Sean's Reckoning - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,68

this kid’s dad, but if he’s come to think of you that way, it could be devastating if you take off.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sean said. “It’s not something I’m likely to forget.”

With that thought hanging in the air, they fell silent. Ryan had managed to hit on the one flaw in Sean’s plan to keep Deanna at arm’s length. He needed to make a decision to stay—or go—before it was too late.

Unfortunately, he knew in his heart it was already too late on all counts. There was no question that he already loved that boy. What was more important, like it or not, he was in love with the kid’s mom.

Admitting that to himself was one thing. Acting on it—doing what was right—was entirely another. But there was no question about one thing, he was running out of excuses and out of time.

Sean had been in an odd mood all day. Deanna glanced at him now and found that he was still wearing the same brooding expression she’d found troubling the second he’d shown up with his brother in tow.

The fact that he hadn’t reacted at all to the discovery that she’d already managed to find a few pieces of furniture was especially telling. She’d expected a scathing glance at the sofa, maybe a remark about the bed, but there’d been nothing at all.

Maybe it was because his brother was with him, she concluded. She’d liked Ryan Devaney at once, even when she’d realized that he was subtly sizing her up. In fact, a part of her liked him even more for that. She thought it was great that he was looking out for his kid brother, even after all the years they’d been separated. Though the byplay between them was awkward at times, there was an unmistakable undercurrent of love and a bond that was growing stronger as time went on.

Apparently she’d won Ryan’s wholehearted approval, because he’d kissed her cheek when he’d left and whispered, “Hang in there.”

She still wasn’t entirely certain what that had been about, but she suspected it had something to do with Sean’s weird mood. He’d offered to give his brother a lift, but Ryan had turned him down flat, hitching a ride with Hank and Ruby instead.

Kevin was spending the weekend with a friend, so he hadn’t been underfoot during the painting, which meant Deanna was now all alone in her new apartment with Sean.

“Thanks for helping today,” she said as she gathered up empty pizza boxes and hauled them off to the trash can in the kitchen. “You want a beer or soda or something?”

“Nothing.”

She came back into the living room and studied him intently. He was sprawled in an easy chair she’d found in a thrift store the day before. Even with paint spattered on his T-shirt, jeans and even on the tip of his nose and eyelashes, he made quite an enticing picture.

If only there weren’t that dark scowl on his face, she thought, barely containing a sigh.

“Okay, that’s it,” she announced, standing over him, hands on hips. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird all day.”

He seemed vaguely startled that she was calling him on it. He straightened up and looked as if he might claim that everything was just fine, but she cut him off.

“Did something happen before you and Ryan got here?” she demanded. “I know he’s been searching for Michael. Has there been some news?”

“He has a lead,” he admitted.

Deanna frowned. He’d answered a little too quickly, almost as if he were relieved that she’d asked about the search for his family. “That’s good news, right?”

“Yeah, of course it is,” he said, though without much enthusiasm. “I’m going to see if a friend in the department can help us follow up on it.”

“So it’s not that,” she concluded. “Come on, Sean. Talk to me. I thought we were friends.”

To her shock, his expression turned even darker. “Yeah, that was the plan, all right.”

Her heart began to thud dully. She ran a mental movie of everything that had gone on while they were painting, but nothing out of the ordinary struck her. “And something’s happened today to change that?” she probed. “Did I do something to upset you?”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “You could say that, though probably not in the way you mean.”

“Tell me.”

He faced her with an anguished expression. “Okay, since you asked and I don’t want to lie to you, here it is. I’m in love with you.”

Something that felt a