‘Justice,’ Mac growls into the phone, turning away from me.
I stare at him for a long moment, feeling a little like I’m in two different places at once. Part of me is still in a little bubble with Mac, completely oblivious to the fact that the rest of the world is spinning. The other part is right here, trying to process the aftermath.
He didn’t even touch me, and my whole body feels like he just branded it with his name. There are entire parts of me I didn’t even know existed until now currently letting off volcanic levels of steam. I’ve never been shy or lacked confidence, but I’ve never considered myself to be bold or daring either. Telling him I think he’s sexy as hell was a little bit of both.
He was teasing me and it just kind of…came out.
I’m glad it did though. Because I’m now one-hundred percent certain he wants me too.
Hallelujah.
‘Princess Lady!’
I glance into the house to see one of the twins standing at the intersection of a massive grand staircase. And geez. This place is even more beautiful inside than it is outside. The staircase is the focal point of the room, the bottom of it flanked by two carved wooden columns. The floors shine like burnished gold. Everything else is gorgeous dark wood. Even with toys strewn from one end of the house to the other, it’s breathtaking.
‘Hi, sweetheart,’ I say, crossing the threshold. ‘You’re Bella, right?’ Her blue eyes are just a shade darker than her twin’s. I really hope Holly’s jewelry is not as expensive as I imagine it probably is because Bella is wearing five different necklaces, six rings, and at least a dozen bangles on her little forearm.
‘Uh-huh,’ she says, giving me a big smile. ‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Jenna.’
‘Are you a real princess?’
‘Can I tell you a secret?’ I say, moving to the bottom of the staircase.
She bobs her head, her eyes wide.
I make a show of looking around before I place my hand beside my mouth and whisper, ‘All girls are real princesses. We just don’t all live in castles.’
‘Aunt Holly lives in a castle!’
‘I see that,’ I say, smiling. ‘It’s a very beautiful castle too.’
She wrinkles up her nose like she doesn’t share my opinion. ‘Wanna play pirates with us, Princess Jenna?’
‘Oh.’ I glance outside to see that Mac’s moved out of view. I’m not really sure if I’m supposed to wait here or what. He didn’t give me any guidelines. And didn’t I just tell him I make my own rules? He can’t get mad at me for wandering off if he didn’t tell me not to do it.
‘Sure,’ I say. ‘Maybe you can help me find something very important to me.’
‘What?’
I make a show of looking around again and then lean in closer to her. ‘A map,’ I whisper. ‘A mean goblin king stole it from me and now I can’t find my way home.’
‘Oh no,’ she whispers and then bounces down three steps and holds her little hand out. ‘Come with me, Princess Jenna. I’ll help you find your map.’
I take her hand, allowing her to pull me up the stairs. Her little nails are painted but the polish is chipped and smeared.
‘Izzy! Izzy!’ she yells, practically dragging me up the staircase to the left.
‘We have to be quiet, sweetheart,’ I remind her, remembering Mac’s warning to her and Isla not to wake up their baby cousin. ‘We don’t want the goblin king to hear us, do we? Then we’ll never get my map back from him.’
‘Oh, right,’ she stage whispers. And then she giggles. ‘I bet it’s locked in Unka Ian’s closet, Princess Jenna. He has all kinds of stuff in there, but he says it’s not for little girls.’ She scowls at me. ‘Boys are lame.’
‘Boys are lame,’ I agree, laughing quietly. I do not even want to know what Ian keeps locked in his closet away from prying eyes and curious little minds. The twins definitely don’t need to know either.
Bella pulls me up the stairs and then turns right. As expected, every room we pass is as beautiful as the last. I could spend hours just wandering through this house, looking at everything. From the looks of it, most of the furniture is antique. It really is like a castle, only the king of this kingdom is benevolent and kind…and he has a wickedly hot younger brother.
Bella and I find Isla in Ian’s office. At least I think it’s his office. One half of the massive space is in perfect order, the supplies on top of the antique desk arranged just so. The books on the shelves are all the exact same height with leather bindings. The carpet even has neat lines from the vacuum cleaner. The other half of the room looks like a tornado struck it. There are reams of paper stacked in haphazard piles all over the place. If there is another desk, it’s hidden under a small library of books and computer parts.
If the girls did this, Mac is going to flip.
‘Aunt Holly is a messy pants,’ Bella says, giggling when she sees me gaping at the disaster.
Isla pops out from behind Ian’s desk, her brown curls tangled around her face. Like Bella, she’s now dripping expensive jewelry. Mac didn’t seem worried when they were discussing stealing Holly’s jewelry though, so I don’t say anything. I’m guessing Ian and Mac let these two get away with murder.
‘Unka Ian locked his desk,’ Isla informs her twin.
‘Maybe that’s where the goblin king hid your map,’ Bella says, dragging me deeper into the room. ‘Izzy, a mean goblin king stole her map, now she can’t go home. We have to find it for her.’
Isla glances at me, her head cocked to the side. ‘Who are you?’
I smile at her question, the same one Bella asked.
‘This is Princess Jenna,’ Bella informs her. ‘I like her. She says all girls are princesses and boys are lame.’
‘My daddy isn’t lame,’ Isla says, pursing her lips. Her jaw firms, making it clear she’s not impressed with me or my opinions.
‘Your daddy isn’t lame,’ I agree, smiling at her. She’s a tougher nut to crack than Bella. That’s all right though. I have plenty of time to win her over. ‘But your daddy isn’t like most boys.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well,’ I say, trying to come up with an appropriate response. Telling two five-year-olds that their daddy is different because I want him to do wicked things to me isn’t happening. ‘Because he has two princesses for daughters. Do you know what that means?’
‘What?’ Bella asks.
‘It means he’s a king,’ Isla says, her little lips still pursed.
‘Exactly. And kings are brave and strong and far too good to be lame.’
‘What about the goblin king?’ she asks, still suspicious.
I fight a smile. ‘The goblin king isn’t a real king. He just likes to call himself that because he stole a castle from a real king.’
‘Oh,’ Isla says. She thinks about it for a minute and then shrugs one delicate little shoulder. ‘I guess we can help you find your map.’
‘Thank you, Princess Isla.’
‘We should lock the goblin king up in jail,’ Bella announces, releasing my hand to crawl up into Ian’s desk chair. ‘That’s what they did to my mommy when she stole from Unka Ian.’
I blink, caught off guard and not sure how to respond to that. Not sure if I should respond or if I should just pretend that I didn’t hear it. The last thing I want to do is upset Mac or make him think I was grilling his daughters about Marion.
‘We’re not supposed to talk about that,’ Isla says.
‘Daddy says I can talk about it if I want to talk about it, Isla Marie!’
‘Cannot, Bella Jade!’
‘Princess Jenna, tell Isla she isn’t the boss of me, and I can so talk about it,’ Bella says.
‘Well…’ I hesitate. Isla smirks like she thinks I’m going to tell Bella she can’t talk about it. But I remember what it feels like to grow up missing someone who is supposed to be in your life but isn’t. ‘Sometimes, it’s important to talk about things even if they make us sad or frighten us or we don’t understand them,’ I say carefully.
Bella smirks at her sister.
‘But it’s also okay not to talk about those things when you don’t feel like it,’ I say, my voice soft. Neither girl is wrong here, and I don’t want them to feel like I’m picking sides or trying to get them to talk about this. The last thing I want is for Mac to overhear and think I initiated this conversation or encouraged it. It’s not my place. But my heart aches for both of them.
I just want to sweep them up, hug them, and tell them that everything will work out in the end. Except I don’t want to lie to them either. Marion isn’t coming back for a long, long time.
‘It’s also okay if you only talk about them with the people you love,’ I say.
‘Oh,’ Bella thinks that over for a minute and then looks up at me. ‘Is it okay to miss her even if she did something bad, Princess Jenna?’
‘Of course it is, sweetheart. People make mistakes sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love them anymore or that we can’t miss them when they aren’t here.’
‘Well, I don’t miss her,’ Isla declares, scowling at her sister.
‘That’s okay too,’ I hurry to say before another argument breaks out. ‘Your heart is allowed to feel however it feels, even if it doesn’t always make sense to you. Everyone has a different heart, even twins like the two of you. They’re what make us special, and you two are very, very special.’
‘We are?’
‘You are,’ I confirm with a nod. ‘You’re powerful, brave pirate princesses with a great king for a daddy. That seems pretty special to me.’
Both of the girls exchange a look.
‘Now, do you pirate princesses want to help me find my map so I can find my way home?’ I ask, propping my hands on my hips like I mean business. ‘I think Princess Isla says the desk drawer is locked. We should pick it.’
Isla’s eyes grow wide. ‘You know how to pick a lock?’
‘No,’ I admit and then grin at her. ‘But I bet it would be fun to try, wouldn’t it?’
She eyes me for a minute, so somber and serious, and then she giggles and nods. ‘We can be cat-burger pirate princesses!’
I throw my head back and laugh when she says burger instead of burglar.
‘We need tools,’ Bella says, wiggling her way down from the chair.
‘You’re right.’ I cross the room and circle around the desk to her and her sister. The lock looks simple enough. I just hope it’s pick proof, or I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do when Mac comes looking for us.
‘What kind of tools do we need, Princess Jenna?’
‘Maybe a paperclip and a nail file.’
‘Oh!’ Bella reaches around me to slide open the top drawer on the desk. ‘There’s lots of paperclips in here.’
There are a lot of paperclips in there. Like the rest of the room, they’re all perfectly arrayed. Ian is kind of a neat freak, which is funny to me considering that one half of his office is a single gust of wind away from being declared a certified disaster zone.
I select a paperclip and set about straightening it out.
‘Now we just need a nail file,’ I say. ‘Do either of you know where to find one of those?’
‘Aunt Holly has some in her bathroom,’ Isla says.
‘Why don’t you girls go get one, and I’ll wait here?’ I suggest. Trying to break into Ian’s desk is bad enough. I do not need to be snooping through his and Holly’s bedroom too.
‘I’ll go!’ Bella cries, already running toward the door.
‘Me too!’ Isla takes off after her.
I’m in the process of climbing to my feet when I hear Bella cry, ‘Daddy! We’re breaking into Unka Ian’s desk to steal back Princess Jenna’s map.’
My heart jumps into my throat, and I nearly faceplant in the floor.
How long has he been out there? Hopefully not long.
‘So I hear,’ he says, his voice full of dry humor. ‘No running with the nail file, Bella. And make sure you hold the pointy end pointed at the floor. I don’t want you to stab yourself in the eyeball if you fall.’
‘I won’t fall,’ she says.
‘You always say that,’ Mac says. ‘And then you fall. Pointy end down.’
‘Okay, okay,’ she huffs. Even though her voice grows faint as she gets further away, the annoyance in her tone is plain as day.
Mac steps into the office, his eyes raking over me. I can’t get a read on his expression. He doesn’t look mad that I’m in here helping his daughters break into Ian’s stuff. And he’s not kicking me out either, so maybe he didn’t hear our conversation about Marion.
‘They like you,’ he says before I can say anything about it.
‘I like them too,’ I say, smiling. It’s true. They’re both sweet little girls with big imaginations and sharp minds. Bella is loud and outspoken and full of life. Isla is a little more serious but also fiercely protective of the people she loves. ‘You’re going to have your hands full in about ten years.’
He snorts, his expression full of wry amusement. ‘You’re drastically overestimating how long I have until I have my hands full. They’re both five going of eighteen. I’m outnumbered.’
‘Yeah? I think you love it,’ I tease him. ‘You’re wrapped around their little fingers.’
‘That obvious, huh?’ he says, striding toward me.
I nod, trying not to lose my breath when he’s close enough that I can smell his cologne. It’s spicy, somehow soothing and sexy at the exact same time. Everything about him is soothing and sexy. It boggles my mind that anyone could do what Marion did to him. Not because he’s gorgeous and smells incredible. Not even because I like him. But because he’s so in love with his daughters and doesn’t care who knows it. Most women would kill to have a husband as hands on and devoted to his family.
‘Um, the girls brought up your ex-wife.’
‘I heard.’
‘Oh,’ I whisper. ‘I didn’t ask them about her. I would never ask them about her or use anything they said in my story.’
He eyes me for a minute, still completely unreadable. Gah. He’s so intense! It’s like I can feel static electricity gathering in the air around him as he looks at me, yet I have no idea what he’s thinking. Does he think I’m lying? Does he want to kiss me? Is he wondering if he turned off the stove this morning? I have no idea, but I get the feeling he isn’t thinking about anything as innocent as the stove.
I like his intensity. I like the excitement crackling against my skin when his eyes are on me.
He looks at me like he’s really seeing me. Most men pretend I don’t exist, or sneer, or leer. If my clothing is even a little sexy, they act like I should be flattered when they make inappropriate comments. If I cover up, they sneer. My body offends them regardless of what I put on it. It’s the same way for most full-figured women. Hell, it’s that way for most women period.
No matter what we wear, men think they have a right to comment on our bodies. They look at us like we exist simply for their pleasure. Mac doesn’t look at me that way. He looks at me like he wants to eat me alive, yes. But he doesn’t stare at my boobs or adjust his junk or any of the gross things so many others do. When he looks at me, so completely focused that nothing else seems to exist to him, it makes me feel…beautiful.
But when he still hasn’t said anything after a long moment, I start to worry that maybe he thinks I’m here to get the scoop on his ex-wife or that I really am the one who brought her up to the girls. He doesn’t know me or why I went into journalism. I wouldn’t blame him for thinking the worst after everything he’s been through. But the thought of him doubting me makes me…sad. I want this man to trust me. I’m not even sure why I want it so badly.
‘I know a lot of reporters are pushy and invasive, but I’m not most reporters,’ I say, speaking quietly. ‘I know how it feels to have your worst moments turned into a news story. That’s not what I’m here to do. I’m just here to talk about Ian and his career.’
‘No, you’re not like most reporters.’ The way he looks at me when he says it makes my knees weak. I get lost in his gaze, caught up in him all over again. It’s so easy to do. His presence is overwhelming. There is no missing him, no ignoring him. He’s like a sunspot on the edge of my vision, too there to ignore.
I think maybe I’m a little like a sunspot for him too. We’re magnets, polarized and drifting closer, incapable of stopping the reaction. It’s exciting and a little bit terrifying too. I barely know him, yet I already feel drawn to him. I could easily fall for this man and his daughters. I think maybe I’ve already started the process of falling.
He stares at me for another minute and then shakes his head as if to clear it. ‘I believe you, dimples,’ he says. ‘I know you aren’t the one who brought her up. But Ian is going to have to reschedule. They’re keeping Holly overnight.’
‘Oh no,’ I whisper. ‘Is she okay?’
‘I think so. Her blood pressure was a little high. They want to monitor her.’ He rakes a hand through his dark hair and blows out a breath. ‘Ian won’t leave her side until she gets to come home tomorrow. Which means Finn is going home with me and the girls.’
‘Poor Holly. She’s probably missing him so much. Is there anything I can do to help?’
‘Yeah. You can come home with me.’
