“Yes, and they were the sweetest, most pepperminty candy canes we’d ever tasted.”
“Wow!” Cole breathed, grinning ear to ear.
A warmth filled her chest, imagining her mother and father making the snow angel, leaving the treats, then using a shovel to smooth out the tracks around the make-believe fairy’s creation.
She tapped Carly’s nose, then Cole’s. “And with that, it’s bedtime. Sweet dreams.”
“Will you make me a Scooter burrito?” Carly asked, reaching out to the somber man on the other side of the bed.
Soren glanced at her, then to the girl. “Sure, Carly. One Scooter burrito coming up.”
“With the sound effects, please,” Carly requested, wiggling with excitement.
The man shook his head as the hint of a smile appeared on his lips. “You got it.”
Soren vroomed as he tucked the blanket around the little girl like a race car or, in his case, a scooter. It was sweet—a counter to the gruff, growly man who’d met her at the chapel.
“Cole, do you want a Scooter burrito tuck-in, too?” he asked, patting the boy’s leg.
“Not tonight,” the child answered, adjusting his glasses.
“Would you like me to set those on the side table for you?” she asked.
Cole stopped playing with his bright red glasses. “No, I’ll do it by myself in a minute. I have one more question about fairies, though.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Is a pixie a fairy,” he asked with a serious expression.
She nodded. “Yes, a pixie is very much like a fairy.”
“All right, Abbott kids. Eyes closed,” Soren said, ending the fairy talk and switching off the light.
She went to the door and stood next to him. “We’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”
“Okay, Aunt Birdie. I mean, just Birdie,” Carly said through a yawn.
She glanced at Soren, expecting to find the silly, sweet uncle who just made vroom sounds, but found him frowning. The Aunt Birdie slip of the tongue most likely the culprit. They stepped into the hall but left the door to the children’s room open a crack.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said, striding down the corridor a step ahead of her.
She followed him into the kitchen about done with his lightning-fast personality shifts.
He glanced around the kitchen. “Where are the cones and the balls?”
She barked out a laugh. “There will be no cones or balls until we get something straight.”
“What’s that?” he asked, as if he couldn’t care in the least.
“I don’t understand what’s going on with you, Soren. Do you hate me, or do you like me?”
He rubbed his hands down his face. “Bridget, stop.”
She paced the length of the kitchen. “No, I’m tired of this. I’m sick of the back and forth. I’m exhausted from trying to decipher if you truly are an awful person or if there’s more to you.”
“More to me?” he repeated, condescension coating the words.
“Yes, there are times I think that maybe…”
“Let me stop you there, Birdie,” he interjected. “You want to know what’s going on? I hate that I can’t hate you. How about that!”
“That makes no sense,” she replied, turning away from him when two strong hands gripped her hips, spun her around, and pressed her back to the wall.
Soren cupped her cheek in his hand as his chest heaved, and lust and anguish burned in his eyes. “How about this for making sense, Bridget Dasher. My entire life made sense before you and your sister ruined the only part that mattered.”
She clutched his biceps as his body pressed against hers, pinning her in place. But she didn’t try to move—didn’t attempt to escape. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t like his hard angles cutting into her soft curves.
She steadied herself. “My sister has been nothing but kind to you, and I—”
He leaned in. “And you, with those damned hauntingly beautiful eyes that draw me in. And those perfect lips that make me want to kiss you and never stop are making me crazy. You smell like cookies and sunshine and lazy Sunday mornings. I don’t know what a worse punishment would be—knowing what it’s like to hold you close and make your body tremble with desire or never knowing. Never touching you. Never kissing you. Never knowing what it feels like to fucking feel anything.”
She inhaled a sharp breath. “What happened, Soren? What changed? You’re different—something is different. I’ve never seen you look so lost.”
His gaze hardened. “I had everything under control until you. You turned my world upside down. Now, I can’t go a damn hour, let alone a minute without