Think again, dumb ass. Still, he couldn't stop himself from enjoying a moment of the friendship he'd missed too much the past six weeks. "Thanks for making it sound like this wasn't a colossal imposition."
"It wasn't."
"Yeah, right. Every woman with a six-week-old baby wants to take on two more kids to watch and pick up after."
"You must be joking about the picking-up part." She swept a curl off her brow. "It looks like I ran through your house with a lawnmower."
"It's not that bad." Well, it was, but that didn't matter. Julia brought laughter for his girls along with all that chaos. "Just looks like y'all had fun."
"You should have seen it before they helped me clean."
Zach snorted. "My kids? Help clean? You forget, I've seen their rooms."
"Really. They did."
"Either you're a great liar or a miracle worker."
"I'm not their parent so it's no fun playing the martyred kid with me."
"Too true."
Her laugh joined his with too much ease. Too much power. Too much. Period.
With adrenaline rising as fast as his resistance fell, he needed to stop playing with fire.
Even if that fire promised to be more exciting than any game of cloud chasing. "Point me toward your bag and I'll load it in the car."
"In your bedroom."
He did not need to hear that. His imagination took a fantasy flight right into sharing that bed with Julia.
She spun away, padding barefoot down his hall while Zach strode behind her. If he helped, she would leave all the sooner. Right? He wasn't actually following her into his bedroom for any reason other than that.
Ah, hell.
He pivoted on his heel and went back for Patrick. Snagging the car-seat handle, Zach hefted along his very own pint-sized chaperone. "No napping now, Bruiser. You hear that? I'm gonna need all the back-up I can get. You'll be my wingman and watch for bogies looking to blast us out of the sky. Got it?"
Patrick gurgled a spit bubble.>"Yeah, you told me already."
"Oh, right. I'll just say goodbye to Ivy first before she falls asleep." Julia spun away, darting down the hall.
Zach slumped against the counter in his wrecked kitchen, not too different from his wrecked libido after standing so close to Julia. He glanced around the trashed room full of pizza boxes, dishes in the sink, Ivy's science project on the floor. At least he would have something to do to burn off the restless energy from his flight. Not that he minded the mess in the least. For the first time in too long, his house felt...
Normal.
He wanted someone who would be there for his kids. And from where he was standing, the scene in front of him fit the bill too damned perfectly. Of course he was far from being the perfect man for Julia Sinclair or her son.
Zach knelt beside the baby. "Hey, little man. Good nap?"
Patrick stretched stiff-backed in his car seat.
"Good. Glad to hear it." The kid deserved the best. Grabbing a sleeper-clad foot, Zach tweaked the baby's toes. "You go easy on your mama tonight, okay, Bruiser? She needs her sleep and there isn't anybody around to help her with those night feedings."
Would there have been even if Lance had lived?
Zach frowned. Where had that thought come from? Still, he couldn't stop wondering if the already rocky Sinclair marriage would have lasted. Did Julia still love the guy?
A moot point anyway.