Special Forces Father. Victoria Pade

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      Dani did laugh that time. Just a little. “Audrey said you’re military through and through. But really, you have to loosen up. Like, for instance, you’re home now, not waiting for somebody to give you orders. Sit down and relax.” Relax—it was something she’d said far, far too many times to her former fiancé. Futilely.

      “Sorry. Force of habit. Especially when I’m out of my element. And believe me, this whole thing qualifies,” he said, glancing at his surroundings to include the house and then casting another, somewhat pained look down the four stairs where the kids were.

      Dani felt a little sympathy for the man who looked like he could handle anything thrown at him. Apparently looks were deceiving.

      But he did join her at the island, taking a seat on a bar stool around the corner and down three from her.

      “Better?” he asked.

      “Sure,” she said, although he still did not look as if he felt at home.

      “Have I blown it with the kids? Do they hate me?” he asked then.

      “I think that maybe they don’t know what to make of you,” she answered, soft-pedaling. Then, continuing to tread lightly, she said, “Grady says you’re like a robot.”

      “Is he a sci-fi fanatic, too, and that’s a compliment?”

      “Sorry, no,” Dani said, suppressing another laugh.

      “So, what do I do? I don’t know the first thing about kids.”

      “Well, you were one...weren’t you?” she joked, unsure how he would take it but trying anyway.

      “Once upon a time, yeah,” he answered, showing a hint of humor in the reappearance of that crooked smile.

      “So maybe you could just think back, put yourself in your own shoes when you were a kid, remember adults in your life that you related to and why for starters. Grady and Evie are kids, just like I’m sure you were. They like to play and they like it when you play with them—”

      “Or color with them like you tried to do at the restaurant?”

      Oh, he was dishing a little out by reminding her that that attempt had failed.

      Dani just laughed again. “Okay, they aren’t always receptive, especially when they’ve reached their limits. But—” she pointed a finger in the direction of the refrigerator where there were three crayon drawings displayed “—the middle one is mine from this morning when they wanted me to color with them,” she finished victoriously.

      Liam flashed her a full smile that seemed to say he liked that she could take a little ribbing. And that made him all the more attractive. And appealing. Damn him...

      “And you can talk to them,” she went on. “Directly to them. Today you just talked to them through me.”

      “But will they understand if I talk to them the way I would talk to anybody?”

      Dani tried not to reveal just how silly that sounded. “They will. They mispronounce some words themselves, but they have a better-than-average vocabulary for four-year-olds. And if they don’t understand a particular word or phrase, they’ll let you know. Then that gives you the opportunity to expand their vocabulary. But they’re not babies. Think of them as just small people. Today you didn’t say word one to either of them after you said hello.”

      “To be fair, they didn’t talk to me either.”

      “Uh-huh, but kids don’t talk to people who seem unfriendly.”

      “I seem unfriendly?”

      “Oh, yeah.”

      “I’m a nice guy,” he defended himself, seeming to really drop some of his guard in that defensiveness.

      Dani laughed once more. “Okay. But you have to come out from behind the military shield and show it because that isn’t what they’ve seen of you. You’re more like the secret service on duty with the president’s kids. Except that you aren’t completely hiding that it bothers you when they do what kids do—like running to catch up to the hostess seating us at the restaurant.”

      He made a face that acknowledged that he’d found that inappropriate. “And the stuff with the grilled cheese sandwiches...” he added, showing his disapproval.

      “I know. But like I said, they’re kids. You use moments like that to teach them that spitting out a bite of food is bad manners and what to do in polite society.”

      “That’s what you did.”

      “While you looked like you just wanted to crawl into a hole.”

      “Yeah, all right, I did,” he conceded. “So, where should I go from here? Shall I, like, ask them to throw a ball with me or something?”

      “Why don’t you just start by being yourself...well, the self you must be with your own family or your friends. Just let your hair down a little, speak to the kids to acknowledge them and kind of roll with things until you get a feel for them and what they respond to.”

      With the mention of hair his gorgeous blue eyes went to her hair for just a moment—the first time it seemed he’d noticed that it was different than it had been the night before.

      Then he redirected his gaze and in a tone that was slightly controlled again, he said, “Yeah, okay, I’ll give it a try.”

      “They like to have a book read to them before bed. I can ask them if they’d let you do it and you could start with that...”

      “Tonight?” he said as if she’d suggested something terrifying.

      “You need to prepare yourself?” she teased him, dishing out a little of the goading he’d served her.

      “I do,” he confessed.

      She let him off the hook since the simple suggestion seemed to have rocked him all over again. “Okay. Sure.”

      The ending song for the show the twins were watching sounded faintly in the background and Grady called, “It’s over.”

      “Which is the cue for the bedtime book,” Dani said.

      “And you have to get back to them,” he finished for her. But this time his tone seemed to hold some disappointment. “I should probably go up and unpack anyway. Prepare myself for tomorrow—they’ll still be here tomorrow, right?” he joked.

      “They will be.”

      “I don’t know how early things start around here but I like to run at sunrise—”

      “Not that early.”

      “And then I have an appointment at eight in the morning with the attorney my brother hired. I haven’t met with him yet. How does that work with you and the kids?”

      “They’ll usually sleep until seven thirty or eight so why don’t you just do your run, then go to your СКАЧАТЬ