Need You Now (Love in Unknown) - By Taylor M. Lunsford Page 0,68
little.
“Mrs. Holloway is certainly opinionated. I’m dealing with her on the museum project.” Caine winked at Emma. “Let’s just say I’ll be happy when the museum is open. So will my secretary.”
Emma chuckled. “I’m sure Maisie has practically taken up residence in your office, trying to make sure every detail is perfect.”
“Well, I certainly would prefer you or Jemma as the head of the committee. High maintenance women like Mrs. Holloway give me flashbacks of all those meetings Mother held at the house when I was a kid." Caine gave an exaggerated shudder.
Mel laughed at him, throwing a chip. "Like you ever had to suffer through too many of those. You and Gage might as well have lived here when we were kids."
He threw the chip back. He looked so relaxed and comfortable, the sun glinting off of a bad case of hat hair. It really was unfair for him to be this attractive even in the midst of this awful Texas heat. "I still had to run the gauntlet to escape. It was worse when I came home from boarding school. They all grilled me for hours."
“You went to boarding school?” Jax wrinkled his little nose. “What for?”
Caine looked over at her nephew. "Well, my dad and my mom weren't very happy people, and they decided that they didn't like me growing up in Unknown, so they sent me away to a fancy school up north. But you want to know a secret?"
Jax nodded, almost eagerly. Mel hadn't seen him show this much interest in anyone besides his dad since he’d moved here. Caine had obviously made an impression on her stoic nephew.
“Boarding school sucked. The food was lousy, the boys were jerks. But the absolute worst part? My brother, your aunt, and your dad weren't there." Caine met her gaze. Would she ever stop getting this warm tingly feeling every time he looked at her like that? "Life without your best friends is miserable."
Jax frowned at him. "You're best friends with a girl? Why? All the girls at my school are stupid."
“A lot of girls are pretty stupid. But your aunt isn't. She was always pretty cool." He pointed to the big oak tree in the corner of the yard where an ancient tree house still sat amidst the branches. "She helped us build the tree house, remember?"
Mel jumped in. "He means they used me as cheap labor to bring them sodas and fetch nails. Jerks wouldn't let me do anything fun like use a hammer. And then they had the nerve to put up a sign that said 'No Girls Allowed.'"
“We had to have some place to escape to," Micah protested. "You were such a little pest, always following us around, begging to play with us."
“Hey, I always let you up," Caine said.
Gage snorted from beside her. “You were such a wimp.”
“Being nice does not make him a wimp," she argued.
Caine shrugged, his eyes all soft and tender. Warmth sluiced through her, mixing with a healthy dose of desire. "What can I say? Those big eyes would look up, all teary and sad, and I couldn't say no. That's lesson one of being a guy, little man. Girls will use tears to get what they want. And it works."
She stuck her tongue out at him, making Jax laugh. "Aunt Mel's cool, I guess. But I don't want a friend that's a girl if it means I have to kiss her like you did when you got here. Yuck!"
“You’ll think differently someday," Emma warned. "Caine used to think girls were gross and now look at him."
Jax didn't look convinced, but Mel was. Whatever their past, Caine truly wanted to be with her now. That thought kept playing over and over in her head even after dinner was over, even though she tried to distract herself by helping clean up.
“Careful, Mel-bell. You're drooling, and we used up all of the paper towels to clean up Jax's soda spill earlier."
Gage’s voice startled her. She had been standing at the sink, rinsing off some of the dishes while Caine and Micah worked with Jax on his batting stance. She'd gotten a little distracted, watching the way Caine's biceps pulled on the soft gray fabric of his t-shirt. "I wasn't drooling. That's just dish water."
“Right, sure. And you couldn't take your eyes off of him all through dinner." He snickered, picking up dishes and starting to load them into the dishwasher. "I can't remember the last time I saw him this happy."