He felt frozen in time and s.p.a.ce, locked onto her gaze.
"Hmm," she muttered, frowning slightly. "You aren"t what you say you are. Neither of you are, but you have good reasons for it. You"re good men." She released him and smiled, holding his coffee out to him. "Here you go."
He stood there blinking and wondered for a moment if he"d imagined the whole thing. "How much?" he asked, feeling rattled.
She shook her head. "No charge. Not today." Her eyes narrowed. "I know you"ll do the right thing by her, won"t you? She needs good men like you."
Mumbling his thanks, he took the coffee and hurried out of the shop.
Something about that woman, what was her name? Mandaline? It unnerved him. Not in a serial killer sort of way. While the peaceful atmosphere of the shop had felt calming, he wasn"t sure he believed in psychic abilities.
Still, he couldn"t help but feel like all his secrets had been laid bare before her with just the touch of her hand to his.
He decided to return to the apartment and noticed Libbie"s car was back in her normal parking s.p.a.ce. He wanted to spend some time with her. Nonwork time. He a.s.sumed when she was in the bakery that she was all business and not able to socialize very much.
Wouldn"t hurt to ask her out to dinner. He found himself hesitating at their door instead of going in. Allan wasn"t sure what Ben would say about it. Frankly, he didn"t care. Decision made, he turned, strode over to Libbie"s door, and knocked.
From inside, he heard her faint reply. "Just a minute."
He regretted disturbing her when he realized how long it was taking her to get to the door from the sound of her slow progress across the apartment. When she opened the door, the pinched look of pain on her face wasn"t easy to miss.
"Hi," he said, his heart aching for her. "Sorry to bug you. I just wanted to know if we could make dinner for you tonight." Screw going out, it looked like she could barely walk, much less go down the stairs and be sociable in a restaurant. "As a token of our appreciation."
When it looked like she might refuse, he quickly added, "Seriously, we don"t want you to bring anything but yourself. Please? We"d like to do this for you."
Her green eyes stared up at him. He suspected her pale complexion was due more to her pain than lack of sun exposure. After what felt like hours, she slowly nodded, the ghost of a smile curving her lips. "Okay. Thank you, Charles. I appreciate it. What time?"
"How about six? Is that okay?"
"That would be great. Thanks."
She"d started to step back, as if to close the door. He couldn"t bear to let her go just yet. "Listen, Libbie, is there anything I can do to help you?"
She hesitated. "We can talk about the bakery at dinner."
"I didn"t mean that. I meant anything else. Can I carry laundry down or up for you, or take out your garbage, or...anything?" He felt his face heat as he realized how lame that sounded.
She started to reply when her huge, orange tabby stepped through the doorway and curled himself around his legs.
With a smile, Allan reached down and picked him up. "Hey, fellow." He glanced up at her. "I saw you had a cat, but I didn"t get to see much of him during the move."
Her eyes widened. "He...seems to like you."
The cat loudly purred in his arms. He rubbed under the cat"s chin. "I love cats. I haven"t been able to have any pets for a while now. Too busy," he added.
"No, you don"t understand. He hates everyone. Well, except me and Grover. And sometimes I think he only tolerates me because I feed him and keep his litter pan clean."
The cat looked at him and head-b.u.t.ted his chin. Allan laughed. "He seems to like me. Maybe he knows I"m an easy touch. Is he allowed outside?"
She shook her head and reached for the cat. "No. He"s not allowed in the bakery, either. But he"ll go downstairs with me sometimes when I do the laundry."
"We"ll make sure we keep an eye out for him then so we don"t let him out." He reached over and stroked the cat"s head again. The cat stretched his neck to keep contact with him. "What"s his name again?"
"Galileo. Or a.s.shole, when he"s being a real pill."
Allan"s eyes locked with hers. For a moment, the heat rising inside him took away his ability to speak. Then she shifted her gaze to the floor as another ghostly smile flitted across her features before disappearing again. "I"ll see you at six," she softly said, stepping back inside the apartment.
"Six," he repeated.
He turned and heard her door shut behind him. Kicking himself, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Gay. I"m supposed to be gay.
He adjusted the semi-stiff chubby in his jeans before returning to their apartment.
Libbie closed the door and leaned against it with Galileo tightly snuggled in her arms. She buried her face in the cat"s coat. For a moment, when her eyes had locked on Charles", she felt something, like a bolt of heat streaking straight through her.
Except for the fact that he was gay, she would have sworn he felt it, too, from the way his eyebrows arched.
"Mrwao." Galileo struggled to free himself from her grasp. She let him jump from her arms. He landed on the floor where he sat and proceeded to groom himself.
"Ungrateful a.s.s. What was that all about, anyway?" She looked down at him. "You hate everyone. Why"s he special?" Galileo never friendlied up to anyone. Including the three guys she"d had less than stellar onetime dates with in the past couple of years.
h.e.l.l, even the vet techs drew straws to see who had to deal with him when she took him in for checkups and vaccinations.
But that was yet another point in the men"s favor. Grover and Galileo, the only two important men in her life, had apparently signed off on the cousins.
Well, Galileo had signed off on Charles. He had yet to officially meet Ken, but she had a feeling the cat might like him as well.
Being sociable hadn"t blipped her screen of daily tasks, but she suspected spending time with others outside of the bakery would be a good thing for her. Grover was always bugging her to get out and socialize more often.
Come on, six o"clock.
Ben glared at his brother. "Thanks for asking me first."
"Hey, I didn"t think it"d be a big deal."
Ben leaned back and scrubbed his face with his hands. It still caught him off guard sometimes that he was now clean-shaven. "I"m sorry. Look, I"m just not in much of a socializing mood tonight."
"Then leave. Go to a movie or something."
He studied the stern set of Allan"s jaw. "This really means a lot to you, doesn"t it?"
"Yeah, it does. If you"d seen her, how much pain she"s obviously in, you would have agreed with me. Besides, I want to be nice to her."
He wanted to be nice to her, too, but the kind of nice he wanted involved no clothes, a bottle of Astroglide, and a marathon lovemaking session. His dreams the night before had been consumed by her, so much so that he"d rubbed two out that morning before getting out of bed.
A record even for his healthy libido.
"Earth to Ben."
He looked up and realized Allan had been saying something else. "What?"
When Allan"s brow furrowed, Ben knew he"d been made. "Oh, s.h.i.t. You like her, too, don"t you?"
"That"s not the issue here."
Allan pulled out a chair and sat across from him at the table. "Yeah, it is. You feel it, too. Don"t lie to me. You might be a great undercover cop, but I"m your twin."
"Okay, she"s cute. Is that what you wanted to hear me admit? And yeah, it"s been a long d.a.m.n time since I"ve had anything resembling a relationship. But she"s still off-limits. You got it?"
Allan slowly nodded. "Yeah, I got it. I"m just wondering how much you"ve got it."
"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? I"m the one who said we"d tell everyone we"re gay cousins."
"I know."
Ben didn"t like the way the conversation was heading. "Listen, Counselor, that s.h.i.t might work on someone sitting on the witness stand, but it won"t work on me. Fine, she can come over for dinner and we"ll cook for her." He slapped his laptop closed a little harder than he"d meant and headed for his bedroom, remembering at the last moment not to slam it shut behind him so Libbie couldn"t hear it from across the hall.
He leaned against the door and wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand as he closed his eyes and tried not to recall last night"s scorchingly hot dreams.
The one person he couldn"t lie to-Allan-was the only one who understood exactly what he was going through.
He turned and s.n.a.t.c.hed the door open and stalked across the apartment to where Allan still sat at the table. He jabbed a finger at him. "We can"t do that to her," he said, forcing himself to keep his voice down.
Allan stared up at him, a look of cool, calm determination on his face. "Can"t do what, bro?"
He leaned in. "You know d.a.m.n well what. Besides, we already told her we were gay cousins."
Allan shrugged, infuriating Ben.
"We cannot drag an innocent woman into our lives right now. She deserves better than that."
"You want her as much as I do."
"And we can"t have her," Ben said, poking the table with his finger for emphasis. "We. Can"t. Have. Her. Besides, we don"t even really know her." Which was all the more reason he was freaking out over his sudden feelings about her.
"Dude, all I did was ask her over for dinner. You"re the one wigging out."
He straightened, looking down at Allan. The smug smirk that curved his twin"s lip made him want to reach out and slap it from his face.
"I just want to make sure we"re on the same page."
Allan slowly nodded. "We are. But I won"t lie and say I"m not attracted to her when I am. You obviously are, too. We can be attracted to her and still be just friends with her."
Clenching his jaw to hold back his retort, Ben spun on his heel and returned to his room.
He was attracted to her.
Too d.a.m.n much.
Allan took the truck and headed out to the grocery store. He hadn"t cooked for anyone other than himself in months.
Tonight"s menu would start with Caesar salad. Followed by sweet potato soup, steamed broccoli, and broiled salmon with a parmesan crusted sauce. And for dessert...
He still wasn"t sure what to get. Considering she ran a bakery, it seemed silly to buy a grocery store dessert. After finding the other items on his list, he had an epiphany and returned to the produce section. There, the special was fresh peaches, of all things. Shrugging, he grabbed several, returned to dairy for a quart of vanilla yogurt, and then located a bag of granola.
He smiled at his own cleverness as he made his way to the checkout stands. Sweet, healthy, and not baked.
Hopefully she liked peaches, or he was screwed.
When he returned to the apartment he managed to haul everything up in one load. Ben still sat at the table, working on the laptop.
"You need help?" Ben asked.
"No, I got it." He piled everything onto the counter. He glanced at the clock and realized he had two hours to get everything ready.
Plenty of time.
"Why is this so important to you?" Ben quietly asked.
He pondered the question as he put things away in the fridge. Eventually he turned to his brother. "I"m grateful we found such a perfect place, for starters. And yes, I feel sorry for her. So shoot me."
Allan didn"t miss the slight frown on Ben"s face as his brother refocused his attention on the laptop. "Okay."
"You know, you can sit there and pa.s.s whatever kind of judgment you want on me, but the truth is you don"t know me as well as you think you know me."
"I know what I read in the gossip columns. And what my friends in the department relate to me on a regular basis. How my party-boy brother lives it up at night on a regular basis and is seen going home with a bunch of different women."
Allan clenched his fists and took a deep breath. "f.u.c.k. You."
Ben lifted his gaze to his brother. With his voice soft and level, he said, "Don"t hurt her. Don"t you dare."
"Or what? Not that that was my plan anyway."
Ben leaned back in his chair. "If I think you"re f.u.c.king playing her, or trying to get into her pants, or any of that kind of bulls.h.i.t, I"ll put you on your a.s.s myself. Don"t think I won"t."
Stalemate. They stared at each other in an uneasy silence for several minutes. "Why are you so insistent on goading me, huh?" Allan asked.
"Because I spent the last three years of my d.a.m.n life with these f.u.c.king animals. I know what they"re capable of. I"ve seen them do stuff to women that made them wish they"d gone ahead and killed them."
"Well, if you think she"s in such danger, why the h.e.l.l did we take the place?"
"She"s only in danger if we put her there. Which we won"t. Right?"