Colin was quiet, even for him. And watchful. He walked ahead of me, leading me to the different rooms—the living room, the dining room, a study. And outside, the back porch overlooking a small but lush lawn. I oohed and ahhed. It came naturally, this admiration, because his house was beautiful and stark, like him. The place was large enough to be roomy, but small enough to be cozy. It was, as Goldilocks would say in Bailey’s book, just right. But I felt like he was waiting for something specific in my responses.
I leaned my elbows on the wood rail of the back patio as if I belonged. “It’s a great house.”
“Do you think so?” he asked. It didn’t sound like the idle question it should have been.
“Absolutely. It’s perfect. Why? You aren’t thinking of selling it, are you?”
“If I did, would you buy it?”
I laughed. “There’s no way I could afford this house. How much does something like this run? One hundred thousand?”
A faint blush tinted his cheeks, and I knew it had cost more. Not that I could even afford a fraction of that. It might as well have been a castle for all that it was accessible to me.
“The food’s probably ready,” he said, and we went back inside the house.
I found the dishes while he transferred the food from metal pots to ceramic platters. We met at the dining table amid clanking utensils. I set a place for him at the head of the table and sat next to him. That left five empty chairs and a wide expanse of cherry wood table.
“Do you have company often?” I asked.
His eyes flicked over the table, all those empty chairs. “No.”
I took a bite of the pot roast. The juices exploded in my mouth, and I released a soft moan. “God, this is good.”
A quick smile. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I bet you get that all the time.”
He shrugged. “It’s nice to eat a meal here, for once. And to have company.” My face heated. “How’s Bailey?”
I blinked. “She’s fine. And your brother?”
“Also fine.”
Have you talked to him lately? I wanted to ask. Done anything illegal? Dangerous? But his eyes warned me away. I wouldn’t like the answer.
We moved on to safer topics. My work at the bakery and his at his restaurant. We both worked with food—something so elemental, providing sustenance, health. In my case, not so much health, but there’s a special intimacy that comes from preparing food for someone, as he had cooked this dinner and I had baked that pie.
We ate and were merry, as merry as Colin ever was. It was a last meal, of sorts. When we’d both eaten too much, Colin took me to the living room.
His hand caught mine, tender, and his eyes captured mine, intent. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said in a falsetto.
“Tell me,” he said.
I sighed. The man was a walking lie detector. Either that or I was transparent as fuck. “Something happened,” I said. “Bailey…well, her father has come back.”
His face showed no reaction.
I averted my eyes before continuing. An omission was still a lie. “He was a friend of mine. From school. And we…hooked up. And then he left town. Now he’s back, and he wants to see Bailey. At least that’s what he said, but I don’t trust him. He doesn’t care about her. He’s just using her to get to me.”
Those dark brown eyes revealed nothing. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t really know what I can do. I guess visitation is something that would have to be figured out in court. But I would… strongly prefer… that he not get to see us at all.”
Colin’s eyes sharpened. “What’s wrong with him?”
I blinked away the answering thoughts. “Nothing. I mean, it’s not like he’s ready to be a father. He just wants to mess with me, but he…he had a rough childhood. I mean, really bad.”
“He ever hit you?” His voice was soft, but even if I couldn’t have sensed the banked fury within him, I knew from experience what he could do to a man who hurt me. Even if I could’ve gotten the words out, I couldn’t tell him, not without risking Colin going after Andrew, hurting them both.
I was grateful that the phrasing of the question allowed my “no” to be the truth. He hadn’t hit me, not exactly. But I knew I had to be more specific if I wanted Colin’s help. “He’s just not completely…stable. He drinks too much, and he uses. He picks up and leaves whenever he wants. And when he’s angry…well, I don’t want Bailey around him.”
“You need money,” he said.
“Sort of. I have money…” Not enough, probably, but that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted safety. And him. “I mean, I’m not sure how much it’ll be, but—”
“I’m not rich, but I have enough for this.” He looked like a man calculating the odds. Unnecessary, really, since I was woefully out of my league. This wasn’t a negotiation as much as total surrender. “I’ll help you.”
I gave Colin a look.
He raised his eyebrows, all innocence. “I meant the right way. I can find a decent lawyer. We’ll fight him, legally. In the meantime, move in with me.”
“What?” Hadn’t seen that one coming. “That’s…that’s insane.”
He actually rolled his eyes, making him look more like the twentysomething that he was. “People move in together all the time.”
“Not after dating for a week,” I said.
“I’m counting since the first time.”
“In case you forgot,” I said, “I have a baby. A kid.”