“I know. I’d be good to you, Lottie. Not perfect, but I’d do my best to make you smile.”
She peered up at him with sharp brown eyes. “Do you really need my help with Hunter and Kata’s house?”
“What do you think?” He laughed. “I admit that I used it as a bit of an excuse to spend time with you at first, but now that I’ve seen the place…”
“It does need a lot of work.” She wrinkled her nose.
“A metric shit ton.” He winced. Hell, he wasn’t used to editing his language anymore. Amanda had always hated his swearing, thought it uncouth and crass.
Carlotta just laughed. “A colorful phrase, but you are right. You have your work cut out for you over the next few weeks. Somehow, I think getting back to my work as a surgical nurse will be a vacation compared to all that must be done before anyone can inhabit the house.”
Absolutely true, but he was having trouble thinking much past her gorgeous mouth, that lovely, lilting Latina accent...and that tight sweater cupping her full br**sts. Everything about her turned him on.
“Is that a yes?”
“Tell me about you and your wife,” she said instead.
God, the request blindsided him. He didn’t want to talk about that. What if he just confirmed all her worst suspicions with his explanations? But she’d been honest with him, damn it. He couldn’t do less.
“We married too young. Neither of us were good at communicating. We both made too many assumptions.” He dragged in a rough breath. “I grew up in a traditional—if loud—house with three brothers, two sisters, and lots of love. My dad was absolutely the head of the household, and his word was law. Everyone fought and laughed and roughhoused. Yelling meant nothing to us since we’ve always been a boisterous lot. Amanda didn’t understand any of that. She grew up an only child—a surprise baby for very liberal forty-something parents. Her house was very quiet. No one ever yelled, well…except her when she wanted her way. Amanda learned early that through tears and emotional blackmail, she could rule the family. I can’t fault her, exactly. She was a product of her environment, just as I was a product of mine. I proposed because she looked hot in a bikini. She married me because I looked good in a uniform. Looking back, we got together for all the wrong reasons. When I met her, I was away from home for the first time and I missed my family. I thought I’d just make my own. She just wanted excitement and to be swept off her feet. It didn’t work so well when I was deployed more often than not and she had a baby on each hip and another on the way.”
“So she was unhappy?”
To say the least. He nodded. “I tried the only way I knew how to take some of the responsibility off her shoulders when I was home by taking over. She resented me for coming in and arranging things the way I wanted before leaving again for months on end. I didn’t understand that. She complained and cried. Drama didn’t happen in my family. I didn’t know how to adjust. I’d try harder, but not the way she wanted me to…” He raked a hand over his short hair. “I’ve matured and learned a lot since then. I won’t say I’ll never make the same mistakes again, but I will say that if I do, I’ll genuinely listen and try to adjust. Did that tell you what you wanted to know?”
She cocked her head. “It did. Thank you. I had wondered…”
Yeah, he had, too, about her and Gordon, so he could understand. “So you’re willing to try dating again?”
Carlotta bit her lip. “What will Kata and Hunter think? I would not wish to make them uncomfortable.”
Caleb leaned across the table to her. “Our kids are grown, and I don’t think we owe our futures to them. They’re happy. Why shouldn’t we try to be as well?”
“I see your point. Consider it a maybe,” she murmured. “I will keep an open mind if you will try not to boss me around quite so much.”
He’d try, but…no promises. His DNA just seemed wired to be Dominant. “Deal.”
After he paid the check, he hustled her out of the restaurant and to the home improvement store. He grabbed a cart outside the door, noticing that her stare lingered on a little shop down the strip mall.
Caleb stood, stared at her, waited. Still, she only cast a longing look toward the shop’s door, then averted her gaze with a fake, overly bright smile. The place wasn’t familiar to him, but it seemed to be some sort of home décor store. And he didn’t like her hiding her feelings from him.
“Would you like to go over there, Lottie? Maybe something there will be good for the kids.”
She smiled faintly every time he called her that, and Caleb enjoyed doing whatever he could to make her happy.
“It is possible. I once enjoyed shopping there. Gordon thought it was silly and never allowed me—”
“Go.” It would give him time to repress the urge to kill her ex-douche bag. “If you enjoy it and think it might help with our project, then I definitely want you to browse the place.”
“I would not wish to waste our time when it is so short.”
He’d stay up renovating all night to give her some time to visit the store if that was what she wanted.
“It’s not a waste. Go.”
“You do not mind?” She sent him a puzzled stare, clearly surprised.
“Of course not.”