And when the hell had he started analyzing feelings?
He shook off the thought faster than beading water in his hair. "Hey, make sure you pass along my thanks to Rena for the kids' clothes." Since the other marrieds had attended together, he couldn't help but notice Rena's absence in light of the conversation with Tag on the flight.
"Let Rena know I'll send 'em back your way once these guys get through with them."
Tag shook his head with a look of horror. "Don't come near my house with those things, man. We've almost got our nest empty. Our baby-making days are over." He hauled himself out of the water. "You ready Chris? Chris?"
Christos Price jerked his gaze off Shelby Dawson's belly button ring and back to his father. A dazed look in his eyes glinted like the water streaming down the olive complexion inherited from his mother's Greek roots. "Yeah, Pop. I guess so."
The teen hefted himself from the pool. Right by Mary Elise. Which offered Daniel a convenient excuse to check on her. Just making sure she was comfortable with everyone, of course.
Yeah, right.
She'd settled in with his friends as he'd known she would, already absorbed in conversation with Julia Dawson while they both held sleeping children. Austin snoozed away on Mary Elise's lap, his soggy body soaking her silk shorts set. Not that she seemed to care or look in the least ruffled. Just natural. She should have kids of her own with some lucky bastard who would get to touch her incredible red hair.
Crap.
Daniel backed into the resuming game as they swapped sides, which gave him a perfect view of Mary Elise's night-lit lounge chair. When she'd told him about being pregnant with his child, he hadn't given much thought to the baby itself, or life after the wedding. He'd focused on shutting down thoughts of the future because they contrasted too much with what he'd dreamed for so long.
Yet once she'd lost the baby, once he'd lost Mary Elise in his life, he'd spent the next year thinking about what their baby would have looked like. What she would have looked like holding it.
And that image mirrored the one he was seeing too damned closely for his peace of mind.
He considered waking Austin up for another round of chicken just so he wouldn't have to keep staring at Mary Elise holding the little guy. But the boy's needs came first and God the kid pitched holy hell when taken away from Mary Elise. The boy was breaking his freaking heart with the tight-fisted dinginess to the only mother figure in his world right now. Maybe he could convince Mary Elise to stay in the area.
And then she'd be too busy to meet that lucky bastard who would father her children.
The rogue notion chugged through him as he pumped another serve into the air. She had to settle somewhere, and apparently their Savannah hometown no longer held any allure for her. The idea took flight, leveled out like the ball lofting over the net.
He staunchly ignored the insistent voice telling him he was doing this for himself. So what? Yeah, he wanted her around, but because he needed her to stay put. Made logical sense that she should stay in Charleston. Two plus two equaled four.
His gaze zoned back in on Mary Elise smoothing a hand along the sleeping child's back while her laugh carried on the ocean wind.
The next ball whizzed right by Daniel's head.
Kent McRae closed the Mercedes door—forced to park out on the street where some damned fool might scratch the paint. A nuisance, but an overabundance of vehicles packed the condo lot.
He wove his way through the maze of trucks and SUVs with military ID stickers on the windshield. Adrenaline snapped through him until he wondered why he'd ever bothered to pay someone to take on these tasks before. And to think he never would have known this quiet thrill if necessity hadn't forced him. Help wouldn't be arriving for another four to five days, and he'd sworn not to act decisively until then.Striding along the lengthy row of Palmetto trees, he checked again to ensure Mary Elise was still engrossed with the pool party and her old lover. Her lover now?
Kent kept his strides even, loose, his hands unclenched. He wouldn't allow her the power over his emotions. He was in control.
He neared the line of mailboxes. As much as he might enjoy ending it now, he couldn't. The boys were off-limits, as per his accomplice's demands. He owed his accomplice too much in tracking Mary Elise's every move to step off their designated course now. And he always paid his debts.
As if he would hurt innocent children like some monster, anyway. He focused his revenge on the deserving.
Meanwhile, he needed Mary Elise off-kilter so she wouldn't become overconfident and opt to disclose her tale of woe to an old boyfriend. Having been married to the woman for three years, he knew which buttons to push. Watching her hand tremble as she'd touched that False Unicorn plant had been … satisfying.
Locating the correct box number, Kent straightened the knot on his favorite tie, silk with pelicans patterned in diagonal lines. A gift from Mary Elise two years ago and now a reminder of unfinished business. A final swipe to smooth his tie crinkled papers inside his suit coat pocket. He tugged out the folded pamphlets guaranteed to make more than her hand tremble. Innocuous fertility clinic literature to most. Pointed for her since she'd visited the same chain of clinics more than once.
A quick glance over his shoulder assured him no one watched. Kent slid out his lock pick and set to work on Baker's mailbox. Given how involved they were in their pool play, he should be well in and out before anyone noticed him. He wouldn't want to upset the boys. No, he wasn't a monster.
Just a man in control of his destiny with a debt to repay.
Chapter 8
Danny blasted out of the water like a sea monster, swiping his arm across the pool to spray Trey before he ducked behind Darcy. Mary Elise watched, smiled, couldn't help herself. Even allowed herself the pleasure of following his leap from the pool, his loose-hipped stride to the ice chest illuminated by a halogen lamp and crescent moon.
Oh, God. Danny was so cute, the boyishness somehow all the more charming coming from a muscle-bound main. Evenings like this made it easy to forget the ways she and Danny had annoyed the hell out of each other.Distance, she reminded herself. Make lists and keep her distance from the enticing, playful Danny. For starters, her list making used to bug him. Go with the flow, he would tell her. Explore. Find adventure.