Sledgehammer (Hard to Love 2)

Night has fallen by the time we finish eating and I clean up while Camilla feeds the baby. Ethan and I are about to leave when he gets a call, the Titans logo flashing on the screen of his cell phone.

Glancing at the screen he says, “I have to take this.”

I smile, knowing full well what this could mean. “Go,” I say running a hand up his arm. He walks into Calvin’s office and shuts the door.

In the kitchen Camilla finishes feeding the baby while I watch. “He’s the perfect man,” I say as I stare at Connor. “Naked and defenseless.”

Camilla smiles down at her son, then eyeballs the container of gelato I retrieved out of the freezer. “Do you want to hold him?”

“Too soon,” I reply with a telling face-scrunch. “I’m loving him too much right now. I could squeeze him to death, or eat a couple of toes in my excitement. Those have got to be the cutest big toes in the whole wide world.”

“They are, aren’t they?” his mother says, beaming. “He gets them from his father.”

I vomited a little in my mouth. “You had to ruin the moment.”

While I take a bite of the hazelnut gelato Ethan and I brought over, Camilla watches me with undisguised longing. “Is there something you want to tell me before male ears return?”

“Nope.” In response I get an arched brow and a knowing look. She gently places the baby in the basinet. After which, without warning mind you, she snatches the container out of my hand, then the spoon.

“Fine. I’m in love with him, okay?” I whisper and close my eyes, bracing for the impact of her opinion. One minute passes silently, two. By the third, I crack open one eye, then the other. And find Camilla digging into the ice-cream. She stuffs a big spoonful in her mouth, and smiles drunkenly. “I launch a hand grenade at you and you’re eating?”

“Am I thupposed to be thurprised?”

“Aren’t you?”

She swallows. “I’ve been waiting for you to figure it out. Aaand waiting. Zzzzzzz. This hazelnut gelato is some powerful sorcery, by the way.”

“Whatever.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“A big fat nothing. I’m leaving for L.A. as soon as the case is closed, depending on whether I’ll be spending any time in a New York State gulag––and he’ll get the job with the Titans.”

“I can’t talk about you leaving, or I’ll start to cry.”

“I know. But you know I have to give it a shot.”

“I know you do. Still, sucks for me.”

“For both of us.”

Her large, dark eyes hold mine. “He’s in love with you, too.”

Head shaking, I say, “He’s never mentioned the L word. Not once.”

Except to promise that he’d make me fall in love with him and dang but he was right. Score one for team McButterpants.

“Puhleeze. I’ve seen the way he looks at you when you’re not paying attention.”

My ears immediately perk up, my curiosity piqued. I really shouldn’t care. I really shouldn’t. But I kind of do. “Like what?”

Her face twists into a smirk. “Like a toddler that’s been handed a cell phone.” The confused look I return prompts her to continue. “He doesn’t have a clue what to do with you, but he’s willing to spend the rest of his life trying to figure you out.”

Huh.

“What are you girls up to?” a deep baritone calls out, interrupting what was sure to be a serious episode of me dissecting this information ad nauseam. Calvin leans against the massive kitchen island. Seeing the baby in the basinet, he swoops him up in his arms.

“We’re about to shoot a low budge, girl on girl porno. It’s either naughty Catholic school girls, or naughty Girl Scouts,” I say with my filthiest smirk.

Cal arches a reproachful brow. He’s good at that, the reproachful brow thing. “There’s a child present.”

“Bravo, naughty babysitter is an excellent idea.”

“Boo, maybe you should go put him in the basinet.”

“He sleeps better in my arms,” her pigheaded husband retorts.

“Calvin––” Cam’s voice is a lot less saccharine this time. “You need to put him down.”

“I have something I’ve been meaning to say to you,” I interrupt, directing this at the handsome giant who’s smiling at the baby sleeping in his arms. The wary expression this elicits almost makes me laugh. “Relax, Cal. It’s PG rated. Safe for little and big ears.” His expression clears and I take that as my cue to continue. “I know we’ve had our differences and I’ve said this to you before but…again, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I can’t even express how grateful I am. Paying the bail and Ethan and David for their time was––”

“Whoa,” the bearded man says, interrupting. I notice the frown on his face and return a frown of my own. Why on Earth would he be frowning? Did I use profanity? No. No, I did not.