“It’s much better than good now,” Evan remarked huskily, his eyes devouring her.
Randi acknowledged that Evan looked as hot in casual clothing as he did in a suit and tie. Even though he was dressed in another pair of butt-hugging jeans and a green sweater, he still exuded power. It was an aura he carried with him no matter how he was dressed.
“I was worried about Lily,” Randi told him as she stroked the dog’s golden fur. “I didn’t know she had turned traitor on me. I thought you didn’t like dogs.”
Honestly, she trusted her dog’s judgment, and apparently Lily had weighed in on Evan’s side. Her canine was looking back and forth between them, her glances at both of them completely adoring.
“I never said I didn’t like dogs. Just that I never had one. She’s nice. I took her outside to use the facilities,” Evan said properly. “And then she followed me downstairs to my office.”
Lily licked her cheek one last time before Randi stood up.
“Why does she do that licking thing? I fed her, but she was still doing the same thing after I gave her some food. I thought maybe she was hungry, but I guess not.” He looked honestly perplexed.
Randi laughed. “She’s showing affection. She likes you.”
She found the coffeemaker and the individual capsules to put inside of the machine. She popped one in, closed the lid, and touched the button to brew after finding and placing a mug underneath the spout.
“Does her owner still like me today, too?” Evan asked carefully, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.
Randi turned and slid her arms around him. “Depends. Are you going to kiss me?”
“Yes. Yes, I think I am. I don’t think I can stop myself. You look beautiful today,” Evan answered, his eyes stormier than the weather outside.
Randi shivered in anticipation as Evan started to lower his head. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and her long hair was still damp from the shower. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, she was pretty sure she was a mess, but Evan didn’t appear to care.
She nodded her head and smiled. “Flattery helps,” she teased.
The corners of his lips started to curl into a slight smile, and he was just lowering his head when he sniffed . . . loudly.
“What’s that horrible smell?”
One whiff and Randi knew exactly what was stinking up the kitchen. “What did you feed Lily?”
“I wasn’t sure how much or when you feed her, so I just gave her some leftovers I had from yesterday. She seemed to like them, and I thought they would tide her over until you woke up.” Evan looked worried. “Please tell me I didn’t do anything wrong.”
He looked so concerned for Lily’s well-being that Randi wanted to laugh, but she didn’t. “Please don’t tell me you fed her beef.”
Steak was the worst, but hamburger wasn’t that great, either. Lily loved either one, but they both had too much grease and never seemed to agree with her sensitive digestion.
He nodded immediately. “Steak. But she seemed to really enjoy it.”
Randi’s worst fear realized. “Oh, she loves it. But if she eats more than a bite, she gets very . . . gassy.”
“I fed her a lot. She’ll get sick?” Evan’s voice rose.
Hearing the panic in his tone, Randi held up her hand. “She won’t be sick. Beef isn’t going to kill her. But she’ll be farting the whole day like this.”
He looked totally unfazed by that news. “That’s okay, then. I just hope she isn’t uncomfortable. I didn’t know.”
Randi wrinkled her nose as a new round of stink bombs exploded in the kitchen. She watched as Lily walked over to Evan and plopped right next to him, looking up at him with hero worship in her soulful brown eyes. Evan probably didn’t know he’d gained her undying affection once he’d given her the first piece of steak. Rather than walk away from the stench, Evan bent down and stroked the dog’s head, looking relieved.
“I’m sorry, girl,” he crooned in a deep, soothing voice.
Randi quickly doctored her coffee with cream and sugar so she could escape the stinky kitchen, realizing that the way Evan treated animals was just one more reason to like him.
Dammit!
CHAPTER 9
“Fuck! Evan never mentioned his childhood to any of us. No wonder we hardly ever saw him.” Jared Sinclair’s grip tightened around the mug of coffee he was holding. “Why didn’t he tell us?”
“Maybe because we were all too involved in our own problems to notice that he had his own challenges. It was easier for him to just stay quiet,” Grady observed from his position on the leather couch. “He’s always been the one to take care of us, and I’m betting that he’s not used to talking about his problems with anyone. I’m not saying it’s fair. It’s just not comfortable for Evan not to be in a position of control.”
“No shit,” Jared admitted, possibly because he was remembering the dark times in his life that he might not have survived if not for Evan.
Micah Sinclair felt just a little remorseful himself as he remembered a few jests he’d thrown at Evan, trying to take his pompous eldest cousin down a few notches. He liked Evan, he even understood him a little since he was an eldest son too, but he could never resist a poke at the arrogant, stuffy side of him. No doubt Evan was arrogant, but maybe not quite as much as Micah had previously believed. Oh hell, honestly, his cousin definitely was a cocky bastard, but not quite for the reasons he’d imagined.
He looked at the three men sitting with him in Jared’s living room, all of them pretty somber about Hope’s earlier revelations regarding the things none of them had known about Evan. The women had retreated upstairs to finish up plans for Hope’s party. The guys were still trying to make sense of Evan’s silence.
Hope had said that Evan had never asked her not to share, and she thought that everyone should know about the issues he had dealt with while he was growing up. Micah was pretty sure Evan’s omission didn’t mean he had wanted his sister to tell the whole family about his problems. In fact, knowing Evan, he never wanted anyone to know at all. Micah could relate to feeling that way. But Hope had taken a chance and shared what she knew about Evan because she cared about him.
Hope just wants all of her family back together and whole after what they experienced earlier in their life.
Micah knew how she felt. Right now, his own immediate family was so torn apart that he was pretty sure nothing would or could put them back together again.