"You got two seconds to tell me why you woke me up out of a dream where I was dancing with Charles Bronson and we were both naked. Otherwise, I'm kicking your - "
"Where's Mia?" he snapped.
He slapped a hand on the door before she could slam it in his face. "Just tell me she's okay. "
"Why shouldn't she be?"
"Did she tell you where she was going?"
"If she did, I'm not telling you. " She could sense his anger and his fear. "You try any hocus-pocus on me, and I'll not only kick your ass, I'll mop the floor with it. Now back off. "
Disgusted with himself, he stepped back. When the door slammed he just sat on the porch steps and rested his head in his hands.
Had he driven her away? Was it some kind of ugly joke fate continued to play on them that one of them would love so much that the other was compelled to flee?
It didn't matter, he told himself. Not now. All that mattered now was that she was safe. When he heard the door open again, he stayed where he was.
"You don't have to tell me where she is, what she's doing, or why she left. I just need to know that she's all right. "
"Any reason you know of she shouldn't be?"
"I upset her last night. "
With a sniff, Lulu marched over and gave him a quick boot with her bare foot. "I should've figured it. What did you do?"
"I told her I loved her. "
Behind his back, Lulu pursed her lips. "What did she have to say to that?"
"That she didn't want to hear it, basically. "
"She's a sensible woman," Lulu said, then immediately felt nasty. More nasty than she was comfortable with. "She's taking a few days off, that's all. On the mainland - shopping, getting pampered. Do her good to decompress, if you ask me. She's been working 'round the clock. "
"Okay. " He rubbed his hands on the thighs of his jeans, then turned to face her. "Okay. Thanks. "
"Did you tell her you loved her to mess with her head?"
"I told her I loved her because I do. Messing with her head was just a side benefit. "
"I don't know why the hell I always liked you. "
Sam was shocked. "You did?"
"If I hadn't, I'd have peeled the skin off your face for putting hands on my baby. Well, I'm up," she said and buried both hands in her disordered mop of hair to scratch her head. "You might as well come in and have some coffee. "
Too intrigued to refuse, he followed her into the kitchen. "I always wondered why you didn't live at the cliff house. "
"First off, because I couldn't stand those pompous, self-absorbed Devlins. " She dug coffee out of a canister shaped like a piglet. "Didn't mind spending a few days there when they were off on one of their trips, but when they were at home, I needed a place of my own. Otherwise, I might have smothered them both in their sleep. "
"When did they leave - for good?"
"Few months after you did. "
"After . . . but she was nineteen. "
"Just shy of her twentieth birthday. They headed off to - who the hell cares. Came back once or twice during that year, for form, if you ask me. Mia hit twenty-one, and that was over. Guess they figured their job was done. "
"They never did their job," Sam stated. "You did. "
"That's right. She's been mine since her grandmother put her in my arms. She's still mine. " She shot him a challenging look over her shoulder.
"I know it. I'm glad of it. "
"Maybe you've got some sense in that pea brain of yours after all. " She poured water from a cherry-red kettle into the coffeemaker. "Anyway, after they moved off-island, Mia asked if I didn't want to come up and live with her. Plenty of room. But I like my place, and she likes being up there on her own. "
She studied him while the coffeemaker burped and grumbled. "You thinking of trying to convince her to let you move up there with her?"
"Ah . . . I hadn'
t thought quite that far ahead. "
"Don't change much, do you? Always dance back from the sticking point. "
"And what would the sticking point be?"
"That girl," she said and drilled a finger into his chest. "My girl. She wants marriage, and she wants babies. She wants a man she can share her whole life with, thick and thin, and not one who gets pale when the word marriage comes up in conversation. Like you're doing now. "
"Marriage isn't the only serious commitment - "
"You think you can bullshit her with that, or are you just bullshitting yourself?"
"A number of people make and keep a bond without a legal ceremony. Mia and I are hardly traditionalists. "
Lulu's skewering stare made him feel like a teenager again, bringing Mia home after curfew. "But in any case, I haven't given the matter a great deal of thought. At this point she's not even comfortable with me telling her I'm in love with her. "
"That's a real fine speech. Full of hot air, but it sounded almost pretty. "
"What's so important about marriage?" he demanded. "You're divorced. "
"Got me there. " Amused, she got out two cheerful yellow mugs. "Funny thing about life. You just can't get a guarantee with it. You pays your money, you takes your choice. "
"Yeah. " Depressed all over again, Sam took the mug. "I've certainly heard that one before. "