Steph would be so proud.

*   *   *

“Daddy! Daddy! We rode in a helicopter!”

“We saw a giraffe!”

“A goat tried to eat Jane’s shirt!”

The girls’ excited voices carried from Carter’s patio. Tess listened through the screen as she poured herself a cup of coffee. The hurt of her exclusion sliced through her and she let out a shaky breath. No walk of shame she could ever conjure in her imagination could have compared to the flare of heartache when Carter suggested she leave. As though she wasn’t good enough for his brother and his fiancée to meet. As though she wasn’t good enough for Jenny and Jane.

Tears stung at Tess’s eyes as memories of the previous night flooded her. Of Carter’s heartfelt words when he’d whispered in the dark, I think I could love you, Tess. She knew better than to believe the things men said post-orgasm. She’d lost count of the times Jared had said the same sorts of things. He’d told her she was the only woman he’d ever love. The only one he’d ever want. In the meantime, he’d been enjoying a little side action with her best friend.

It’s not as though she’d wanted to move in with Carter, play house, and be a mom to his girls. She’d known him for a little over a week and yeah, the past twenty-four hours had proven that they were more than sexually compatible, but that didn’t make for a relationship. She’d simply wanted more than his not-so-casual brush-off.

Morning gave way to afternoon and before Tess knew it, the sun had set. She sat in her living room, the furniture and floors still covered with drop cloths while she drowned her sorrows in a monster bowl of four-cheese mac ’n cheese and a glass of red wine. In the background, she barely noticed the episode of The Following she’d been trying to watch. Not even FBI agent Ryan Hardy could hold her attention tonight.

The soft sound of someone knocking at the back patio door sent a shock of adrenaline racing through Tess’s bloodstream. She checked the time on her phone—almost eleven. She went to the kitchen, her heart in her throat. Four palms and two little faces were pressed against the glass. Good lord. It was a wonder any part of Carter’s sanity remained intact with those two around. She let a slow sigh and tried to calm the racing of her pulse as she slid the door open to let them in.

“I know for a fact your dad doesn’t know you’re here.”

“He thinks we’re in bed,” Jenny said, sounding only a little guilty.

Jane jumped in to finish her sister’s thought, “But he wouldn’t let us come over earlier and we got something for you at the zoo.”

“I think he’s back to being cranky,” Jenny said.

Jane gave an exaggerated sigh. “He should have come to the zoo and maybe he wouldn’t be in such a bad mood.”

“You’re going to make him even crankier if he goes to check on you guys and finds out you’re gone,” Tess chided. She wasn’t even their parent, yet she felt like grounding them both. Her house might have been next door, but little not-quite-six-year-olds had no business wandering around late at night. “Come on, let’s get you two back in bed.”

“Wait!” Jane held out her little fist. A silver chain with a tiny penguin pendant dangled from her grasp. “Uncle Nate let us get this for you.”

Jenny added, “The penguins were our favorite part.”

“You two are the sweetest,” Tess crooned. She took the necklace from Jane and secured it around her own neck. “I love it.”

They beamed and their sweet expressions nearly did Tess in.

“Okay, back home with you two.” Their wide smiles transformed into pouty frowns. Tess took one of their hands in each of hers and escorted them across the lawn. She lifted them over the fence and then continued through Carter’s lawn and onto the patio. Before she even had a chance to knock, he noticed them through the window. His scowl caused Jenny and Jane to squeeze Tess’s hands tighter. She gave them each a reassuring squeeze in return. “He’s not mad,” she said, “just worried. You can’t sneak out of bed and leave the house. Especially this late at night. Got it?”

“Okay.” Their synchronized response coaxed a smile to Tess’s lips, but she tucked it away.

She brought her gaze up to the window and as Carter approached, her pulse kicked into high gear. He slid open the door and looked down at his daughters. He definitely had the intimidating dad routine down and it reminded her of their first meeting. “Both of you, upstairs and get in bed. I’ll be up in a second to talk to you.”

They took off like a shot through the kitchen. Moments later the muted thud of their tiny footsteps on the stairs could be heard and then the slam of a bedroom door. Carter kept his gaze locked on Tess, the expression so heated and intense it made her break out into a sweat.

“Sorry about that.” Apparently, they were back to being nothing more than neighbors. It might have been easy for Carter to pretend that the past twenty-four hours hadn’t happened, but that wasn’t so easy for her.

“You know I don’t mind. I talked to them about sneaking out of the house, though. They shouldn’t be running around at night.”

“I can handle them,” Carter said.

The curtness of his words stung. “I know you can,” Tess said. “I was just trying to help.”

Carter’s expression softened. “Thanks. I need to go talk to them before they try to throw a sheet out the window and escape again. Good night, Tess.”

Once again, her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach like a stone. “Good night, Carter.”

She turned to leave. A strong hand gripped her upper arm and spun her around. Before Tess could right her careening world, Carter put his mouth to hers. The kiss was desperate, frenzied, so full of unspoken emotion that it nearly shattered her. When he pulled away, she was breathless and shaken, her body humming with awareness of this amazing man who affected her with only a look.

“You said you could love me.” Tess didn’t care if she sounded desperate. She didn’t want to give up on the prospect of a relationship with Carter before it even got a chance to get off the ground. “Would it really be so bad to see what might happen if we gave it a chance?”

“I shouldn’t have misled you, Tess.” His words gutted her. “I—spoke in the heat of the moment. I lied.”

“No. You were being honest last night, you’re not now. Can you really just let this go, Carter? Can you stand there and say that you don’t feel a single thing for me?”

“I don’t love you. What happened was just sex. An itch that we both needed to scratch. We agreed that emotions wouldn’t get in the way, and I can’t help it if yours did. We had a great time and that’s all there is to it. It’s over. I have to let it go, Tess.” His voice broke with the words. “I can’t give you what you want.”

“What about what you want, Carter?”

He reached out and traced the line of her jaw with the pad of his thumb. “There can’t ever be anything between us. What happened yesterday won’t ever happen again. Good night, Tess,” he said again before turning and going back into his house.

Tess swallowed down the sob that threatened to break loose from her throat. That kiss, those words, were good-bye.

Twelve

Almost a week and a half had passed since Carter kissed Tess good-bye on his patio. His mood had spiraled into a cranky, antisocial state that caused the girls to seek refuge in their bedroom rather than spend time with him.

He sat on the patio, hoping to get a glimpse of Tess. Which was stupid because he was acting as though she was the one who’d cut off contact with him when it had been the other way around. His torture was self-inflicted, so if he was pissed, he had no one to blame but himself.

He hadn’t stopped thinking about her, hadn’t stopped replaying the memories of their time together in his mind. Those almost obsessive thoughts took up space in his brain that had been solely occupied by Steph up until now and it scared the shit out of him.