs—this is the first house I’ve ever been in that has an elevator—but let’s use it tonight. It’s quicker and I need to get back and fix the kids a snack. But maybe once you’ve settled in and they’re watching their shows we could talk a little?” she proposed.

“Even in civvies they’re still scared of me, aren’t they?” he guessed.

Dani almost laughed but she fought it. He was a massive wall of man, all granite-hard muscle held in an unyielding demeanor that made him seem totally unapproachable, and he thought it was his clothes that were off-putting to two little kids?

“I don’t know that they’re scared exactly...” she hedged as she showed him to the elevator and they got into the small space.

He not only looked great, he smelled great, too, and the clean scent wrapped around her in the confines of the elevator as she pushed the button to close the doors and send them up.

But like looking good, smelling good was inconsequential, she reminded herself, instead addressing only the issue at hand. “I don’t know what your situation is—”

“Unmarried. Uninvolved.”

He thought she was asking him if he was single? Well, situation could be interpreted that way. And she had been wondering...

“And childless, right?” she added. “Well, other than potentially the twins?”

“Childless,” he said as succinctly as he’d said everything today.

“And without much experience with kids, I’m kind of assuming...” she said to introduce the subject she was getting at as they arrived at the guest suite and the elevator doors opened directly into the room.

“No experience. None,” he confirmed emphatically.

“So I’m hoping maybe you wouldn’t mind a little advice,” she said diplomatically.

“Advice...”

There was the tiniest inflection to his voice that confused her. It could have been amusement that said he didn’t think he needed her advice. But it could also have been flirtatious. From underneath some heavy cover. Something that hinted he might have hoped for something better when she’d suggested they talk.

But she couldn’t for a minute even entertain the idea that that’s what she’d heard, so instead she decided he’d found some humor in something and merely went on.

“Advice, yes. Unless you don’t want it.”

“I don’t think there’s any question that I need it, right?”

“You do,” she said.

He cracked the smallest of smiles, lending some credence to the thought that he’d found something funny in her offer. The smallest of smiles that crooked up only one side of his mouth and drew a sexy line around the corner.

“Show me what I need to know up here,” he said as they stepped off the elevator, “and then I’ll come down and we can talk.”

“Good,” Dani said, still not quite sure how receptive he was going to be.

But she didn’t like being far from the kids for long so she quickly showed him around and instructed him in making the television rise out of a credenza at the foot of the bed and controlling the blackout draperies covering the three glass walls of the suite. She pointed out the control panel for the sauna before leaving him to go downstairs again.

As she did it struck her for the first time that she and the oh-so-hunky Liam Madison were now going to be living together.

Well, not living together, but sharing the place.

And there was something about the thought that suddenly felt a little titillating.

It shouldn’t have. Not only wasn’t there anything personal about it at all, but she already shared an apartment with her friend Bryan so there was nothing really out of the ordinary about a living arrangement like this.

Of course Bryan was her best friend and gay, but still, he was a guy and that’s all Liam Madison was. A guy.

An incredibly hot, sexy guy...

Who she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of.

Who would be undressing just upstairs.

Showering just upstairs.

Sleeping just upstairs...

She actually had goose bumps, she realized as she reached the kitchen.

That would not do!

No thinking about him any differently than you think about Bryan! she directed herself firmly.

But still, the thought of living even in these not-so-close-quarters with him made her slightly tingly.

She just tried to ignore it.

And hoped that it would pass when the novelty of this situation did.

Please, please, make it pass...

She’d just delivered the twins’ snack and turned on their wind-down shows when she and Liam arrived back in the kitchen at the same time.

“Since we’re in show-you-around mode,” she said as she put things back in the refrigerator, “this is the fridge—feel free to help yourself to anything in it, of course. Plus we need to take a trip to the grocery store tomorrow so you can add whatever you like.”

She went on to show him the walk-in pantry and the coffee machine that was housed in its own compartment near the sink, and where the utensils, cups, bowls and plates were. She demonstrated the toaster, blender and food processor that—like the television in the guest room—rose at the push of a button from separate compartments underneath the stainless steel countertop. Then she opened both the dishwasher and the trash compacter to unveil them since they were indistinguishable from the stainless steel cupboards.

“This place is like a space station,” he observed when the tour of the kitchen was complete.

“Owen was a sci-fi fanatic so he would have taken that as a compliment. But yeah, most of it is sort of out there. Except for downstairs. That’s the kids’ area and it’s just pretty normal, bedrooms and bathrooms, and that space you can see from here is where the kids can play or watch TV.”

“Is there a workout room by any chance?”

“Next to the ballet studio. Come on, I’ll show you. You can use it.” Because clearly he didn’t have that body without working out.

When she’d shown him that, too, they again went into the kitchen, where Dani sat on a stool on the side of the island that allowed her to see into the lower level to keep an eye on the twins. Liam stood in the center of the room, still stiff and formal.

“Okay, what am I doing wrong?” he asked.

Dani did laugh that time. Just a little. “Audrey said you’re military through and through. But really, you have to loosen up. Like, for instance, you’re home now, not waiting for somebody to give you orders. Sit down and relax.” Relax—it was something she’d said far, far too many times to her former fiancé. Futilely.

“Sorry. Force of habit. Especially when I’m out of my element. And believe me, this whole thing qualifies,” he said, glancing at his surroundings to include the house and then casting another, somewhat pained look down the four stairs where the kids were.

Dani felt a little sympathy for the man who looked like he could handle anything thrown at him. Apparently looks were deceiving.

But he did join her at the island, taking a seat on a bar stool around the corner and down three from her.

“Better?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said, although he still did not look as if he felt at home.

“Have I blown it with the kids? Do they hate me?” he asked then.

“I think that maybe they don’t know what to make of you,” she answered, soft-pedaling. Then, continuing to tread lightly, she said, “Grady says you’re like a robot.”

“Is he a sci-fi fanatic, too, and that’s a compliment?”

“Sorry, no,” Dani said, suppressing another laugh.

“So, what do I do? I don’t know the first thing about kids.”

“Well, you were one...weren’t you?” she joked, unsure how he would take it but trying anyway.

“Once upon a time, yeah,” he answered, showing a hint of humor in the reappearance of that crooked smile.

“So maybe you could just think back, put yourself in your own shoes when you were a kid, remember adults in your life that you related to and why for starters. Grady and Evie are kids, just like I’m sure you were. They like to play and they like it when you play with them—”

“Or color with them like you tried to do at the restaurant?”

Oh, he was dishing a little out by reminding her that that attempt had failed.

Dani just laughed again. “Okay, they aren’t always receptive, especially when they’ve reached their limits. But—” she pointed a finger in the direction of the refrigerator where there were three crayon drawings displayed “—the middle one is mine from this morning when they wanted me to color with them,” she finished victoriously.

Liam flashed her a full smile that seemed to say he liked that she could take a little ribbing. And that made him all the more attractive. And appealing. Damn him...

“And you can talk to them,” she went on. “Directly to them. Today you just talked to them through me.”

“But will they understand if I talk to them the way I would talk to anybody?”

Dani tried not to reveal just how silly that sounded. “They will. They mispronounce some words themselves, but they have a better-than-average vocabulary for four-year-olds. And if they don’t understand a particular word or phrase, they’ll let you know. Then that gives you the opportunity to expand their vocabulary. But they’re not babies. Think of them as just small people. Today you didn’t say word one to either of them after you said hello.”

“To be fair, they didn’t talk to me either.”

“Uh-huh, but kids don’t talk to people who seem unfriendly.”

“I seem unfriendly?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I’m a nice guy,” he defended himself, seeming to really drop some of his guard in that defensiveness.

Dani laughed once more. “Okay. But you have to come out from behind the military shield and show it because that isn’t what they’ve seen of you. You’re more like the secret service on duty with the president’s kids. Except that you aren’t completely hiding that it bothers you when they do what kids do—like running to catch up to the hostess seating us at the restaurant.”

He made a face that acknowledged that he’d found that inappropriate. “And the stuff with the grilled cheese sandwiches...” he added, showing his disapproval.

“I know. But like I said, they’re kids. You use moments like that to teach them that spitting out a bite of food is bad manners and what to do in polite society.”

“That’s what you did.”

“While you looked like you just wanted to crawl into a hole.”

“Yeah, all right, I did,” he conceded. “So, where should I go from here? Shall I, like, ask them to throw a ball with me or something?”

“Why don’t you just start by being yourself...well, the self you must be with your own family or your friends. Just let your hair down a little, speak to the kids to acknowledge them and kind of roll with things until you get a feel for them and what they respond to.”

With the mention of hair his gorgeous blue eyes went to her hair for just a moment—the first time it seemed he’d noticed that it was different than it had been the night before.

Then he redirected his gaze and in a tone that was slightly controlled again, he said, “Yeah, okay, I’ll give it a try.”

“They like to have a book read to them before bed. I can ask them if they’d let you do it and you could start with that...”

“Tonight?” he said as if she’d suggested something terrifying.

“You need to prepare yourself?” she teased him, dishing out a little of the goading he’d served her.

“I do,” he confessed.

She let him off the hook since the simple suggestion seemed to have rocked him all over again. “Okay. Sure.”

The ending song for the show the twins were watching sounded faintly in the background and Grady called, “It’s over.”

“Which is the cue for the bedtime book,” Dani said.

“And you have to get back to them,” he finished for her. But this time his tone seemed to hold some disappointment. “I should probably go up and unpack anyway. Prepare myself for tomorrow—they’ll still be here tomorrow, right?” he joked.

“They will be.”

“I don’t know how early things start around here but I like to run at sunrise—”

“Not that early.”

“And then I have an appointment at eight in the morning with the attorney my brother hired. I haven’t met with him yet. How does that work with you and the kids?”

“They’ll usually sleep until seven thirty or eight so why don’t you just do your run, then go to your appointment and we’ll see you after that.”

She told him the code to the security system in order for him to leave without incident.

“And what about breakfast?” she asked. “There’s bread for toast—”

“I saw cereal in the pantry, milk in the fridge. That’ll do.”

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

“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 Gramma the 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.”