Gideon shot him a look. “Damn straight. And I’d better not find you in my house again.”
Though the other man had obviously been trying to avoid a confrontation, he stiffened in response to Gideon’s surly challenge, his male ego piqued. “Trust me, I have no desire to pay any social calls on you.”
Isabelle poked out her lower lip. “You can come visit me at Nate’s house, Officer Smith,” she said, giving Gideon a reproachful look. “Nate will be nice if I ask him to.”
Now everyone was looking at Gideon as though he were the killjoy who had arrived to ruin their pleasant afternoon. Even Nathan looked more concerned with Isabelle’s displeasure than sympathetic with Gideon’s plight at finding an old enemy at his table. He’d never expected his own family to take Dylan Smith’s side over his.
Dylan patted her cheek. “Thank you, princess Isabelle. I’m sure I’ll see you around town. I’ll make a point to stop and visit with you when I do, okay?”
She seemed only partially appeased.
Glancing at Adrienne with an I-warned-you expression that even Gideon could read, Dylan asked, “When will you be heading back to New York?”
“Tomorrow. I’ll call you. You did leave me your number, didn’t you?”
“It’s in the package. Have a safe trip back.”
He left a heavy silence behind him when he departed without another glance at Gideon.
“Well,” Nathan said after a beat. “That was fun.”
Still itching to fight—especially after that cozy exchange between Dylan and Adrienne—Gideon rounded on his brother. “I shouldn’t have had to throw him out. You should have already taken care of that.”
Her dark eyes glinting dangerously, Adrienne stepped toward him. “Isabelle, sweetie, why don’t you show Caitlin the pictures you’ve drawn at school this week? They’re in your room.”
Caitlin eagerly seized the chance to escape the impending confrontation. “I would love to see your schoolwork, Isabelle. And I want to hear all about your week.”
Still sending Gideon a look that gave him the urge to shuffle his feet on the floor like a schoolboy in trouble with his parents, Isabelle took Caitlin’s hand and left the room.
“Now,” Adrienne said when she, Nathan and Gideon were alone in the kitchen. “Why don’t you vent your bad temper at the person who is responsible, rather than innocent bystanders? I invited Dylan into this house because he has become a friend of mine. I knew you wouldn’t particularly like it, but I didn’t think you would be quite so rude and ungracious about it.”
“It wasn’t all Adrienne’s fault,” Nathan supplied gallantly. “I’m the one who suggested raiding your refrigerator. Caitlin invited Dylan to join us for a sandwich. So you might as well be mad at all of us.”
“Trust me, I am.”
Nathan nodded. “Fair enough.”
“I just can’t understand why you’d suddenly be all cozy with Smith,” Gideon complained, shoving a hand through his hair. “I know we’ve nicknamed you Nathan the Peacemaker, but you’ve always disliked that guy as much as I have.”
“What makes you think I’ve suddenly changed my mind about him? I haven’t, and he made no pretense to be any more fond of me. We agreed to be civil for a couple of hours for Adrienne’s sake and for Isabelle’s.”
Something he, of course, had failed to do. Torn between self-r
ighteous indignation and an uncharacteristic ripple of guilt, Gideon glanced at his still-angry agent. “I didn’t like finding him in my house.”
“You’ve made that perfectly clear,” she snapped, and he almost winced in response to her sharp-edged tone. “I apologize for my breach of etiquette, and I can assure you it won’t happen again. For one thing, I’ll be leaving tomorrow, and I doubt I’ll ever be in a position to invite anyone inside your house again.”
Nathan cleared his throat. “I think I’ll go look at Isabelle’s drawings.”
Ignoring his departing brother, Gideon concentrated on Adrienne, instead. “When did you decide to go back tomorrow?”
Her voice was cool when she replied. “That’s pretty much been a given all along, hasn’t it? You asked me to stay for the weekend so I would have a chance to attend the festival. Now that your brother and sister-in-law have returned to collect Isabelle, there’s no reason for me to stay.”
No reason at all why she should, he silently agreed—except that, no matter how annoyed he was that she’d brought Dylan Smith into his home, he still wasn’t ready for her to leave. It would have been nice to have a chance to spend more time alone with her, now that they wouldn’t be baby-sitting.
He supposed he had pretty much blown any chance of a replay of last night’s spectacular lovemaking.
Those intimate hours had replayed themselves over and over in his mind all day. He had needed to get away for a few hours to put the interlude into perspective. The emotions between them had flared uncomfortably high last night, but he’d convinced himself that there was no reason to be worried that either of them would be hurt. He and Adrienne were hardly inexperienced kids; they both knew the score and were both prepared to say goodbye when the time came to do so.