“I guess that’s a good thing for us tonight. Our dinner is ready,” Dec said.
“Let me move his seat to the floor where I can keep an eye on him while we are eating,” she said.
Dec watched as she got their son comfortable, putting a stuffed toy next to him and tucking a blanket around him. “I hate to leave him in the seat, but when I’m working late it’s easier on him if he sleeps in here until I’m ready to go.”
“Do you work late often?” Dec asked.
“Well, not to make you feel guilty—”
“You can’t.”
“I have only been working long hours since we got wind of the takeover,” she continued as if he hadn’t interrupted.
“I’m sorry you’ve had to. I could have warned you there was nothing that was going to keep Kell from his goal once he fixed on it.”
“I’m not surprised. Stubbornness seems to be a Montrose trait.”
“I’m a Montrose in name only.”
“You were raised by them, Dec. Why do you always point out that you are different?” she asked.
“I’ve always felt different,” he said. “It wasn’t anything anyone said to me per se, just my own feeling that I had to work a lot harder to prove myself.”
“Why? I’ve done some searching on your family and without your mom’s money Thomas Montrose wouldn’t have had any chance of reviving his game empire.”
Dec looked over at her. It was odd to him, but it felt like she had just defended him and his right to be a Montrose. It wasn’t like she’d said anything he hadn’t already known, but hearing someone else with that opinion made the difference.
“That’s all true, but I always felt like I didn’t fit in,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t keep DJ from you because you didn’t ‘fit’ my idea of a father. I just wasn’t sure enough of myself to invite any other complications into the mix.”
He nodded. He could see that. She was a good mom and her love for DJ was evident. He hoped someday that he’d be part of that circle of people she cared for.
* * *
Cari learned a lot about Dec as they dined after she’d taken DJ down to the nursery where the day-care staff were on extended hours. They had cribs and DJ was much more comfortable sleeping there than in his car seat. Plus she wanted a chance to have Dec to herself and figure out what she was going to do with him.
It was as if it were their first date. He didn’t talk any more about his past. But she felt as if for the first time they were on the same track.
There was still an undercurrent of desire between them. Every time she looked over at him and caught him watching her she felt her blood flow a little heavier. And when their hands brushed, tingles ran up her arm and sent a delicious shiver through her entire body. But tonight was about more than sex. It was about getting to know each other. She wondered if perhaps it was fated that they do things out of order.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“That I’m finally getting to know the real guy you are,” she said.
“That’s not true. You’ve seen me naked. You know the real me,” he said.
She shook her head. “You’re wrong. Today I noticed this for the first time.”
She reached over and ran her forefinger over the small scar under his left eye. “Where did you get that?”
He brought his hand up and caught hers, carrying it to his mouth for a brief kiss. “That scar is from when I was nine. It was the first time I went camping with my grandfather and Kell and Allan. They’d both been going with him since they were six, but Mother and Grandfather had been feuding so I hadn’t been able to attend until that summer.”
“What were they feuding about?” she asked. Seemed old Thomas had a beef with everyone.
“Her money,” Dec said. “So when we got to Bear—”
“Big Bear?” she asked. “My maternal grandparents had a house up there.”
“Yes, Big Bear,” he said. “Am I going to be able to tell this story?”
“Sure, but with lots of interruptions,” she said with a grin.
“So we got up there and my cousins were already expert snowboarders, but I had never been on one. I knew how to ski because my mother insisted I learn when we were in St. Moritz the previous winter. But Kell said skiing was for wimps so I asked for a snowboard and then proceeded to lose control and run into a tree. I had a lot of damage to the left side of my face and had emergency cosmetic surgery. This scar is all that’s left.”
She hadn’t been expecting that. She reached over and took his hand in hers and rubbed her fingers over his knuckles. She felt for that little boy that Dec had been. Desperate to prove himself to the Montroses and find his place. “Can you snowboard now?”