his sister-in-law back his own clear message: Trust me, I’m working on it.
“I’d love to know how you and Max met, Claudia.”
“I was dating Max’s best friend, actually. It was all very scandalous, and we both tried to fight what we felt for each other for a long time, because we didn’t want to hurt anyone. But eventually, neither of us could fight what was meant to be. Even if it meant hurting someone we both cared about.”
As Max and Ethan came into the kitchen, Claudia told them, “I was just telling Mary how we met.”
“Have you gotten to the stolen kisses part yet?” Max asked as he leaned down to give her one.
“I love hearing tales of true love,” Mary said with a small smile. “My mother and father are like that. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for each other. Nothing they wouldn’t support each other in.”
The longing on her face had Jack nearly moving to pull her into his arms and kiss her, too, in front of everyone. And he might have if Ian hadn’t poked at his cheek and said, “Thirsty.” Knowing that kissing Jack in public—especially in front of his family—was the last thing Mary would want to do, Jack knew it was something he had to resist…for now.
Meanwhile, Ethan was leaning against the doorjamb looking extremely cynical about the scene in front of him. His divorce had been finalized last year, and since then, he had been burning even more midnight oil on the road looking after his business.
“Too bad William isn’t here tonight,” Ethan said. “He and I could raise a toast to the happily single.”
The implication was clear: Everyone thought Jack and Mary were dating. Her eyes met his and, instead of clarifying things with his family, she let her mouth curve up just the slightest bit at the corners. The air was knocked straight out of Jack’s lungs.
Did this mean she was finally ready to be more than friends who stole kisses from each other at every possible opportunity? And if so, what had changed her mind?
Mary changed the subject as deftly as she rolled out the dough. “The four of you must have been quite a handful for your mother.”
Max grinned. “Mom looked so delicate and pretty, but she never let us get away with a damned thing.”
“I got away with plenty,” Ethan countered. Although, a moment later he rubbed his right ear and admitted, “I still get phantom pains sometimes from the way she would drag me to my room.”
“What about you?” Mary asked Jack.
He gave her an innocent look. “I was an angel.”
Her blue eyes flared with heat for a split second at his use of the endearment that always spilled from his lips when he was kissing her, but then she shook her head and said, “I doubt that.”
“You’ve got this joker figured out,” Ethan said with a laugh as he sat down at the table with his brother and sister-in-law. “How many times did you nearly burn the house down with one of your inventions gone wrong, Jack? The way I remember it, the fire trucks used to patrol our street on a regular basis, just in case.”
Ian looked up at his uncle, his voice solemn as he informed Jack, “Fire trucks are red.”
He kissed his nephew on the nose. “They sure are. And what do you want to bet that’s the same color your shirt’s going to be after we eat spaghetti tonight?”
Spending time with Ian when he could during these past eighteen months had made Jack realize how much he liked kids. But it wasn’t until he’d met Mary that he’d begun to wonder what it would be like to have his own children.
“Spaghetti!” Ian bounced in Jack’s arms as he shouted out the word, and all of them chuckled, the boy’s happiness contagious.
A short while later, Mary cut the pasta she’d rolled out into thin slices and dropped them into the water already boiling on the stove. Max sat down to give his wife a foot massage. Even though she looked as if she was in heaven, Claudia said, “Are you sure you don’t need any help with dinner, Mary?”
“I love to cook. It’s one of those things I didn’t get to do enough of, bouncing around from hotel room to hotel room over the years.”
Mary started on a simple sauce by quickly cutting up the fresh tomatoes Claudia had brought over. Jack’s sister-in-law asked, “Do you have any exciting projects lined up after