He shook out his coat before taking it off and hanging it on the coat rack in the entryway. She tried not to notice how snug his long-sleeved t-shirt was, or how wonderfully it showed off his upper body, but she failed miserably. Vlad had always been fit and nicely muscled. His shoulders and arms in particular were like chocolate to her—tempting and delicious. Images of him stripping in her living room, standing there in all his naked glory, sent a pulse of heat through her. She let her gaze wander over his beautiful physique for a moment before she remembered she was supposed to hate him.
The fact that she had trouble remembering that whenever he stood too close was really starting to piss her off.
“My brothers bought my story about wanting you back, by the way,” he said. “At least, they pretended to.”
“Well, that’s something anyway.” She motioned him into the dining room.
When Zoe spotted him, she bounced in her seat. “Vlad! Knew you were here.”
“She did actually.” Rose faced him, frowning. “Before you knocked, she announced you’d arrived. Was she just guessing? Or maybe she heard you coming?”
His brows creased. “Zoe, can you…can you feel me when you can’t see me?”
“Yup.” She went back to eating her peanut butter and jelly, grinning around a mouthful of mushed up sandwich.
“Chew with your mouth closed,” Rose said absently. To Vlad, she said, “What does that mean? She ‘feels’ you?”
He was still staring at Zoe. “My…family—” he met Rose’s gaze, “—they can sense each other, even at a distance. I can always tell when another one of my people is around.”
She appreciated his careful avoidance of words like tiger shifters in front of Zoe. “So you can feel Zoe like that?” she asked quietly, hoping Zoe wouldn’t hear—an unrealistic hope. Fortunately, Zoe hadn’t seemed to pick up the implications of the comment as she’d turned her attention to the chips on Rose’s plate.
Vlad shook his head. “I can’t sense her. Which is…odd.”
“Good odd or bad odd?”
“Given my brothers…good odd.” He paused and gave her a look.
Rose nodded her understanding. At least she thought she understood. If tiger shifters were real, and they could sense each other, the fact that they couldn’t sense Zoe meant his brothers had less reason to believe she was Vlad’s daughter. If she wasn’t his, they had no reason to wish her harm.
“But what’s stranger than that I can’t feel her is that she can feel me,” Vlad continued. “I wonder if Nila can do that?”
“You said your sister is…not like…” Rose blew out a breath. This conversation was impossible with Zoe sitting right there, listening to every word they said. And Rose knew her daughter would understand most of this—at least as much as her three-year-old brain could. What she didn’t understand, she’d ask about.
“She’s not,” Vlad said, answering her unspoken question. “But in some ways she is, so there might be similarities.”
“You want some?” Zoe asked Vlad, holding out a handful of crumbled potato chips.
Vlad grinned and shook his head. “Thank you. I had lunch already.”
“Your tummy grumbled,” Zoe said.
“Did it? Well, maybe I didn’t eat enough. May I sit down with you?”
Zoe nodded and scooted across the bench, leaving Vlad plenty of room. Rose watched in awe. Her daughter wasn’t exactly shy, but she did tend to be leery of new people. She held back, waiting to see if she could trust them not to be doctors. She wasn’t that way around other kids, but she needed time to get used to grownups.
Yet she was already as comfortable with Vlad as she was with her grandparents. Could she tell he was family? Or was it because he’d helped ease her pain without poking and prodding at her like a doctor would?
So many questions and there was no way to ask them without explaining things to her. As Rose watched her set some chips and a part of her sandwich in front of Vlad, she accepted that she was going to have to tell her Vlad was her father, sooner rather than later. Especially if he kept showing up like this. But how could she explain his absence all these years?
Admitting the truth to Zoe would mean allowing Vlad into their lives. Once her daughter knew, Rose wouldn’t be able to deny her access to her father if she wanted to see him. She was completely prepared to send Vlad packing and never let him near them again—for her own peace of mind. But if Zoe wanted her father in her life, Rose couldn’t say no to that.
Vlad glanced at her, his smile soft. “You’re worrying,” he said. “I could always tell when you got that crease between your eyebrows. You’re thinking too hard.”