For the Sake of Their Son (The Alpha Brotherhood #5)(34)
Author: Catherine Mann

“He was probably too embarrassed. Men can be proud that way.” She sipped her ice water, sun glinting off the Waterford crystal that Lucy Ann recalled choosing for a wedding gift to the couple.

There’d been a time when tasks like that—picking out expensive trinkets for Elliot’s wealthy friends—had made her nervous. As if the wrong crystal pattern could call her out as an interloper in Elliot Starc’s elegant world. But it had taken walking away from the glitz and glamour to help her see it for what it really was…superficial trappings that didn’t mean a lot in the long run. Lucy Ann was far more impressed with Jayne’s nursing capabilities and her motherhood savvy than with what kind of place setting graced her table.

“There’s a lot to learn about parenting,” Lucy Ann acknowledged. “Especially for someone who didn’t grow up around other kids.” She would have been overwhelmed without Aunt Carla’s help.

And wasn’t it funny to think that, even though she’d traveled the globe with Elliot for a decade, she’d still learned the most important things back home in South Carolina?

“I think it’s wonderful that he’s trying. A lot of men would just dump all the tough stuff onto a nanny.” Jayne shot a glance over her shoulder through the open balcony doors, somehow knowing Conrad had arrived without even looking.

“I just suggested that it wouldn’t hurt to let someone else change the diapers,” said Mr. Tall, Dark and Brooding. “Who the hell wants to change a diaper? That doesn’t make me a bad human being.”

Lucy Ann had to admit, “He has a point.”

Jayne set her glass down. “Don’t encourage him.”

Conrad chuckled as he reached for his daughter. “Lucy Ann, let me know when you’re done. I promised Elliot I would drive you and the kidlet back to the condo. He said he’s running late at the track. Have fun, ladies. The princess and I are going to read the Wall Street Journal.”

Conrad disappeared back into the house with his daughter, words about stocks and short sales carrying on the wind spoken in a singsong tone as if telling her a nursery rhyme.

Lucy Ann leaned back in the chair and turned her water glass on the table, watching the sunlight refracting prisms off the cut crystal. “I envy your tight-knit support group. Elliot and I didn’t have a lot of friends when we were growing up. He was the kid always in trouble so parents didn’t invite him over. And I was too shy to make friends.”

“You’re not shy anymore,” Jayne pointed out.

“Not that I let people see.”

“We’ve known you for years. I would hope you could consider us your friends, too.”

They’d known each other, but she’d been Elliot’s employee. It wasn’t that his friends had deliberately excluded her, but Conrad had been separated for years, and only recently had the rest of them started marrying. She knew it would be easier for all of them if she made the effort here.

“We’ll certainly cross paths because of Eli,” Lucy Ann said simply.

“And Elliot?”

The conversation was starting to get too personal for her comfort. “We’re still working on that.”

“But you’re making progress.”

“Have you been reading the tabloids?”

“I don’t bother with those.” Jayne waved dismissively. “I saw the way you two looked at each other when Elliot dropped you off.”

In spite of herself, Lucy Ann found herself aching to talk to someone after all, and Jayne seemed the best candidate. “He’s into the thrill of the chase right now. Things will go back to normal eventually.”

“I’m not so sure I agree. He seems different to me.” Jayne’s pensive look faded into a grin. “They all have to grow up and settle down sometime.”

“What about―” She didn’t feel comfortable discussing the guys’ Interpol work out in the open, so she simply said, “Working with the colonel after graduation and following a call to right bigger wrongs? How do they give that up to be regular family guys?”

“Good question.” Jayne pinched the silver tongs to shuffle a petit four and fruit onto a dessert plate. “Some still take an active part once they’re married, but once the children start coming, things do change. They shift to pulling the strings. They become more like Salvatore.”

“Mine is a bit wilder than yours.” When had she started thinking of Elliot as hers? Although on some level he’d been hers since they were children. “I mean, seriously, he crashes cars into walls for a living.”

“You’ve known that about him from the start. So why are things different now?”

“I don’t know how to reconcile our friendship with everything else that’s happened.” The whole “friends with benefits” thing was easier said than done.

“By ‘everything else’ you mean the smoking hot sex, of course.” Jayne grinned impishly before popping a grape in her mouth.

“I had forgotten how outspoken you can be.”

“Comes with the territory of loving men like these. They don’t always perceive subtleties.”

True enough. Lucy Ann speared a chocolate strawberry and willed herself not to blush at the heated memories the fruit evoked. “Outspoken or not, I’m still no closer to an answer.”

Jayne nudged the gold-rimmed china plate aside and leaned her arms on the table. “You don’t have to reconcile the two ways of being. It’s already done—or it will be once you stop fighting.”

Could Jayne be right? Maybe the time had come to truly give him a chance. To see if he was right. To see if they could really have a fairy-tale life together.

Fear knotted her gut, but Lucy Ann wasn’t the shy little girl anymore. She was a confident woman and she was all-in.

* * *

Elliot shrugged out of his black leather jacket with a wince as he stepped into the dark apartment. He’d done his prelim runs as always, checklists complete, car scrutinized to the last detail, and yet somehow he’d damn near wiped out on a practice run.

Every muscle in his body ached from reactionary tensing. Thank goodness Lucy Ann hadn’t been there as she would have been in the past as his assistant. He didn’t want her worrying. He didn’t want to risk a confrontation.

He tossed the jacket over his arm, walking carefully so he wouldn’t wake anyone up. His foot hooked on something in the dark. He bit back a curse and looked down to find…a book? He reached to pick up an ornately bound copy of Hansel and Gretel. He started to stand up again and looked ahead to find a trail of books, all leading toward his bedroom. He picked up one book after the other, each a different fairy tale, until he pushed open his door.