“Congratulations. But I’m still enjoying the dress and the wine, even if they weren’t for me.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off Megan’s curvy butt as she led the way to the front door of the large but forlorn cabin that begged for a coat of stain.
She tilted her chin over her shoulder, sending him a cute grin. “Well, look fast, because I’m not done fixing up your room, so I’m losing the dress and heels in about two seconds.”
If Haley hadn’t been walking beside him, he would have suggested all the fun ways he’d like to help her out of that dress. “Too bad for me. And why wasn’t that door locked, Meg?”
“City boy.” She rolled her eyes as she tucked the bottle of wine beneath his arm. “Haley will show you where the kitchen is. Be right back.”
Haley smiled and led the way. The kitchen was about as vintage as Zeke’s shop. Formica counters, avocado-green appliances, and peeling vinyl on the floor, plus an old wooden table in the corner filled with crayons and paper.
Hopefully the appliances still worked.
Haley laid her cookies on the table, then climbed onto a chair. “I’m gonna draw you a picture.”
“That’d be great. Thanks.”
He dug through the drawers, finally finding a corkscrew to open the wine so it could breathe. Then he started the sauce. It wouldn’t be able to simmer as long as he’d like, but it was better than opening a jar and dumping it on top of noodles.
A light tap on his leg made him look down into a set of big brown eyes. “Now we have to put it on the fridge.” Haley thrust the paper she’d been working on toward him.
“Wow. This is fantastic.” He wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking at.
He found a magnet shaped like an ear of corn with “Iowa” scrolled on the bottom, and attached the picture to the green refrigerator at Haley’s eye level. Then he knelt beside her. “So, tell me about that.” He pointed to the biggest of the three blobs.
Haley slipped her little arm around his neck and snuggled up to his side. “That’s you. See? Yellow hair. Like me!” She pointed to the other blobs. “I’m the little one and Mommy is this one. A family.”
A family.
Emotion clawed its way up his throat. That she’d accepted him so easily and drew him in the picture sent a pang to his chest.
He whispered, “Thank you, Haley. That’s the best picture of a family I’ve ever seen.”
Megan joined them again, wearing jeans, a tight T-shirt, and no shoes, and looking just as hot as she did in the dress. She plopped down beside them and laid a kiss on top of Haley’s head. “Good job, sweetheart.” Meg smiled at him. “Haley likes that you both have blond hair. All the Andersons are brunettes. She wanted to ‘match’ someone. She’s very big on matching right now.”
“Knucks for yellow hair, right, Haley?” He held out his fist for a bump.
Haley fist-bumped him and then ran back to the table. “I’m gonna make you another picture of us!”
“Can’t wait to see it.” He stood and held out his hand to help Meg up.
She glanced at his hand, but hesitated. Meg hated to appear weak or to need help. She finally relented and placed her hand in his.
She asked, “So, how was your day?”
He pulled her to her feet. “Zeke offered me a job. I didn’t realize how much mechanical work there was to be had in such a small town.” He poured out two glasses of wine and handed her one. “He even let me take his prized chopper out for a spin after I did some maintenance. I had fun today. It’s just a bonus he’s paying me.”
“So, you’re working for Zeke now?” Meg blinked at him. “And you know how to fly a helicopter too? Seriously. How is it that we didn’t know that about each other?” She hopped up on the counter next to the stove.
“I didn’t know that about you because you never talked about living here or about your family much. I got my license recently so you wouldn’t have known that about me.” That was mostly true. He’d gotten a license under his real name right before he’d left the FBI. He’d been dying to take Zeke’s chopper up and saw it as an opportunity to stop lying to her about one more thing.
He took a pull from his wineglass and then started on the salad. When he glanced at Meg she was frowning into her glass. “What?”
She laid her glass beside her on the counter without taking a sip. “Speaking of not knowing things about each other, why didn’t you ever introduce me to any of your friends or people you worked with?”
Because he was undercover, in the middle of an investigation. They all knew him as Sam Coulter.