Page 30 of Scarred Sunrise

Chapter 13

“Letme take you on a real date. One where we can both legally order a beer.”

Lizzie pulled away, her hands still on the corded muscle of Ty’s forearms, her mind a blur from the kiss they’d just shared in the middle of her shop. “A date?”

Ty looked her with a sexy smirk, which told her he knew the exact reason her brain was short-circuiting. “Yeah, you know, two people getting something to eat, maybe some dancing, a romantic stroll after.”

His lips twitched with humour and Lizzie felt another piece of the hastily donned armour around her heart fall. “I know what a date is, smartass.”

“So will you go with me?”

The first time he’d asked, she hadn’t seen it, but through the heavy-lidded desire in his eyes, she also sensed nerves. Her instinct was always to soothe him and now was no different. Enough games had been played with their lives, and she wouldn’t add to them, but she could lighten things a little.

Moving out of his grasp, she put a little space between them, his hands falling to his sides as he released her. “You gonna pick me up at my door and face my dad and son?”

A corner of his lip turned up. “Okay. Seven o’clock on the dot. Tonight.”

As old as she was, she wanted to jump up and down with excitement at the thought of a date with him.

Smithy closed the space between them so he was a hair’s breadth away, his gaze sweeping over her, with a sensual promise that made her shiver with expectation. “Wear something sexy.”

Lizzie was torn between wanting to do as he commanded and telling him to get lost, but his next words stopped her.

“Scratch that, you’d look sexy in a fucking bin liner.” His lips touched hers as he bent her back slightly over his arm around her waist. The kiss was brief and hot and left her reeling as she knew was his intention.

The rest of the day was spent fielding enquiries, working on her laptop, and taking calls from a few international contacts. The entire time she was aware of the man who worked silently on his own laptop in the corner of the stall. His attention always seeming to be on what he was doing, but she felt the intensity of his gaze follow her around the room, building the anticipation until she felt flustered with it.

At five that afternoon, Dane arrived to follow her home. He spoke with Smithy as she locked up, their voices quiet so she couldn’t hear what was said, but she saw Dane and Ty look over a couple of times as their intense conversation continued.

She dearly hoped there wasn’t going to be an issue between the two men she loved, but just as she went to intervene, Dane smiled and made Ty laugh. It was a sound so rare she felt her heart kick in a mixture of pain and joy. He should always laugh like that, feel the freedom to express his happiness. Yet, she sensed it had been rare even before she’d lost him the first time, and after the wars he’d been in, it was a miracle he was still able to stand upright.

Ty had no idea of the strength he possessed or the resilience he showed with every battle he won. From the despair of not knowing his father to his mother always choosing booze over him or at least she knew that was how he felt. He couldn’t see that the disease had taken his mother just as Dane hadn’t with their own mother.

She stilled as they moved closer to her, and she shut away her thoughts.

Dane focused on her as he spoke. “Lauren and I will take Mateo tonight. Aaron and Leah have been asking for a sleepover, and as it’s half term we thought he might enjoy it.”

He was giving her his blessing, not that she’d asked or needed it, but she was glad to have it. They all had enough battles to fight without any of them being between families.

“Thank you. He’ll love that.”

“Cool, don’t bother feeding him dinner. Lauren has hotdogs and toffee apples planned for them all. I’ll pick him up around six.”

The three of them moved off to their own cars after a slightly awkward goodbye in which she just waved at Ty like he was a friend and she was a bloody schoolgirl.

Back at home her son was delighted to spend the night with his cousins, and Lizzie was relieved to see some of the tight rein he had on her whereabouts was easing as he began to trust she wouldn’t disappear again.

“Are you and Smithy gonna get married?”

The question caught her off guard as she applied mascara to her lower lids, trying not to make the weird face she knew she usually did when putting on make-up.

Stilling, she popped the lid back on the mascara and looked at her son who was on his iPad playing a game. “What makes you ask that?”

Lizzie had been honest with her son; he could cope with truth so much better than secrecy, as most children did in her opinion. She moved to sit next to him on the bed as he swung his legs and avoided her gaze. Laying her hand on his back, she waited until he looked at her. “Who said that, Mateo?”

He shrugged. “Dad said you were gonna marry him, and then I’d go and live with him.”

Her son tried to sound nonchalant, but she saw the anguish in his young eyes. Fury burned its way up her throat, the anger licking a flaming red haze through her vision at the thought her ex-husband would say such a thing. She knew he hated Ty, partly because of what happened but mostly because he knew she’d always loved him. Lizzie accepted her part in the failure of her marriage, but it hadn’t been one-sided.