Free A Family Come True by Kris Fletcher Page B

reassure. “Her place.”
    It took a moment for his meaning to sink in. “You mean stay with you and your family? I can’t do that. I haven’t seen them since...jeez, since the last time I was up there. High school, probably. That’s a long time, North.”
    “Doesn’t matter. Moxie is Helene’s best friend. You were at the house every summer. I’m living with you. Sort of,” he added with an altogether too-endearing blush. “You’re practically family.”
    “Well, not to me.”
    He sat back, arms crossed, and grinned in a most maddening way—as though he knew something she didn’t.
    “What?” Now her stomach hurt.
    “What what ?”
    “You have that look. Like you know something I don’t know and you’re savoring the moment.”
    He shrugged and pulled an apple from his bag. “Just thinking.” One eyebrow quirked. “About what Moxie will say to that.”
    Her own memories of the formidable Mrs. North, combined with the stories Ian had shared over the years, gave her a moment’s concern. But on the other hand...
    “Look, I not only was raised by a diva, I spent most of my adult life making sure she got everything she wanted the minute she needed it. I have out-conned hotel managers, stage managers, agents and, worst of all, other divas. And I can do it in three languages. Four if you count swearing in German. There’s no way Moxie can make me stay at your family’s home.”
    But, piped up a sly little voice inside her, if you stayed at the house, it might give you more chances to see Ian and Carter together. See if they need a hand reconciling and all that.
    Not a bad point. She’d be more inclined to listen if she could be sure the voice wasn’t being fueled by those sneaky hormones.
    Ian bit into the apple, backhanded juice from his chin and let loose a grin. “You know, I think I should call the rest of the family. Maybe sell tickets. This could be the smackdown of the century.”
    “What smackdown? I don’t need to get violent. I’ll just say, ‘Thank you very much. That’s incredibly generous, but I can’t possibly.’ Which will be even easier if you drop me someplace before you go home.”
    “Are you kidding? That’s like handing my head to her on a silver platter. It’s going to be hard enough going home already. I’m not making Moxie pissed off before I even walk through the door.”
    Guilt tugged at her. She’d forgotten that he was walking back into a situation loaded with land mines.
    “And that’s precisely why you don’t need me around. You and your family need to get past this on your own without tiptoeing around some stranger—”
    “Almost family.”
    “—and her baby.”
    “Very true. At least, when it comes to you.” He pointed to the child clinging to the picnic bench. “It’s Cady I really want.”
    “I’m afraid to ask.”
    “She’s the perfect diversion. If things get too intense, all I have to do is hold her up and make her blow raspberries, and there ya go. Crisis averted.”
    “Cute and possibly correct. But my kid is not going to be your auto-distraction.”
    “Not even for a day or two?”
    She was on the edge of giving him a resounding no when she heard the plea beneath his words. He was only half joking. And being a guy, he probably didn’t even know it.
    Just like he probably had no clue that the only one he really wanted to avoid was Carter. She didn’t think it was simply an oversight that had led him to tell her about Taylor and the broken engagement but never once mention Carter’s role.
    Unbidden, she remembered Ian walking into the backyard after Xander had dropped his jail bomb. She had never been so happy to see anyone in her life, except maybe the anesthesiologist who administered her epidural. She had desperately needed someone nearby, someone she could trust to keep her steady while the rest of the world swirled around her.
    Of course, then he had kissed her and sent things rocking even more, but...
    “I don’t think so,”