Hot Winter Nights

She waited until Lucas turned to say something to his sister on his other side before stealing one of his pieces of cheesy bread. She was on the last bite when he glanced down at his plate and then at her.

Mouth full, she gave her best innocent smile, turned her head away from him, and . . . came gaze to gaze with his mom.

She was grinning.

At the tap on her shoulder, she turned back to Lucas.

“Something you want to tell me?” he asked.

“Well, I was going to wait until we were alone,” she said. “But you’ve got a little something . . .” She pointed to the corner of her mouth.

Lucas brought his fingers up to the same spot on his own mouth and then looked down at them. “Lip gloss.” He smiled at her. “Strawberry, right?”

She flushed. He’d turned that right back on her. Note to self: you can’t outplay a player.

“I think you took something of mine,” he said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He touched the corner of her mouth this time, coming away with a crumb from the bread she’d stolen off his plate.

She tried to blink innocently, but the feel of his finger on her mouth had set her knees wobbling. Good thing she was sitting down.

“Got a question for you, Molly,” Laura said. “Does Lucas still snore like a buzz saw? Because when we were little and we’d come up here, we had to share a room. He’d snore so loud that we’d all want to snuff him out with a pillow.”

“Hey,” Lucas said. “That was after Sami broke my nose with her baseball bat and before my surgery to fix the deviated septum. I haven’t snored since.”

“You sure about that?” Laura asked.

Everyone looked at Molly, including Lucas, who seemed to be trying to remind her telepathically about their deal. She was his date. His romantic date. Deciding some payback was necessary, she lifted a shoulder. “You know, I almost don’t hear it anymore. I guess you get used to it.”

Everyone laughed, but Lucas just gave her a slow, devastatingly mischievous smile. “So you want to play it like that, do you?” he murmured.

Conflicting emotions danced through her. The thrill and excitement of what he might do to her in retribution . . . and the worry of what he might do to her in retribution. Not that she was afraid of him. More like she was afraid of how much she might like it.

The conversation shifted, ebbed and flowed, and through it all Molly was incredibly, annoyingly aware of Lucas at her side, his arm brushing hers, the way he dipped his head close when she spoke to him, like whatever she might say was the most important thing to him in that moment, and how his unique, sexy scent teased her every time he did.

He lifted his glass for a drink and caught her staring at him. “You okay?” he asked.

Was she? She wasn’t quite certain . . .

“Honey,” Lucas’s mom said to him. “We’ve been having trouble with the internet connection today. I thought maybe after you finish—”

“No problem,” he said. “I’m finished.” He reached for Molly’s hand. “I’ll just take an assistant—”

Molly choked on her water because in the office, she was the internet wizard. No one but her could ever get their systems running smoothly, including Lucas.

“I mean partner,” Lucas quickly corrected, but by the look on his face he knew he was too late.

Molly smiled at his mom. “I could take a look for you. I’m sure I won’t need an assistant, but Lucas could come along and watch and learn if he’d like.”

His mom laughed in sheer delight and looked at Lucas. “I love this girl.” She stood up, drawing Molly along with her toward the den. “You just stay seated, son, and eat your bread. We’ve got this.”

“Idiot,” Sami said fondly to Lucas, who blew out a breath.

A minute later, Molly was unplugging the router and rebooting their system. “This almost always works.”

“I know,” Lucas’s mom said. “And there’s nothing wrong with our internet. I just wanted to talk to you alone without my nosy son.”

Sami came into the den and shut the door behind her. “He’s doing dishes,” Sami told her mom.

Molly took in the women’s expectant expressions and thought uh-oh . . .

“Oh, don’t be scared,” his mom said. “We’re not looking for you to betray Lucas’s confidence or anything like that.”

“Okay, so what are you looking for?”

The two women looked at each other and then back at Molly. Sami spoke first. “To be honest, we’re just so excited to see him in a relationship at all. What can you tell us?”

“Well, first of all, this is just a date, so—”

His mom and Sami looked at each other and laughed.

“What?” Molly asked.

“Nothing,” Sami said, still smiling. “It’s just nice to see him so comfortable with you. And . . . happy. For so long he’s been totally closed off. You know? And yeah, he’d show up to these family things if we bugged him enough, but he always came alone. The hard part is that he refuses to talk about himself at all, so we have no way of knowing how he’s really doing, how he’s been coping. Recovering.” Her smile faded, to be replaced by worry and concern as she leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “So can you help us by telling us how he’s doing?”

“Coping and recovering?” Molly asked. “Are you referring to when he was shot last month or—”

They all gasped in horrified unison. Okay, so it wasn’t that—

“He was shot?” his mom asked in a small voice.

“In the side, a through and through,” Molly quickly said. “Full recovery.”

His mom let out a shaky breath. “Dear God.”

Sami reached for her aunt’s hand but looked at Molly. “He’s really okay?”

“Yes,” Molly said firmly and apologetically. “I’m sorry, I—”

“Don’t you dare be sorry,” his mom said. “Not for being there for him and not for being so honest.” She swallowed hard. “For a while now, Lucas has pulled inward. Hasn’t let anyone in. Works all the time. But since you’ve been around, we’ve seen him twice in a week. And he’s calling more, checking in. He’s smiling too and he does look happy. We all figured that was your doing.”

Molly shook her head. “I honestly can’t take credit for any of that.”

His mom’s face softened. “Are you sure? Because love’s pretty damn powerful.”

“We’re really not—” Molly shook her head, unable to put words to all she was feeling. “We’re just not,” she finished lamely, and unable to lie to them, this family who loved Lucas so much, she sighed. “Okay, full disclosure. This isn’t really even a date. It’s a favor. We work together and sometimes we help each other out with stuff . . .”

“Like tonight,” Sami said.

“Yes, like tonight,” she said, but instead of looking disappointed, the Knight women all exchanged another long look.

“That’s a pretty big favor,” Sami finally said. “Walking into a family gathering like this can be pretty intimidating, and it suggests a big step.”

“He’s done the same for me,” Molly said, remembering the way he’d dealt with her dad, with a kindness and understanding she hadn’t expected. “And mine was worse. Way worse,” she added, thinking of her dad’s rifle. “Uh, not to say this was bad or anything.”