Taking Tyler’s smile as encouragement, Seth slapped his open palms on Tyler’s chest and squealed. Tyler looked down to find little greenish handprints on his favorite shirt.
“You probably don’t want to know what that is.” Kimber winced.
He silently agreed. The shirt would wash, and it was a small price to pay for having this precious time with the boy, given how many of Seth’s other days Tyler had missed out on—and how many more he might miss in the future if Del decided to sweep in and return to L.A.
Through his bittersweet sadness, Tyler grinned and shook his head at the toddler’s chubby impish little face, then scooped him up, heading for the kitchen. After a quick wash of the boy’s hands, Tyler headed back out to the patio.
“Avocado,” he drawled. “Seth climbed up to the counter and grabbed it. I’ll bet he had a ball squishing it between his fingers and painting my kitchen cabinets.”
Kimber tried not to laugh. “Caleb does stuff like that all the time. You really can’t turn your back for a minute.”
Tyler hadn’t had much experience with parenting or kids until now, but he was quickly figuring out how right Kimber was.
May had become June, and the weather bordered on sultry now. Dusk approached and the cicadas chimed in, vying with the sounds of the croaking frogs.
Alyssa set the paper down, then turned to Tara. “So Xander is in your guest room and driving you crazy because he’s trying to avoid the press in L.A.?”
She nodded emphatically. “Since the article spelled out how helpful he was in bringing Carlson down, he’s been bombarded. Apparently, he doesn’t like being called the James Bond of billionaires.” She giggled. “And because he’s Xander, he’s driving me crazy. I know when he pokes fun at me that he’s just teasing, and I can mostly take it. But the groupies . . . His phone never stops ringing. He disappeared four times yesterday, each time with a different girl. I didn’t know he even knew anyone in Lafayette, much less had met enough girls to get laid multiple times a day, every day.” She sighed. “Remind me to clobber Logan next time I see him. I’d beat Xander silly, but besides servicing his apparent harem, he’s clearly going through a tough spot with Javier.”
“Learning that your wife is dead at the hands of the lover you didn’t know she had can’t be easy on Xander’s brother,” Tyler pointed out.
Five days ago, the police had found Francesca’s strangled, bloated body. Xander wanted to be with his brother. He’d said as much. But the press was swarming around him now. No way would Javier get any time alone to grieve if Xander went back to L.A. So he waited here, chomping at the bit, taking out all his frustration with a constant barrage of mindless sex. Tyler understood. The situation would be kind of funny if it weren’t so sad.
“I can’t believe the prick who killed her just dumped her body in the ocean,” Morgan chimed in, stroking her growing belly. She and Jack were anticipating a September baby. “Have they found him yet?”
“No,” Tara answered quietly. “There’s a huge investigation going on, but until they learn the identity of the man she was with . . .”
Nothing so far. Tyler figured it was only a matter of time before the authorities learned the identity of Francesca’s murdering lover, but the fucker was clever and had a monthlong head start.
Kissing her daughter’s downy head, Alyssa looked Tyler’s way. “What about Eric?”
“He’s lucky. The bullet missed his lungs by a millimeter. He’s going to be fine physically. He’s trying to cut a deal with the DA now. I think they’re offering him immunity in exchange for the names of everyone else he knows that Carlson roped into his scam.”
Before leaving town, Tyler had visited Eric in the hospital. They were never going to be friends again, and Eric had a lot to work through. They’d talked. Eric had apologized. After seeing the damage he’d nearly wrought on Del by touching her against her will, he’d started taking a hard look at himself—and Carlson. It hadn’t taken long to figure out that the dirty ADA had been trying to kill her. He’d snatched the flash drive out of Del’s hiding place when he’d figured out that Carlson wanted it bad enough to trash the house, but instead of giving it over, he’d read it and realized that Del was living on borrowed time. So he’d set up the meeting between her and Carlson, then done everything possible to ensure that Del lived. The visit had been enlightening. Eric seemed to finally understand that he was truly responsible for his actions. That was a start. He’d also agreed to stay the hell away.
“So . . .” Alyssa slated him another stare, this one really direct. “Hear from Del again?”
Other than one text in which she’d told him that she’d come soon? “No.”
And he didn’t fucking want to talk about it. They’d only try to find some bullshit words to console him, some “if you love her, set her free” crap that made his teeth grind.
He loved her and he wasn’t ready to let her go, not unless she looked him in the eye and told him that she didn’t love him. He had feelers out to track her down now, and the second she slipped onto his radar, it was goddamn for sure that he was going to run her to ground. They would have a long talk about the future. He wouldn’t let her leave until he was absolutely convinced that she didn’t want to be with him.
Because he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life.
“Sorry,” Alyssa murmured. “Given any thought to coming back to work at Sexy Sirens? All the girls really miss Cockzilla.”
Tyler had to repress a grimace. He hadn’t gone more than a handful of days without sex in years. In the past, a seven-day drought would have had him climbing the walls. Today? Sure, he wanted sex, but only if the kisses were Del’s. Only if the body he pushed into was hers. Only if the nails in his back and the cries of passion in his ears belonged to her.
“No. I’ll hang with Jack. You can find a bouncer anywhere. My skill set is better suited to his line of work.”
Alyssa cocked her head, studying him. Tyler felt like a bug pinned to a board.
“What?” he demanded.
“You are head-over-heels, one-hundred-percent completely in love with this woman. I’ll have to tell Jessi and Skylar that you’re off the market. I think they might actually cry,” Alyssa drawled.
“Fuck off,” he groused, then remembered his son was still sitting in his lap and winced. Seth was young at fifteen months, but would probably start repeating everything he heard soon. Tyler knew he was going to have to watch his mouth.
Morgan looked at her watch, then across the table at him. “I think it’s great that you’re in love with her. You’re too good to be alone.”
“Tell that to Delaney.” Tyler sighed. The waiting was getting tougher every day.
Just then his back door opened, and Jack Cole appeared. “Tell her yourself.”