My Only Wish (8 page)

“It’s my pleasure.” He smiled reassuringly, stepping away to take her hand. “Will it be a problem if we take my car?”

“The Ferrari?” She heard the edge in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. She knew what kind of mess Jenna and Jason could create. Her own car had been the victim of one too many spills.

“Anything the kids do can be fixed or cleaned,” he said reassuringly, but laughed at some memory. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to have work done.”

“If you’re sure.” she agreed, but she was still nervous about it.

“It will be fine.”

With his agreement, they got in the car and she gave him directions to the Shaw home.

“I’ll be just a minute. Would you mind waiting out here?”

“Not at all. Take your time.”

Slipping on his sunglasses, Dylan watched as she walked toward the mansion. The offer to spend the day with her and the kids had surprised him, but he didn’t regret it.

This sort of situation usually wasn’t his style. Too messy. Too complicated.

But the thought of not being with her today had sounded so unappealing that he didn’t mind having the kids along.

When was the last time he had been around kids? He mulled over the thought as he opened a stick of gum. He honestly couldn’t remember.

The women he tended to date either didn’t want children, or had them cloistered away like some dirty secret.

What did that say about him?

There is nothing wrong with not wanting complications, he assured himself. But part of him wondered if he was missing out on something.

Perhaps complications were sometimes all right, even exciting.

All he knew now, was that he looked forward to today more than he had anything else in some time. Seeing how she behaved, reacted around the kids would tell him a lot more about her than any background check.

Seeing two kids racing out the door, he couldn’t help but grin. While the girl’s sandy blond hair was neatly done in pigtails, the boy’s matching hair was in complete disarray, spiking out in different directions from his head as if it had been the victim of a tornado. But their clothes, more geared toward heavy playing than impressing people, let him know a lot about their home life.

The Shaws may have money and influence, but it was obvious that they let their children be kids.

Stepping out of the car, he was pleased to see the kids flash him a smile.

“Abby said that we’re going to the pier today and that we get to ride in your car.” The boy glanced at the black Ferrari, eyes gleaming as he said the words.

Tongue in cheek, Dylan knelt down in front of the motley pair. “That’s right. Do you like cars?”

“Yeah!” The boy shouted as he fist-pumped the air, but Dylan wasn’t sure if that was an answer to his question, or the boy’s reaction to riding in the sports car.

Turning to the girl, he gave her a friendly smile that she returned, showing off her missing front tooth. “What about you? Do you like cars too?”

“Not as much as Jason does. But yours is pretty.”

“Thank you,” he said with a straight face, but he had to work not to laugh. He didn’t think his car had ever been described as ‘pretty’ before. “What’s your name?”

“Jenna. This is my brother, Jason.”

Hearing his name, Jason turned back toward Dylan. “Can I sit in the driver’s seat?”

“Sure.”

“Jason.”

Hearing the drawn out length of his name, the boy winced. “Yes, Abby?” He turned to his nanny with a bright smile.

Abby finished walking to them before she spoke. “Do you remember what I told you inside?”

“That we aren’t to pester Mr. Thane,” Jenna chirped a reply for her brother.

“Exactly.”

“He wasn’t,” Dylan said, taking sympathy on him. “He’s excited about the car. And I can’t blame him. I usually feel the same way when I see it too.” The hero-worship grin that Jason sent him had him momentarily reeling. It wasn’t often that someone looked up to him, and the level of admiration that was pouring out of the boy from one small thing astonished him.

“So, I can sit in the driver’s seat then?”

“We’ll save that for later, Jason.” Abby’s voice was firm, but gentle. “We need to get going if we’re going to be there before lunch.”

Jenna gasped before she went and took Abby’s hand. “Are we going to the peanut place?” Her eyes lit with excitement.

“The peanut place?” Dylan couldn’t help but ask when Abby laughed.

“It’s the coolest place ever!” Jenna moved closer to him as Jason climbed into the back seat of the car. “There’s a huge barrel of peanuts at the door and you can take handfuls to your table. When you eat them, you just throw the shells on the floor!”

The excited rant pulled another laugh from deep in Dylan’s chest. She was adorable. “That sounds amazing.”

“It is.” She began to climb into the car before turning back to Abby. “Can we take him there?”

“Sure.” She smiled at the girl, before looking up at him in question. “Is that ok? It’s low key, but they have great food.”

“Absolutely. I can’t pass up the chance at throwing shells on the floor. Sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Abby chuckled before she checked both of the kids’ seatbelts. Climbing into the car, they moved toward the freeway, remaining quiet as the kids filled the silence with their happy chatter.

“There’s parking in front of the restaurant on the pier,” Abby said. “It’s the best place to park.” He nodded, pulling onto the wooden structure, the slats beneath the car causing a thumping rhythm. “I should have asked earlier, have you been here before?”

“Not in a long time. I don’t remember much of it.” It was true. He had come once as a child with a foster family, but it was so long ago he couldn’t remember which one.

“Then you’re in for a treat.” She smiled at him as he parked.

When the kids were let out of the car they began running toward a restaurant with a blue whale painted on the side of the wall. “Stay close,” she called to them and they immediately slowed down.

Impressed, he leaned down to whisper in her ear, and he caught the scent of spiced apples on her skin. The desire to place a kiss at her neck overwhelmed him, but he held it in check. “You were right. You do have them well trained.” He felt, more than saw her shiver, and wanted to grin. Part of him wondered if the connection they had shared over the weekend was a fluke. He was glad to see that it wasn’t. “Shall we?” He took her hand and led her in to the restaurant.

His heart clenched as Jenna held onto his arm while he carried a heaping pile of peanuts to their table.

“Abby can never carry that many,” she said shyly.

“I have bigger hands.” She giggled and nodded as he held them up for her to inspect.

Seated with menus, Jason voiced his order to Abby. “I want a chocolate milkshake with a burger and extra fries.” At Abby’s raised eyebrow, and he looked down at his menu to escape her gaze. “How about carrots instead of fries?” He dared another look at her.

“How about you share the milkshake with Jenna too?”

“All right.” He grinned at her, and it was obvious to Dylan that the boy thought he had gotten a good bargain.

With full windows looking out over the ocean, the kids spent the rest of lunch commenting on the seagulls and boats that moved around the pier, and Dylan took the opportunity to watch Abby interact with the kids.

Over the last hour, he was impressed how she managed to wrangle the kids without raising her voice or speaking sternly with them. It was obvious that she loved them and that they loved her in return.

She showed her affection to the kids with her attention. Like when she had taken a moment to smoothe out Jason’s hair as he had chattered happily, managing to swallow bites of his cheeseburger in between comments. Or when she had helped shell peanuts ahead of Jenna’s desire for them.

They were a unit, he realized. And while not blood related, these kids were, in a way, part of her family.

He admired that. With his past in the foster system, he knew that there weren’t enough people like her willing to take on children that weren’t their own.

For a split second he imagined her holding a child. His child. The warmth that spread through him was enough to startle the image away.

With a shaky hand, he reached for his water. Where had that thought come from?

He chugged the icy drink down, hoping the cold would completely erase the image from before.

They barely knew each other. And besides, he wasn’t the father type.

But for a moment, the thought had been tempting.

“Can we go to the aquarium?” Jenna asked as they slipped out of their booth, finished with lunch.

“I don’t know. This is Mr. Thane’s first time here. Why don’t we let him decide?” Abby smiled over the girl’s head into his eyes. “What do you think?”

“I think it sounds fun.”

“All right!” the kids said in unison.

“You’ll love it.” Jenna smiled, moving to stand next to him. “There are all sorts of animals to touch, but you have to be gentle, and you can’t take them out of the water.” Her little hand moved to hold his, and his heart melted.

“Is that right? That sounds like something I can’t miss.”

The day whirled by in sunny warmth as they moved from the aquarium to get ice cream before haunting the shops.

Both Jenna and Jason had agreed that Abby needed a shell necklace that boasted five mussel shells in between the beading.

Seeming to mull it over, Dylan firmly nodded. “I think you’re right. She needs to have it.” Holding his hand out for the necklace, he moved to purchase the shells before placing it over Abby’s head.

“There.” He smiled into her laughing eyes. “She looks like a mermaid princess. What do you two think?”

“It’s perfect. Just like we said,” Jenna said, both of the kids laughing before looking at their own treasures.

“Thank you,” she whispered, leaning up to kiss him.

He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her a bit closer, giving her a longer kiss before pulling away. “Now you have something to remember today by.” And he wanted her to, because deep down, he knew that it would be a day that he would never forget.

She smiled as if reading his mind.

“Do we really have to leave now?” Jason asked, interrupting the moment.

“Yes. We’ve been here most of the day. We can come back soon.”

Her words seemed to pacify the kids as they piled back into the car.

The drive back was filled with long lulls of silence, all of them content to watch the setting sun over the ocean and reflect on all they did that day.

And all he would remember, he thought. Something had happened to him today; something that had changed between himself and Abby. What that something was, he didn’t know. He just felt closer to her, and felt the urge to learn more, to dig deeper, to grow closer.

The feeling was both unsettling and yet… right.

“I had a really great time today,” Abby said after the kids had run back into the house.