He hadn’t acted and he wouldn’t tell her how tempted he’d been. This way was better—this way was safest for all of them. He knew who and what he was, while all she saw was what he let her.
“Zoe, Walker doesn’t want to come meet my parents,” Elissa said. “I’m sure he has plans and even if he doesn’t, he would be a complication.”
Right. Someone she would have to explain and with everything going on with her parents right now, not a good idea.
He crouched down and smiled at Zoe. “I’ll go another time.”
“Now,” the little girl said stubbornly. “Mommy always lets me bring a friend. You’re my friend, too.”
“Zoe, no,” Elissa said flatly. “We’re going now.”
Her daughter took her hand and allowed herself to be led away. Walker told himself it was better this way. That both he and Elissa needed time.
But five minutes later she was back on his porch.
“I have a flat,” she told him, not looking him in the eye as she spoke. “I replaced the second rear tire, but I didn’t get a spare. Randy’s place won’t open for a while and I was wondering if you could give me a ride to my parents’. I don’t want to explain a cab and I don’t really want them here.”
He found it interesting that she was more willing to deal with him than have her family at her house.
“I’m happy to,” he said. “I’ll drop you off and then come get you when you’re finished.”
She raised her gaze to his. “No. If you can stand it, you might as well come in.” She sighed. “I meant that to come out more graciously than it did.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? Do you know how confusing all of this is? A month ago I didn’t know who you were. Three months ago, you weren’t even living here. I don’t know what happened last night—I mean I know, but I don’t understand why you didn’t…”
She shook her head. “Damn. I promised myself I wouldn’t get into this with you. It’s just hard. I keep going to the typical weenie female response, wanting to know if it was my fault.”
“It wasn’t,” he told her, not sure how she could ever think it was.
“I didn’t think so. But it’s not…Men don’t do that sort of thing and then leave.”
“Agreed.”
“Are you going to tell me why?”
“Mommy, I’m ready,” Zoe called from downstairs.
“Let me get my keys,” he said, more than willing to use the distraction.
Before he could turn away, she touched his arm. “You weren’t the one who…You didn’t do anything to my tire, did you?”
He wasn’t surprised by the question. In her position, he would have wondered the same thing.
“If you have to ask,” he said slowly, “then isn’t it better that things ended when they did?”
“WILL GRANDMA MAKE cookies sometimes?” Zoe asked from the backseat of his SUV. “On TV grandmas always make cookies.”
“I’m sure she will,” Elissa told her. “My mom makes the best peanut butter cookies.”
“Yeah!”
Zoe practically danced with excitement but Walker sensed Elissa wasn’t quite so enthused. Her tension grew with each passing mile. When he turned onto her street and headed for the house she’d pointed out as theirs, he half expected her to bolt from the car.
He parked and a middle-aged couple stepped out of the beige house. Elissa released her seatbelt.
“We’re here,” she said in a bright voice thick with tension.
Walker got out and walked around to the passenger side. He opened the door for both Elissa and Zoe. Elissa grabbed his wrist and dug her nails into his skin.
“You’re staying.”
He didn’t know if she meant it as a request or a statement. Either way, he nodded.
“Hi,” Elissa said with a smile. “Mom, Dad, this is my friend Walker. He lives in my building. I had a flat this morning and he gave me a ride. And this is Zoe.”
Elissa reached for her daughter, but the five-year-old wasn’t standing next to her. Walker glanced down and was shocked to see the child hovering just behind him.
Elissa crouched down. “Honey, it’s okay. Don’t be scared.”
“It’s all right,” Elissa’s mother said, staring at the little girl with a painful mixture of hope and disappointment. “It will take her a while to get used to us.”
Elissa’s father stepped toward Walker. “I’m Kevin. This is my wife, Leslie.”
Walker shook his hand. “Good to meet you, sir.”
They were ordinary people who had lived normal lives. No doubt they had loved their daughter as much as they could and hadn’t understood why she’d run away. He wanted to tell them it wasn’t their fault. When you least expected it, life took a shit on your head. People died or stopped loving you or went away. And it wasn’t anyone’s fault.
But he knew they wouldn’t understand.
Leslie Towers crouched in front of Zoe. “Do you know who I am?” she asked.
Zoe put one hand on the back of Walker’s leg. “My grandma.”
“Then you know it’s my job to love you and spoil you, right?”
Zoe nodded without speaking.
“Do you like cinnamon rolls?” Leslie asked.
Zoe nodded again.
“I just made some. Would you like to help me put on the icing?”
Another nod.
“Good.” Leslie stood and held out her hand. Walker found himself in the unfamiliar position of encouraging Zoe to go with her grandmother.
Elissa moved close. “Thank you,” she said in a low voice. “I guess the excitement only lasted until reality set in. She’ll be okay now.”
“What about you?”
“We’ll have to see.”
AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER, breakfast was over and Walker found himself in Kevin’s den, ostensibly to watch a baseball game, but in truth to be grilled by Elissa’s father.
Walker wanted to tell him there was no point to this—that he wasn’t going to be in Elissa’s life very long, that he wasn’t someone she was going to settle for, but he knew the other man wouldn’t understand.
“What sort of work do you do?” Kevin asked when they were seated in matching recliners.
“I left the Marines a couple of months ago. Right now I’m working in the family business. We own a few restaurants.”
Kevin frowned. “Buchanan’s?”
“That’s one of them.”
“Impressive. Good. Elissa needs a steady sort of man in her life.”
Walker wished he were back in Afghanistan. “Elissa and I are just friends, sir. As for the type of man she needs, you’re going to find she’s a very different person than you remember. She has put together a life for herself. With time you’ll see—”
Zoe ran into the room and headed directly for him. As she scrambled up onto the seat, he put his hands under her arms to help her.
“They’re fighting,” she said, her eyes wide. “Mommy and Grandma.”
Kevin sighed. “I was afraid of this. I’d better go see what’s going on.”
Walker nodded, but his attention was on the child. Why had she run to him?
She sat on his lap as if she’d done it a thousand times before. As if he were a part of her life.
“Grandma wanted to know what Mommy was really doing with those rock bands,” Zoe said in a low voice. “Mommy got all choky and said she hadn’t done anything wrong. Grandma said something about dugs and I ran away.”
He suspected the comment had been about drugs rather than dugs, but he didn’t correct her. She was five and didn’t need to know the difference.
“Why is Grandma mad at Mommy?”
How to answer that? “They didn’t talk for a long time,” he said slowly. “When people don’t talk, they get confused.”
“So if they talk now, they’ll stop being mad?”
“It may take a little time.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
She sighed, then leaned against him. “I’m never going to stop talking to Mommy.”
“Good for you.”
He spoke without thinking, intensely aware of her slight weight as she relaxed against him. Just like that—as if she were safe. As if he would never hurt her or abandon her. As if she could trust him.
DANI TYPED on the computer, pulling up previous specials. She agreed with Penny’s philosophy of not repeating items on the same menu. Obviously popular specials would be offered again at The Waterfront, but she was determined to make sure there was a different mix of soup, salad and entrée specials every time.
Normally the head chef would handle this, but Edouard refused to take on any more responsibility. He was already complaining about the longer hours while Penny was out on maternity leave. Luckily, Edouard was nearly as good a chef as he was a complainer.
It was late, after midnight, and the only sound came from the front of the store where the cleaning team made their way through the dining room. Dani liked this time of night, when she could feel that she was one of only a handful of people still awake. It was like being part of something special and unique.
She hit a few more keys, then sent the file to the printer. The menus would be easier to compare when she could lay them side by side. After all, there was a lot on the line for her. She wasn’t just filling in to help a friend, she was adding substance to her résumé. Once Penny had the baby and returned to the restaurant, Dani would be moving on. Right now she had the pleasure of knowing how much her presence here made Gloria crazy, but that wasn’t a reason to make a career choice. In a couple more months she would be ready to go out and do her own thing.
She rose and crossed to the printer on the far side of the office. As the machine silently spit out paper, she heard someone walking down the hall. She stuck her head out and saw Ryan leaving his office. At the sight of him, her stomach flipped over a couple of times.
“You’re working late,” she said, hoping her smile said “I’m a friendly colleague” and not “boy, do I have a crush on you.”
“I could say the same thing.” He walked toward her. “I’ve been running numbers for the first half of the month. What’s your excuse?”
“Specials for the menu. I don’t want to duplicate an exact selection we had before. How are the numbers?”
He stood in front of her, close enough that she had to tilt her head slightly to still meet his gaze.
“Excellent. We’re still filling up most nights, which makes me wish there was a way to expand the dining room.”
Dani winced. “Not without making the kitchen bigger. We’re running at capacity back there. You bring in any more customers and the chefs will be cooking in the alley.”
“We could barbecue back there,” he said with a grin. “People would think it was nouvelle cuisine.”
“You underestimate our customers.”
“Maybe.” He looked up. “What about expanding to a second floor? I’ll bet there’s room up there. We could put in a second kitchen.”
Dani considered the possibility. “It’s a huge renovation and speaking from experience, you’ll never get Gloria to go for it.”
“Gloria isn’t in charge right now.”
“Unless you can get it done before she’s back, I’d suggest you wait.” She frowned. “To be honest, I have no idea what Walker would think of the idea. If you’re serious, I guess you could run it past him.”
“I might.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The light brush of his finger on her skin made her shiver.
“Why Walker?” Ryan asked quietly. “Why aren’t you in charge of Buchanan Enterprises? You have the brains, the education and the experience. You could have done a hell of a job.”
His words pleased her even as she knew there was no way she was going to tell him the truth about her family. Not yet. It would only break the mood, plus she’d yet to find a casual way to throw “hey, did I mention I’m not really a Buchanan” into a conversation.
“How do you know all that about me?” she asked instead.
“I checked out your file.”
“Really? I’m not sure I approve of that.”
He shifted until they were almost touching. “I wanted to know more about you.”
Words to get lost in, she thought as her gaze locked with his. Suddenly it was difficult to breathe and she found herself wanting to place her hands on some part of his body. At the moment, pretty much any part would do.
“You could have just asked,” she pointed out.
“All right. I will.” He bent down and brushed her mouth with his. “Tell me everything.”
Which, under other circumstances, would have been an excellent plan. Only right now, she was too busy savoring the feel of his mouth on hers and loving the way he wrapped his arms around her.
He drew her against him. She let herself lean against his hard body. She parted her lips and he teased her tongue with his own.
They were kissing, she thought in amazement. Kissing and everything about the experience was so different from being with Hugh. It had been ten years, she thought hazily since she’d kissed anyone else. Ten long years that had ended in broken promises and too many tears on her part.
“I should have done this ages ago,” she murmured.