worried at the same time as she glanced in Maya's direction. Maya held out her arms. "Give me a hug. You're the kind of little girl I want Alexa to be when she grows up."
Constance beamed, hugged her, and towed Matty out of the room with cries of "We're late. Daddy's waiting."
If only they could stay little and so easy forever, instead of growing into impossibly arrogant, stubborn adults, Maya thought whimsically a half hour later when Axell appeared in the bedroom door in all his designer-suited elegance. His tie this morning was a shiny gold and blue silk. His golden hair had been recently barbered, and a drop of moisture on his jaw indicated he'd just shaved.
Instinctively, she shoved her hair behind her ear and wondered if she looked a total wreck. Next to Axell's neatly styled hair, pressed clothes, and self-assured air, she would always resemble a hurricane strike zone.
She wished she could read his expression as his gaze lingered on her for just a second or two longer than it should before he looked down at Alexa, who was beginning to fuss. Tentatively, he rocked the cradle with his polished shoe, and the infant settled down. He looked mildly astonished.
"It works. Why do they like movement so much?" There was the curious professor who hooked her every time.
"Because they're used to bobbing around in water all day in the womb? I haven't the foggiest. Cleo used to fall asleep in the car even as a teenager." Maya wound her fingers together and tried to think of some way of relieving the unexpected tension between them. He'd carried in her breakfast earlier—toast and orange juice and hot water with a tea bag—but hadn't lingered for more than an inquiry about how she'd slept. She'd thought he'd forgotten his promise to talk, and hadn't expected him to return here after he took the kids to school.
Still, just attempting breakfast for her was a sweet thing to do, and she rewarded him with a smile, just to see how that would work.
He stiffened like his shirt collar, if that was possible. Nervously, he fingered Constance's artwork on the wall and looked anywhere but at her. She wondered if she had pillow wrinkles on her face.
Absorbed in her college studies and tedious hours of work, she'd never really looked at older, established men as anything more than interesting caricatures as unreachable as the faces on a movie screen. Stephen was the most grown-up lover she'd ever known, and next to Axell, he was positively adolescent. Axell's mature confidence was starting to grow on her. Scary.
She really should apply her mind to looking beyond his surface polish. That tanned, golden-boy veneer hid a piercingly intelligent mind. Those stony eyes that warily watched the world disguised a man who couldn't reach out to others. But the lion-like physical grace and Nordic god confidence were bred to the bone. It was a good thing he always wore those suits or she'd be admiring his chest next. Intrigued by his slipping self-assurance but growing as nervous as he, Maya sought another ice breaker.
"You had something you wanted to tell me?" Well, so much for being subtle.
Axell tightened his mouth, lined up the hairbrush and comb on the dresser, and with a decided air of resolution, took the wing chair beside the bed. Against the feminine chair, his shoulders loomed enormous and entirely too masculine.
"We have problems." He steepled his fingers and searched for the next step.
"Tell me something I don't know," Maya said with humor. "I try to tackle them one at a time. You really don't have to solve mine, you know."
He defrosted ever so slightly and shot her a wry look. "They're starting to get a little tangled together, you'll notice."
Maya wrinkled her nose and considered it. "Not really. I can move Cleo's stuff out of your building. You can send Constance to another school. Before long, we're all untangled."
"I'm not certain that's the route I want to take."
He said that so firmly, he startled her. Maya stared at him in incredulity. "Why on earth would you want your problems entangled with mine? I'm a walking disaster area. You don't strike me as the type to handle that kind of chaos well." Actually, Virgos were excellent caretakers. She just didn't know if she wanted to be taken care of.
Axell's steepled fingers slid together until they formed a solid grip across his silk tie. "I'm very good at handling chaos," he replied. "It's Constance