He put his hand up. “Stop. It’s fine. I was thinking the same thing, so no worries. Just relax. Drink your wine and let’s talk. Your siblings? Still in Chicago?”

  She hesitated, took a big gulp of her wine, and finally answered. “Yes. Lily lives with a set of foster parents. A good home. A stable one she’s been in for years now. They’d adopt her if my mother would sign off, but she won’t.”

  He couldn’t imagine that. “Why won’t she?”

  “Who knows? They’d have to find her to ask her and that isn’t always easy.”

  He wanted to ask why she didn’t have Lily with her but decided against it. It was way too personal and he was pretty sure he knew the answer. The courts most likely wouldn’t agree to it without a steady home or place of employment.

  “What about your brothers?”

  “Brett lives with his girlfriend and their son Scotty, who’s three months old. I just found out Annie is pregnant again.”

  She sounded agitated when she said that. “Not planned, I’m assuming?” he asked.

  “Neither of them was. Brett loves kids and wants to give his kids a life he never had. Annie was a foster kid, too. I just see them stuck in the cycle of poverty. They work, but they’re the working poor.”

  “You still help them out, don’t you?”

  “How did you know?”

  He’d figured that much out about her by now. She was the little mother, it seemed, to her siblings. Sacrificing herself for them. “Lucky guess. How about your other brother?”

  “Karl. Well, he is the worst of us in terms of the nasty cycle. He’s been in jail for possession. We don’t talk as much, but he’s closer with Brett. Lily isn’t allowed to talk to Karl per her foster parents. Last I knew, Karl was clean and working though. He and I don’t see eye to eye.”

  “Because you’re a straight arrow,” he said simply.

  “Yep,” she said looking disgruntled.

  “There’s nothing wrong with that,” Max said. He took a healthy gulp of wine and said, “I happen to like that quality in you.”

  She tilted her head to the side, then cracked a smile before she blushed and looked down.

  He’d take that as a good sign. He just wasn’t sure what kind of good sign it was.

  Game

  Quinn breathed in deeply, the air smelling of pumpkin and spices. She was ready to put her pumpkin pie in the oven to start baking, then on to the apple pie. The turkey had been cooking for an hour already.

  It was the first family Thanksgiving she could remember having in more years than she could count. One of her foster families celebrated it, she was sure of that; she just didn’t remember who or when.

  She didn’t even mind getting up hours earlier than normal today. Or baking a twenty-pound turkey for just the four of them. Not to mention all the trimmings and desserts.

  It was overkill, she knew, but she wanted to make it special. Special for the kids and Max. And well, maybe special for her too.

  She’d thought of inviting Mallory and Nick over, figuring their family was out of town. Once she heard Nick’s family was coming, she squashed that idea. Besides, she’d have to clear it with Max and thought it was too soon for that.

  Max. Hmm, Max of the green eyes that were watching her more than normal lately.

  Bedroom eyes. She’d never thought of that before and fought back a giggle when it popped into her head.

  Still, what was his game? What was he up to? The two of them had a nice innocent banter of teasing and flirting going back and forth. Was he humoring her? Was he looking for someone to just have a fling with that lived in the house with him? She wasn’t that type of person. She didn’t think he was that type of guy, but what did she know? Her relationships were few and far between.

  It had been going smoothly since Jennifer left. Smoother than she thought it would and secretly she was thrilled.

  She and the kids had a nice routine in the mornings. Then when they were in school, she did the grocery shopping and any other errands that needed to be done before returning home and tackling the chores here.

  When school was out, it was off to dance or karate, sometimes to one of the kids’ friends’ houses.

  Dinner was the time she wanted everyone together and Max had backed her. It seemed Jennifer let them eat when they wanted half the time. Those few weeks Jennifer was here showing her things had been an exception to the rule, she found out later.

  Having never really had a stable environment, she’d always conjured up this idea of a family dinner and talking about their days around the table. When she brought it up to Max, he’d been all for it.

  At first the kids balked, mainly Davey because sometimes they had to eat later if Max was stuck at work and Davey wanted to be online with his friends. But he finally adjusted.

  There were always a few nights Max didn’t make it home early enough to hold dinner, so those nights it was just the kids and her so she’d used that time to talk to them about school, their friends, and their lives.

  Lara, well, Lara dominated the dinner conversation most nights with silly little chatter. Though she found Davey was talking more frequently.

  Back to Max. How he stayed so slim with the amount of food he ate was beyond her, but she found him working out late one night in a room off the game room. She hadn’t even known that room was there.

  “I wish you’d told me about this room. I would have cleaned it,” she told him when she heard the music one night in her suite.

  “I don’t get down here as often as I would like. Just a few times a week. Sorry, did I wake you?”

  “No. I was watching TV in my room and heard the music. I thought one of the kids snuck downstairs when they should be in bed.”

  “Nothing is going to get by you, is it?” he said grinning, as he continued to squat up and down with a bar full of weights on his back. Wow, that was a lot of weight on that bar. It was hard work to keep her eyes focused on his face.

  What was he saying? Oh yeah, nothing could get by her. It might be a sad state of affairs if those kids got anything by her with her street smarts. She knew what to look for. Too bad she was always looking for the bad influences in life.

  “Nope, I know their end game,” she’d said smiling. Her eyes took in the length of his body, caught the heat of the stare he was sending back, and then she hightailed out of the room before she started to blush. She was afraid she might have been a little too forward there looking at him working out. Of course the fire in his eyes told her otherwise. Told her he might be okay with her perusal.

  Opening the oven now, she looked at her turkey and decided everything was coming along just fine.

  Max would probably be down for breakfast soon, so she needed to figure that out. Hmm, the griddle and pancakes might work. It was out of the way.

  “Good morning.”

  She turned and saw him standing there in jeans and a sweatshirt, his hair slightly damp and a little messy, like he just ran his fingers through it and left.

  He was clean-shaven, like always. She’d never really seen him with facial hair, even late at night. Either he shaved more than once during the day, or chances are he didn’t have a ton of facial hair to begin with.

  That was fine with her. She’d never been a big fan of beards and mustaches anyway. She’d always thought of them as disguises and ways to hide the face. She would rather look right at the person and know what she was getting so that she was better able to read them.

  Sadly, she couldn’t figure out what was going on with Max fully. All the sidelong glances her way and the accidental, however innocent, touches.

  Maybe it was time to stop being the straight arrow and taskmaster. Maybe it was time to be a woman. To push a bit and see what happened. To take a risk. It was the only way she would really be able to get a handle on this situation.

  “I hope I didn’t wake you,” she said.

  “Nope. I was doing some work in bed.”

  She walked by him, brushing against him lightly, then quickly steadied herself with her hands on his waist as she skirted by to grab something off the other counter. There was plenty of room to get by, but she wanted to see how he’d react or if he’d say anything.

  Nope, he didn’t say anything, but he walked closer to her and started to reach for a spoon. She knew what he wanted and grabbed it instead, then handed it over, but he put his hand over hers and held onto it a bit longer than necessary. Yep, he was feeling the heat the same as her; she saw it as his eyes darkened.

  “Pancakes okay for breakfast?” she asked, trying to take her mind off of him and his hand, her tingly body, and the heat in his eyes. It’d been way too long since she’d been with a man.

  “Don’t go out of your way. You’re doing a lot of cooking today,” he said, grinning at her, gazing right into her eyes.

  Okay, she couldn’t put it off, she had to know. She just wasn’t good at this song and dance and needed it clarified. “What’s your game, Max?”

  “What game is that?” he asked, his eyes sparkling over the rim of his coffee.

  Damn, was he going to make her spell it out? Was she reading too much into this? How embarrassing would it be if she was taking it completely wrong? Only one way to find out.

  “You. You and me.”

  “Do you like games?” he asked, not answering her question.

  “Not really. I’m sorry if you think I’m playing one. I’m just not good at this,” she said firmly and his smile dropped.

  “I should have figured. Sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable.”

  “I didn’t say that,” she said before she could stop herself.

  And there was the smile again. Crap. She normally had better control over her words. “Well then—”

  “What’s for breakfast, Quinn?” Lara asked, skipping into the kitchen in her pink and white Hello Kitty pajamas.

  So much for adult conversation. It’d have to wait till later. “Pancakes.”

  “Yay! Can I help?” Lara asked.

  “You sure can. It’s a holiday and a day for splurging. Grab the chocolate chips.”

  ***

  By nine that night, Max felt like a stuffed pig. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate so much. Now all he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep right here on the couch. He was too sluggish to even grab a blanket.

  It didn’t matter, the fireplace was lit and offered enough warmth. A night on the couch wouldn’t be so bad, he was guessing.

  The kids were downstairs finishing up their games. Another thirty minutes and Lara would have to get ready for bed. Davey too. They could stay up later without school in the morning, but he wanted them relaxing in their rooms.

  “That had to be the best Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever had. I can’t believe it’s the first one you made.”

  “Thanks. I’m pretty proud of myself.”

  “You should be.”

  Last year was the first Thanksgiving the kids had without any family around. Jennifer was hopeless for a holiday meal so he’d taken everyone out to dinner. It wasn’t the same, but then again, their lives weren’t the same last year either.

  “I’ll try to get creative with the leftovers.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do just fine with it.”

  He loved turkey, so he wasn’t worried about eating the leftovers. Besides, he’d come to realize she really did enjoy cooking. She was so creative with it too.

  “So back to our conversation from this morning,” Quinn said.

  Now he would have to think when all he wanted to do was sleep. “What about it?” he asked.

  “So no games, then what’s going on?”

  He’d give her points for being direct. Though in all honesty, he was glad she brought it up. It was time to address this…for both of their sakes. “Do you want something to go on?”

  “It’s not right.”

  “That isn’t what I asked.”

  “Max…” She stopped and he saw the distress on her face, then guessed.

  “It won’t affect your job.”

  “It’s not that. I mean, it is, but it’s complicated. What about the kids?”

  “They don’t need to know,” he said.

  He was entitled to a life, wasn’t he? He wouldn’t be having this conversation at all if he hadn’t seen the mutual signs she’d been giving him lately. Her sexy little sighs when she brushed against him or when his hand touched her, the blush that crept up her face when she caught him looking at her. And he wasn’t the only one looking, because he caught her eyes on him just as much lately.

  “It’s kind of hard to keep it a secret,” she argued.

  “We aren’t going to tell them. Let’s hold up. I don’t think we’re even on the same page here. I’m not talking about sex.”

  Her face turned bright red. She wanted to be blunt, so he could be too.

  “I’m sorry. I guess I’m confused,” she said.

  “Don’t get me wrong. Yeah, it’s been a while and I wouldn’t mind it. But I’m talking about getting to know you as a person. I’m not talking about anything else. Dating seems kind of crazy. I mean, you’re cleaning my underwear.”

  She burst out laughing. Okay that was good at least. “Point taken.”

  “Let’s agree we’re attracted to each other.”

  “Do we have to?” she asked, grinning at him.

  “I’ll take that as a yes. All I’m asking is we drop this wall and dance we’ve got going on right now.”

  “And do what?”

  “Don’t know. Got any suggestions? I’d suggest you make me a nice meal, but then you do that all the time as it is.”

  She laughed again, even better. She really did have a great personality.

  “What, do I look like a housekeeper and cook to you? Oh wait, I probably do.”

  He patted the couch next to him. “Come sit by me. I won’t bite. Not unless you want me to,” he said, taking a chance. The wall was down now. It was time to throw a little romance into this.

  “The kids are downstairs and will be up soon,” she said, hedging. He saw her look at the door then back to him longingly.

  “You want to though, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I do. Maybe later?”

  “Sounds good.” When his phone started to ring on the table, he leaned over and saw Mia’s name flashing. Just great. Right when he was stepping out of his comfort zone, his ex has to call. “Sorry, it’s Mia. I’m sure she wants to talk to the kids. They’re probably ignoring her call.”

  He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he talked fast, then stood up. “Let me go get Lara now. Hang on.”

  He returned a few minutes later and sat back down, but the warmth in Quinn’s eyes was gone. Talk about cold water.

  “She hasn’t called them lately, has she?”

  “For a few minutes two weeks ago. The kids never call her?” Quinn asked.

  “No. Mia never answers her phone. Lara will talk to her when she calls, but usually not Davey. Her calling me means she wants me to make Davey talk to her.”

  “Will you?”

  “It’s the holiday. He should at least say hi to her, but I won’t make him say much more.”

  Just as he predicted, Lara ran upstairs and handed him the phone saying, “Davey won’t talk to Mom but Mom wants to talk to you.”

  “Excuse me,” he said to Quinn and took the phone from Lara and walked toward Davey. He knew he’d be getting the cold shoulder from more than Quinn after this phone call.

  Damage Control

  After a lot of tossing and turning, Quinn threw the covers back and got out of bed earlier than normal.

  No amount of self-lecturing was helping.

  What could she have been thinking? It was wrong. She was wrong. This could never work. Not in a million years.

  She and Max were from different worlds. Hell, different universes.

  He had baggage. She had a football field full of baggage.

  No way, not happening.

  There were the kids to consider. Not to mention her job.

  But her body was telling her something else. Telling her it’d been way too long since she put herself first and just felt.

  It was probably going to be a huge mistake, she knew it deep down, but she couldn’t seem to tell herself to not at least see what could happen.

  Was Max right? What could it hurt to at least get to know each other a bit better? It’s not like this job would be long term. She knew that. Nothing in her life lasted long.

  With that thought in mind, she took a quick shower and decided to start her day. She’d have to think of something fun for her and the kids to do since Max’s office was open today and the kids were still on Thanksgiving break.

  Once in the kitchen, she started the coffee, then booted up the laptop. She’d never thought she would have much use for one, but found it was easier to search for recipes and ideas online than in her books.

  She was so lost in researching potential leftover recipes that she didn’t realize Max should have been down for breakfast already. At this rate, he’d barely make it to the office on time.

  She’d never known him to sleep in, even on the weekends. He was almost always in the kitchen within thirty minutes or less of her. She suspected he smelled the coffee and it woke him, though he usually denied it.

  She thought of using the intercom to call him, but realized that she didn’t know how it worked. No one had shown her after Jennifer said the kids got in trouble for using it as a prank and it was off limits unless there was an emergency.

  Well, guess she’d have to go to his room. It’s not like she hadn’t been in it before. She laundered his sheets. Of course, he usually wasn’t in the house when she was in his room.

  Not weird at all, she told herself, only she wasn’t very convincing.

  Walking slowly, she hoped it would give him time to appear, but no such luck.

  She started to make a bit more noise as she got closer to his room. Again, nothing.

  Finally standing outside his shut door, she placed her ear to the wood and listened, but didn’t hear a thing.