Rainy Day Friends Read online

  “Are they sparking like fire now?”

  “No.” He smiled. “Because I just fed you your favorite candy bar. And you can’t be pissed off at me, I’m ‘cute.’”

  “Cute was one hundred percent the wrong word,” she said and took a big bite of the Snickers before rattling the bars. “Let me out of here.”

  “You’re done playing destructo?”

  “It was a mistake,” she said.

  “Trying to get into a car that looks like yours is a mistake,” he said. “Breaking and entering a car that looks like yours is destruction of property.”

  “I didn’t enter.”

  She was standing there, hands on hips, hair more than a little crazy, makeup smudged, looking fierce. She was not a woman to back down when up against a wall, and damn if that wasn’t attractive as hell.

  “Look,” she said. “I’m sorry about the car.” The thought of staying in jail had the air backing up in her lungs. Breathe in for four, out for four. Repeat. Today’s foods . . . she struggled to think back that far. A breakfast bar. Some pasta. Chicken wings. And a Snickers. “I’ll pay for the damages, of course. No need to arrest me.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “There’s no reason to arrest you because the owner of the car you beat up isn’t going to press charges.”

  She dropped some of her bad ’tude. “They’re not?”

  “It’s Boomer’s car. Let’s just say he understands mistakes.”

  She dropped her hands from her hips, looking hugely relieved. “Wow. Thanks.”

  Twenty minutes later they were in Mark’s truck. He found a drive-through for Lanie and stole glances at her as she ate, making tiny sounds of pleasure that were his undoing. “Lanie?”

  She licked ketchup off her thumb with a loud sucking sound that made him hard. “Yeah?”

  “On a scale of one to Britney Spears shaving her head, how drunk are you?”

  “Not even close to shaving my head.”

  He wasn’t sure he believed her with that flippant tone, but he let it alone. She was doing her damnedest to hold it together and he knew from his experience with all the women in his house that it was most likely a front, but hell if he’d call her out on it. She’d had a rough night.

  He took her to the bluffs, backing in to park. He pulled a blanket from his truck and sat with her on the tailgate, the blanket wrapped around her shoulders as the sky slowly began to shift from midnight black to a kaleidoscope of purples and blues as dawn hit. The reds, oranges, and yellows came out next as the sun came up, casting impressive beams of sunlight across the water.

  “Wow,” Lanie murmured softly, and with a sigh she snuggled into the crook of his arm, pressing her face to his throat. “Mark?”

  The way she said his name never failed to get him and he tightened his grip on her, an utterly reflexive move. No matter what his brain tried to tell him, his body wanted hers close, as close as he could get her. “Yeah?”

  She let out a shuddery sigh, her limbs going heavy as the last of the tension seemed to leave her. “Thanks,” she said softly.

  “For . . . ?”

  “Everything.” After a pause, she sighed again. “This is nice.”

  He looked down at the top of her head and smiled. “You’re not even watching the water.”

  “Maybe I’m not talking about the water.” She was quiet a moment. “I’ve never stayed up all night and seen the sunrise.”

  “And you still haven’t,” he said. “Your face is planted in my throat.”

  She gave a shuddery sigh, her breath warming his skin. “I’m still hungry,” she said, apropos of nothing.

  “Okay,” he said. “We’ll get more food. What do you want?”

  “I don’t know. Everything.”

  “I’ll make you breakfast.”

  “You’d do that?” she murmured.

  “Yes.” He was surprised by the realization that he’d do just about anything for her.

  “Maybe . . . pancakes?” she asked hopefully.

  “Sure.”

  He felt her sigh against him and then, not two minutes later, her body got heavy.

  She was out cold.

  He held her close while she slept through a pretty fucking great sunrise. He’d always known she harbored some deep wounds, but he was just starting to get how deep. She was strong and independent and tough as nails, and a little prickly to boot.

  That was one of his favorite things about her.

  But she was vulnerable now, right this minute, tucked up against him. Vulnerable and oddly trusting him in a way she hadn’t allowed before, which had a surge of protectiveness going through him. Until River had come clean, he hadn’t known Lanie’s story. What had happened to River sucked. But it’d happened to Lanie too. She’d been with a man, her husband, thinking that she was the one and only woman in his life, but there’d been more. And she hadn’t known.

  Her takeaway from that had been to close herself off.

  The same lesson she’d learned at home growing up.

  And now he had her in his arms, this amazing, prickly, suspicious, hardheaded woman that he was falling for in spite of himself because she was also sweet and kind and had the biggest heart of anyone he’d ever met.

  Falling hard.

  It was going to take a lot to convince her that he was a good idea, although he was pretty sure her body might’ve already made its decision.

  He had no idea what it would take to persuade the rest of her.

  LANIE WOKE UP to a little man hammering at her eyeballs from inside her head. “Ouch,” she said on a moan.

  Someone giggled, but then it was muffled, and Lanie froze. “I know that giggle,” she whispered, because talking in a normal voice hurt.

  This caused another giggle.

  Lanie groaned and sat up. A big mistake because she had to put her hands on her head to hold it on her shoulders.

  There was a man in her kitchenette. He was in his uniform and he was—be still, her heart—flipping pancakes like he’d been born to the task.

  Sam and Sierra were sitting cross-legged on her counter eating what appeared to be pancakes rolled up so they could do it without utensils.

  “Lanie! You missed the first round!” Sam yelled.

  Lanie moaned and took a hand off her head to point at the girl. “I’m going to need your inside voice.”

  Samantha grinned her toothless grin. “You’re funny.”

  “I’m actually not funny. I’m just really mean and people always think I’m joking.” Lanie managed to sit up and stagger out of bed, realizing at the last minute that she didn’t remember getting into bed so she looked down to make sure she was dressed.

  She was in a very large T-shirt that fell to her thighs. The same T-shirt that Mark had been wearing when he’d rescued her from jail. Still had on her panties. That was good news, since the twins were watching her every move. She whimpered her way to the table where she’d left her sunglasses and put them on.

  Better.

  The girls giggled again and Lanie pointed at them again, which only made them giggle some more.

  “You gotta go to bed earlier,” Samantha said in all her six-year-old wisdom. “That’s what Grandma says when we wake up grumpy.”

  “Your grandma is very wise.” She met Mark’s amused gaze. “Blanks,” she said. “Fill them in.”

  “We got back an hour ago,” he said. “You needed a nap.”

  He said this with an utterly straight face. She sighed and slid onto a stool at the counter. She looked over at the girls and realized their pancakes were rolled with peanut butter in the middle.

  “Daddy doesn’t let us have syrup in the morning,” Samantha said. “It makes our teachers not like us.”

  “Your daddy is also wise.” She turned to Mark. “But I don’t have a teacher, so I’m hoping for syrup.”

  “It’ll cost you,” he said.

  She met his gaze and got a hot flash. Two seconds later he slid a plate in front of her. Th