Page 73 of Dotted Lines (Runaway 5)

Her chin fell. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We’ll come back tomorrow. And if you don’t want to, that’s fine too.”

Clara nodded as her shoulders curled forward.

I put both hands on the wheel, holding it so I wouldn’t hold her, and got us the fuck away from the junkyard.

“I’m sorry about earlier.” Clara pushed her sunglasses into her hair and turned to face me. “I didn’t expect to feel so much. I thought once I saw it that I’d want to go inside.”

“No need to apologize.”

She gave me a sad smile. “I didn’t expect it to hurt so much. Not having Lou there. Isn’t that crazy? We didn’t even know the man.”

“Yeah, we did. We knew what mattered.”

Lou had cared for us in the only way he’d been able. He’d given us a shelter. He’d given us protection.

And he’d given us his secrecy. I couldn’t have asked more from the man.

“Mom! Watch this one!” August jumped with all his might from the edge of the pool and did a spin before splashing into the water.

“We’re in that stage. The watch me stage.” Clara smiled and clapped for her son as he surfaced in the pool. “He’d live in the pool if he could.”

“All right, I’m going in.” An hour in the heat and I was ready for a swim.

I stood up from the lounge chair and stripped off my T-shirt. I tossed it away, glancing at Clara only to find her attention was on my torso. My chest. My arms. My abs. Unless I’d forgotten how to read attraction, there was lust in her eyes.

Christ. She wasn’t making this easy on me.

Like she’d heard my thought, she ripped her eyes away, dropping her focus to her lap.

That was my cue to get the hell in the water. In three long strides I was at the pool’s edge. I dove in, giving a long kick as I surfaced beside August.

He laughed, his arms spread wide with his water wings on his biceps helping to keep him afloat.

“Want to play a game?” I asked.

“Okay!”

Then I spent the next hour launching him into the air and crashing into the water. He laughed, we both did, every time.

Clara never moved from her chair. She stayed, watching. At first, she’d done it with a smile, but as the afternoon went on, the happy look on her face vanished. She almost looked . . . sad. Why would me playing with her kid make her look miserable?

Finally, after his fingers were pruney and the sunscreen Clara had smeared on him had most certainly worn off, she dragged her son to their hotel room to shower and get dressed for dinner.

They had a suite with a couple of bedrooms. My single was across the hall and we met in the lobby an hour later.

Much like last night at the restaurant in Elyria, August stole the show. He told me all of the things he wanted for his upcoming birthday and how he was having a pool party at Brody and Aria’s house with six friends from his school. The kid was an exceptional buffer.

Every time I looked at Clara, every time my gaze lingered on the long line of her neck or the pretty shape of her ears, August would demand my attention.

Bless that kid.

And fuck my life.

When dinner ended and we walked back to the hotel, I was strung tight, ready to say good night and hit the pavement for another punishing run.

“Temecula is nice,” Clara said as we reached the hotel lobby.