Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (145 page)

Jason looked up and his dad nodded. He
picked up the flower and moved closer to Lilith, watching Ralph
carefully. The sun sparkled on the bird’s red throat like it did on
some cars.

Ralph suddenly darted back and seemed to
face him for a long moment. Jason understood that the bird was
checking him out. He offered the flower very slowly, just like
Lilith said.

He held his breath.

In the blink of an eye, Ralph zoomed closer.
He was right there! Jason could have touched him, but he was afraid
to even move. Ralph stuck his beak into the flower, then pulled
back.

“
Breakfast!” Nana called,
slamming the kitchen door behind herself. “Who’s up for chocolate
cake?”

Ralph zipped skyward.

Jason spun to face his grandmother and
yelled as he almost never did. “Nana! You scared Ralph!”

Nana looked confused. “What?”

“
Jason was feeding a
hummingbird,” Dad told Nana and she bit her lip.

“
Oh, honey, I’m sorry…”
and then Nana gasped. She jumped back and Jason almost
laughed.

Because Ralph was hovering beside Nana’s
shoulder, giving her the same look he had given Jason.

“
It’s the flowers on her
shirt,” Lilith whispered with a smile. “He’s not sure if they’re
real.”

And it seemed he wasn’t. Nana was wearing
one of her bright shirts from Hawaii, this one covered with big
pink flowers. Ralph took only a moment to decide they weren’t worth
the trouble, then zinged over the house and disappeared.

“
That was neat!” Jason
declared.

Lilith smiled. “Yes, I like Ralph.”

“
Does he really come all
the time?”

Lilith nodded. “Every day.”

“
Can I come see him
again?”

“
Jason!” Dad objected, but
Lilith just nodded.

“
Of course you can!” She
leaned closer. “But you know what you might like even better?”
Jason shook his head. “What if Ralph came to your yard
too?”

Jason looked at their yard and didn’t see
anything like the long pointy flowers Ralph liked. “But we don’t
have any flowers for him.”

“
Not yet.” Lilith turned
the red flower. “This is called beebalm. Ralph looks for bright
flowers and ones that are long with nectar at the bottom.” She
handed it to Jason. “If you put this in water, it will probably
root. Then you’ll have a whole new plant for your
garden.”

“
What about
yours?”

Lilith touched the spot where the plant came
out of the ground. “Beebalm is a perennial. That means the top dies
but the root lives through the winter and it grows again every
spring. It just gets a little bigger every year. My beebalm will
come back.”

Jason frowned. “But it wouldn’t be fair if
Ralph stopped coming to your flowers.”

Lilith smiled. “I don’t have enough flowers
for Ralph. He needs to eat a lot of nectar, so that he can keep
flying so fast.” She touched Jason’s arm with one fingertip. “You
can help make sure that he gets enough to eat.”

Jason liked the idea of that. He decided it
would be pretty neat if Ralph came to his yard every day. He turned
the plant in his hands and it smelled a bit sweet.

No wonder Ralph liked it.

“
Do you like birds?” Lilith
asked.

“
I like Ralph.” Jason
nodded. “And I like bugs. A lot.”

“
Well, bumblebees like a
lot of the same things that Ralph likes. What do you say we get
your garden started?” She looked at Dad. “If that’s okay with
you?”

Dad grinned. “That would be more than
okay.”

“
Well, then, that’s that.
Jason, if you go back there” - Lilith pointed to the end of her
yard - “you’ll find some plastic buckets. We’ll put some water in
them, then some of these flowers.”

This was so neat! He was going to have bugs
and Ralph and everything, right in his own backyard! Jason set out
for the back of Lilith’s lot with purpose.

“
But please don’t step on
the toad!” she called after him.

Toad? She had a
toad
?

Wow!

Beebalm clenched in his fist, Jason inched
toward the back of Lilith’s yard. He frowned at the path,
determined not to miss the toad or anything else of interest.

He liked their new house already.

*

Mitch cleared his throat. Here he was
supposed to be apologizing to Lilith, he was expecting her to be
furious with him, yet she was being nice to his son.

“
Look, Lilith, it’s really
nice, but you don’t have to do this.”

She smiled at Mitch and his heart took a
little flip-flop. The sapphire dress she wore swirled around her
ankles as she stepped closer. Her hair was in a ponytail, the way
she had it tied up revealing the graceful curve of her nape.

The woman was so lethally sexy that Mitch
just wanted to eat her up with a spoon. A night’s sleep had done
nothing to diminish her appeal.

“
But I want to show him!”
she protested with a smooth smile. “He’s so interested and it’s
nice to share what you know with someone who wants to
learn.”

Mitch couldn’t argue with that. “Well, yeah.
Jason will listen to you for as long as you keep talking to him.”
He grinned at her. “Forewarned is forearmed. Just send him home if
you get done with it.”

“
He’s just like a little
sponge!” Andrea interjected pertly. Mitch blinked, having forgotten
his stepmother’s presence. Andrea peeked around the end of the
fence that Mitch was fixing and smiled sunnily at
Lilith.

Lilith smiled back. “Well, hello.”

“
Andrea Davison. Mitch is
my stepson.” She shook Lilith’s hand and practically bounced in
anticipation.

“
Pleased to meet you.”
Lilith’s gaze slid to Mitch and her eyes danced with mischief. “You
must be the one interested in having your fortune told.”

Mitch opened his mouth to interrupt, but
neither woman was listening to him.

“
Oh, yes! Tarot cards, tea
leaves, it doesn’t matter to me.” Andrea giggled, then leaned
closer to Lilith. “Can you really predict lovematches?”

“
Of course.”

Mitch stifled his snort of disdain. Of
course?

The women ignored him.

Andrea bounced with impatience. “Do you
think you might have time to do a reading for me this weekend?”

That was enough.

“
Andrea! Cooley has just
trashed Lilith’s fence and Jason is moving into her yard.” Mitch
threw out his hands in exasperation. “I think we’re wearing out our
welcome.”

But Lilith laughed. Her low laughter coaxed
that ember lingering in Mitch’s belly back to a flame. Had he ever
met a more attractive woman?

That thought led naturally to the
recollection of their first meet and Mitch had a hard time keeping
his thoughts straight after that. It didn’t help that Lilith was
watching him as though she knew what he was thinking.

And smiling that seductive, secretive smile
that made his ears feel hot.

“
It wouldn’t be any problem
at all,” she conceded. “How about this afternoon?”

“
Oh! That would be
perfect!” Andrea playfully punched Mitch in the shoulder. “See? I
told
you.” She rolled her eyes and smiled back at Lilith.
“He worries so much about everything. I’ll just pop over when the
kids have their nap.”

“
I’ll look forward to
seeing you.”

A plaintive cry came from the second floor
and Mitch suddenly realized that Jen was not only awake but
confused.

He stepped away from the fence, but Andrea
was on the porch in record time. “I’ll get her,” she said quickly.
“I shouldn’t have even left her, but I just – well, I just had to
meet you.” Andrea beamed. “Well, I’ll see you this afternoon.”

As Jen began to wail, Andrea ran.

Mitch had a hard time staying put, even
knowing that Andrea could manage. He really didn’t like hearing his
little girl cry. He fidgeted and glanced anxiously to the
house.

“
Two kids?” Lilith asked
softly. She was beside him again, her eyes impossibly wide and
dark.

“
Yeah. Five and three.”
Mitch managed to smile. “Busy, busy, busy.”

Jen stopped crying and Andrea’s dulcet tones
carried through the open upstairs window. Mitch felt relief slide
through him just as Lilith leaned against the restored fence. “I’ll
bet.”

To Mitch’s relief, she seemed disinterested
in the whole sordid story of how he had ended up with kids but no
wife. Lilith’s gaze ran over the chunks of fence scattered across
his yard, then paused on the banished Cooley.

She glanced back to Mitch, her eyes dancing.
“Am I right to guess your dog finally coaxed these old fence posts
to break?”

“
Oh yeah.” Mitch lined up a
final nail and hammered it home, welcoming the change of subject.
He tested the fence. The shims around the rotten posts seemed to be
holding well enough.

At least for the short term.

“
He’s like a freight train
once he gets moving,” Mitch acknowledged.

“
And probably just as hard
to stop.”

They looked to the dog in unison, who lifted
his head hopefully. “Cooley the wolfhound,” Mitch said by way of
introduction. “Seldom bites and never very hard.”

Lilith chuckled. “He looks very friendly.”
Cooley’s tail thumped against the ground.

“
You stay there,” Mitch
advised the dog. “You’re still in trouble.”

“
In the doghouse,” Lilith
corrected, a smile lurking in her voice.

Mitch chuckled, met her dancing gaze and was
snared for a long hot moment. When he realized what he was doing,
he deliberately turned to frown at the remnants of the fence.
“Well, I’ve got a buddy who’s a real carpenter. He’s coming up next
weekend to help me decide where to start inside, but we’ll replace
this fence first.”

“
You don’t have to do
that.”

“
But I want to.” Mitch was
suddenly very serious. “I’m really sorry, Lilith.
Again.”

Lilith folded her arms across her chest, a
smile playing over her full lips. “The fence was bound to go sooner
or later. The posts were really getting rotten.”

“
But I wish it hadn’t
fallen on your plants.”

Lilith shrugged philosophically. “Well, cut
flowers all around. I’ll give you some for your kitchen.”

The woman was just too nice to be believed!
“Lilith, you don’t have to do that.”

“
We might as well enjoy
them. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? And at
least some of the cuttings can start your garden.” She wrinkled her
nose, her dark gaze fixing intently on Mitch and making him feel
hotter than he was. “Are you sure you don’t mind about Jason
starting a garden? It’s a lot of work.”

Mitch gave her his best smile, immensely
relieved that she had accepted his apology. “I’d kind of like to
have a garden. Grow some vegetables that aren’t doused in
pesticides, you know?” Lilith nodded easy agreement. “But I don’t
know how to start.”

“
I’d be glad to help.” They
shared a smile so warm that it curled Mitch’s toes.

Then Lilith waved a hand at the fence. “But
why bother to fix the fence now? You could just leave it down until
the weekend.”

Mitch granted his dog a significant glance.
“We’ll all sleep better with a fence around him.” He dared to meet
the lady’s gaze again. “I’ll pay for the whole thing, so don’t
worry about that.”

“
Mitch! That’s not
fair.”

“
It sure is.” Mitch cleared
his throat, unwilling to name the precise reason he felt so guilty.
“Look, Lilith, we haven’t started out on the right foot here.” He
couldn’t hold her gaze, so frowned and stared at the nail in his
hand. “I, uh, I’m not proud of how I behaved yesterday. I usually
have more self-control.”

She took a step closer, the curve of her
shoulder in his peripheral vision. Mitch didn’t look up.

“
Do you regret what
happened?” she asked, her voice low and sweet.

Mitch closed his eyes, certain the
temperature in the yard had just doubled.

Maybe trebled.

But he couldn’t lie to Lilith. He’d never
guessed that sex could be so hot and impetuous. He’d never imagined
that he could want a woman so desperately - or that a woman could
want him the same way. Just thinking about it made his shorts tight
again.

But that didn’t mean he could accept his own
behavior. Mitch forced himself to meet her gaze steadily. “No,” he
admitted. “But that doesn’t change anything. We’re probably going
to be neighbors for a while and I want to make this right. I
want
to do this, Lilith. Let me.”

She bit her lip and seemed suddenly very
young. A flush rose over her cheeks, a feminine blush that made
everything inside Mitch go tight. She looked away and he took
advantage of the opportunity to study the soft sweep of her jaw
line, the lush thickness of her ebony lashes. She then impaled him
with a bright glance, those lips quirking in a smile once more.

“
I shouldn’t let you,” she
said quietly, a mischievous glint in her eye. “But it’s just too
tempting. That would be really nice, Mitch.”

His name sounded impossibly exotic on her
tongue. Mitch felt his neck heat, but told himself it was just the
sun. “To have a new fence?” he asked as evenly as he could manage.
He lined up another nail, fully expecting her agreement.

She grinned mischievously. “Well, that too.
I was thinking about having a handsome man toiling in the yard,”
she teased. Mitch nearly missed the nail when her fingertips
fluttered unexpectedly against his shoulder. “Promise me,” she
whispered wickedly “that you won’t wear a shirt this weekend
either.”