Free Lone Star Daddy (McCabe Multiples) by CATHY GILLEN THACKER Page B

peace.”
    Rose offered him more candy. He refused. So she set the box aside and turned to face him again. This time her bent knee did nudge his thigh.
    She leaned toward him slightly. “Yet there had to be some benefit. I mean, you understand women. Whereas I don’t understand men at all, mostly because I grew up without any brothers.”
    Shifting slightly, too, he draped his arm along the back of the couch. “So they were an alien species?”
    “Something to dream over.” As soon as the admission was out, she blushed.
    He tugged playfully on a lock of her hair. “I kind of like the sound of that.”
    The color in her cheeks deepened. She sucked in a breath and scrambled to her feet. “Clint...”
    Forcing himself to be the gentleman he had been raised to be, he got up, too. “I know.” He stood, looking down at her, hands braced on his waist. “Time for me to go.” Even if he didn’t want to leave.
    She escorted him to the door.
    He lingered in the doorway, glad she didn’t know that much about guys. ’Cause if she had, she would have known he had lovemaking on his mind.
    Having given up on trying to figure out what was in her thoughts, though—at least for tonight—he did what a guy always did when he was interested in a woman. Made sure he had the next outing planned before exiting the current one.
    “So what time are you and the triplets coming to the Double Creek for dinner tomorrow night?” he asked casually.
    Her delicate brow knit in surprise. “You still want to try and get them to eat their vegetables?” she asked. “Even given how your charm offensive failed?”
    He watched her run back to the kitchen for the cobbler she’d intended to send home with him earlier. Their fingers brushed as she handed it over.
    “I’m not sure my effort did crash and burn—entirely,” he countered. After all, he’d stayed for dinner, dishes, the kids’ bedtime and conversation afterward. That was definitely something.
    He’d also managed to make a wager with her that would guarantee a lot more time with her over the coming days.
    “Five o’clock sound okay to you?” he continued affably, determined to be as patient as it took.
    She was definitely a woman worth waiting for.
    Rose smiled, her pretty eyes dancing with delight. “Sounds good.”
    * * *
    “D ON ’ T BE SO DISCOURAGED ,” Rose said early Sunday evening as she watched the kids have their last hurrah post dinner on the big front porch of Clint’s home. He’d brought out a Matchbox car set he’d purchased for the occasion, similar to one he’d enjoyed in his childhood, and the triplets were having a great time running the small cars over the wooden planks. “Cutting out the raw veggies in animal shapes was a great idea.”
    He cast a fond look at her kids. “I just wasn’t the first to try it.”
    “It was one of my parents’ old tricks.”
    Clint sat next to her on the chain-hung swing on one end of the porch. Intimacy simmered between them as he draped his arm along the back of it and gazed down at her. “Did it work on you?”
    He looked so handsome in the fading evening light, it was all Rose could do not to snuggle into the curve of his arm. “Yes, but I never had an aversion.”
    “Point taken.” He leaned in closer. “Well, just so you know, I’m not giving up.”
    He wasn’t giving up on their bet—or his pursuit of her? Even though he hadn’t put the moves on her, she could feel him wanting to do so. It was in every lingering look and smile.
    “I can see you aren’t,” she said, aware they were flirting without actually flirting.
    He looked deep into her eyes, promising, “And I will persevere.”
    Rose swallowed around the sudden parched feeling in her throat. “I hope you do,” she returned huskily.
    Not just because she wanted her kids eating healthier. But because she enjoyed spending time with him. And this would accomplish that.
    She cleared her throat. “In the meantime, since we have a minute, did