Not that she’d memorized his likes and dislikes over the years, but she found it interesting that his coffee preference hadn’t changed even through the nightmare of amnesia.
“I’ll drive,” she told him. “Unless your headache is better?”
“It’s not as bad today.” He glanced at her. “I took a painkiller last night. Figured it was the only way I’d get to sleep after you ran out on me.”
Amusement danced through his gaze along with a hint of heat that she had no trouble understanding. And on cue, there came the stupid blush. “I’m sorry. That was juvenile.”
“Why did you take off, then?” Casually, he spooned up some oatmeal as if the answer didn’t matter, but she caught the tightness around his mouth.
“It was too much,” she said carefully. And honestly. “We have a lot of challenges in front of us. I’d like to focus on them without...complications.”
That part wasn’t the whole truth, but it was certainly true enough.
“That’s a good point.” Antonio polished off his breakfast without fanfare and without arguing.
Caitlyn frowned. Was she that easy to resist?
It didn’t matter. No more kissing. That was the rule and she was sticking to it.
She stood and moved toward the door of the breakfast nook, hoping it didn’t appear too much as if she was running away again, but Antonio confused her and she wanted to find a place where she could breathe for a few minutes. “I’ll be ready to go shopping in about thirty minutes, if that’s okay.”
“Caitlyn.”
She paused but didn’t turn around.
“You focus on your challenges your way, and I’ll focus on my challenges my way.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she whispered, afraid she wasn’t going to like the answer.
“It means I’m going to kiss you again. The complications aren’t great enough to stop me. You’d best think of another argument if you don’t want me to.”
Seven
The Malibu Country Mart at Christmastime might not have been the smartest choice for keeping her distance from Antonio. For the fourth time, the crush of holiday shoppers forced them together, and for the fourth time, his thigh brushed Caitlyn’s hand.
She snatched it back before considering how telling a gesture it was.
Of course, his parting comment at breakfast had obviously been designed to throw her off balance, so alerting him to the fact that he’d succeeded shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
“There’s Toy Crazy,” she squawked and cleared her throat, pointing with her still-tingling finger. “Let’s hit that first.”
Antonio nodded without comment about her affected voice, bless him, and they walked in tandem to the store.
A Salvation Army bell ringer called out season’s greetings as they passed, and the holiday decor added a cheerful mien to the shopping center that Caitlyn wished she could enjoy. She loved Christmas, loved the holiday spirit and had been looking forward to the babies’ first experience with the festivities.
Now everything with Antonio was weird and uncertain and she hated that. For so long she’d dreamed of having a relationship with him, and nothing had happened like she would have thought. He was nothing like she would have thought, so different than the man he’d been before the crash. Darker, fiercer Antonio wasn’t the tame businessman her sister had married, and Vanessa was far more suited to handle this version of the man than Caitlyn was.
Antonio had flat-out told her he was going to kiss her again. What did she do with that? How did she come up with a better argument than “It’s complicated”? Especially when there wasn’t a better argument.
“After you,” Antonio murmured and allowed Caitlyn to enter the toy store ahead of him, then followed her closely as they wandered into the fray.
Dolls and rocking horses and toy trains dominated the floor space, jockeying for attention amidst the shoppers. Caitlyn grabbed a cart and jostled through the aisles in search of the perfect toys for their children. True to his words at breakfast, Antonio didn’t allow her to look at prices, and insisted she put everything in the cart she wanted.
Somewhere along the way, the sensual tension faded and the task became fun. They were just two parents picking out presents for their kids: swapping suggestions, agreeing with each other’s ideas, nixing the toys that one of them felt wasn’t age appropriate—mostly Caitlyn took on that role, especially after Antonio joyfully picked out remote-control cars for Leon and Antonio Junior. Honestly. The boys couldn’t even walk yet.