Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(157)

Ah, princess to peasant. Back on familiar ground.

“You’re beautiful and you know it. I’m just saying there’s nothing wrong with a woman’s hips being curvy. You’re not supposed to look like a boy. Your body was built to make babies.”

She went silent for too long.

Dev swore silently. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean—” Hell, he should just quit talking. He never had the right words with her.

Then she touched his hand lightly. “It’s okay. I was just…thinking. You’re right, you know. The circles I move in, well…I think we’ve gotten a long way from the basics.” She glanced down. “I forget that sometimes—that fitting into this season’s size four isn’t what nature designed my body to do.”

When she looked up, there was something fragile in her face. Dev wanted way too much to take her in his arms right then. “Do you want children, Lacey?”

“Oh, yes,” she said softly. Her look turned inward.

“Then why haven’t you married by now? Had a dozen kids? I can’t imagine you haven’t been asked—” He tried for a grin. “Even before Dr. Blondie.”

She looked down at the hands clasped tightly in her lap. “I was married, once.” Then she frowned, grasped the door handle and stepped outside.

Dev followed her lead, rounding the car and coming to stand before her. He knew about the marriage, of course, but only that it had been annulled, not why. He kept his tone gentle. “Can I ask what happened?”

She shot him a sideways glance he couldn’t decipher. “I made a mistake.” A look of immense sadness swept over her face.

Dev gripped her shoulders. “Maybe he didn’t deserve you.”

Her head rose as shock tripped across her features.

Just as quickly, the Margaret DeMille mask dropped into place. She shrugged elegantly and stepped back. “It was a long time ago.” Then Lacey glanced around them. “I don’t see any donuts, but I could swear I smell them.”

Let it be, Dev. Just a job, remember?

But that didn’t seem to stop him from wanting to hold her. To do whatever it took to erase the sadness that dogged her when she didn’t have her mask fully on. To protect her from her own vulnerability.

But if he couldn’t give her comfort, he could at least give her donuts. He crooked his arm. “This way, madam.” He leaned down and waggled his eyebrows. “But the chocolate ones are mine.”

Lacey took his arm, and her smile almost reached her eyes. “Not if I get there first.”

Dev led her down the side of the building to a nondescript door. He knocked five sharp raps, then waited. Lacey looked at him curiously, but he merely shrugged. “He’ll get here, don’t worry.”

As if he were prophetic, the door opened just then. Shorty’s broad smile peered out of his grizzled, coffee-colored face. “Well, bless my soul, if you ain’t a sight for sore eyes.” Then he caught a glimpse of Lacey and whistled low. “Dev, my man, you comin’ up in the world. Mornin’, ma’am.” He tipped an imaginary hat.

Margaret DeMille would freeze Shorty dead for such familiarity. To Dev’s relief, Lacey only smiled shyly. “I guess it is close to morning, isn’t it? Are you really making donuts at this hour, you poor man?”

Shorty shot a glance at Dev. “Hear that, boy? ‘Poor man.’ The woman has proper respect for my hard work, unlike some people I know.” He winked at Lacey and held out his arm. “My name is Shorty, ma’am. Come along and I’ll treat you to the best donuts that ever hit your tongue.”

To her credit, Lacey only hesitated a second, then took his arm like they were old friends. “Please call me Lacey.” She smiled back at Dev, the devil in her eyes. “I like chocolate donuts best.”

Dev stopped dead in his tracks when she stuck out her tongue at him. He laughed out loud.

“Then ol’ Dev’s luck just ran out ’cause I’ll feed a beautiful woman every chocolate donut in the place. You go on back to the car now, Dev. Me and your lady, we’ve got some fat to chew, most of it about how bad her judgment is, bein’ here with a young rascal like you. She needs a mature man to treat her right.”

Dev snorted. Shorty was mature all right—seventy if he was a day. A comeback was on his lips—

When Lacey giggled.

Giggled. Like a teenage girl. When she glanced back at him, her eyes sparkled.

Dev could only stand there, holding the door in wonder. He’d half-expected to shock her by bringing her here—instead she was stealing his donuts.

His heart lightened, and he moved to follow them. “Oh no, you don’t—you’re not giving away my donuts, Shorty. She can’t even find her way back here without help.”