The Wrong Man (Alpha Men 3)

He had a long, hot shower, trying to work the kinks out of his aching body. He shouldn’t have pushed as hard as he did today. But he was impatient to get back to normal, back to his life and his work. This place and its overly friendly people were starting to mess with his brain. All his interactions with Lia, as an example, had been way more intense than anything he would normally have with a woman. For a brief insane moment, this afternoon, he’d actually considered adopting Trevor himself. Which would have been a mistake, since he didn’t have the time to dedicate to a dog.

Sam also found himself enjoying the McGregor/Carlisle clan way too much. He liked the instant welcome and acceptance he’d received from them. And on Monday and Wednesday he’d actually looked forward to hanging out with Bertie, Alison, and the rest of the seniors.

Sam didn’t recognize himself, and it was highly disturbing. This vacation had been way too long, and it was time to touch base with Colby.

“I would never consider marrying someone who isn’t prepared to have my mother move in with us,” Peter Baker explained earnestly, greedily shoveling a forkful of apple pie into his mouth before continuing to talk. He had a thick black beard, and pieces of pastry kept falling and getting trapped in the hair. In fact, he was quite . . . hirsute. His shirt was unbuttoned at the top, and a thick carpet of hair trailed up from the collar to meet the beard hairs in his neck. That, combined with the mop of overlong hair on his head, gave him a distinctly ursine appearance.

And while some women might find that appealing, Lia imagined what it would be like to kiss him with all that hair on his face. She kept picturing it getting into her mouth and stuck between her teeth. Ugh, what if she swallowed a stray hair? She shuddered and could barely concentrate on what he was saying. Which was probably a blessing, since he hadn’t stopped talking about his mother all evening.

“Do you like cooking?” he suddenly asked, and Lia blinked, tuning back into the conversation. It had been a while since he’d asked her something.

“What?”

“Cooking. Do you cook?”

“Yes. I enjoy it.”

“You should get my mother to give you her chocolate cake recipe. It’s the best. Maybe you can bake a cake for me sometime. But only after you get the recipe from my mother.”

Right. Where was Thandiwe, the waitress, with that check? Lia was about ready to leave.

“I make a pretty decent chocolate cake myself,” she said.

“I’m sure it’s nice,” he said, blatant dismissal in his voice. “But my mother has this special way of mixing the batter that makes it unbeatable. She won a baking competition with that cake.”

Lia made a show of looking at her watch.

“Oh wow, it’s getting pretty late. I should get home. I have work in the morning.”

“Really? I thought you were unemployed. Truthfully, I would prefer a woman who stayed home after we have kids. My mother will help raise them, of course.”

“I work at the preschool on Tuesdays and Fridays,” Lia said frostily, offended that this guy wanted her to stay at home with his future kids and his mother. It took her a moment to recognize that it was pretty much in line with the life she had once desperately wanted. Now—and not because she found Peter Baker and his unknown mother completely unlikable—she couldn’t imagine staying home permanently. She admired women who did and would happily take years off to spend with her children, but she would always want to go back to teaching.

“You do? Nina didn’t mention that.” Her friend Nina Clark had reluctantly set her up with Peter. Pretty much at Lia’s insistence. She had warned Lia that he probably wasn’t the guy she was looking for. But Nina had once, ages ago, mentioned her boyfriend’s single friend Peter, and Lia had called her this morning and asked her to set up a blind date with the man. Next time she’d listen to her friends when they told her a guy wasn’t for her. Nina would only give her a resounding “I told you so” when she heard about this disastrous evening.

“It’s not common knowledge yet. I plan to become a fully qualified preschool teacher, and the job will eventually become permanent.” Part of her really hoped he’d realize that the schools were closed and clue in to the fact that he was being brushed off.

“Will you give it up when you start popping out babies?” he asked crassly, and Lia fortified herself with a gulp of wine and shook her head.

“No. Anyway, it’s really late. I have to get home. Thank you so much for a lovely evening, but I don’t think we have much in common. So we probably won’t be seeing each other again.” She summoned Thandiwe over, and the young woman, who had been waiting for her signal, astutely guessing that Lia would want to make a break for it, hastened over with the bill.