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

and entered the underground parking garage, “that Bode will probably go right back to ignoring Lucas as soon as he gets what he wants career-wise.”
    “And maybe he won’t,” Gannon said quietly as he turned his truck into a reserved space and cut the motor.
    Still feeling a little shaken, Lily gratefully reached for Gannon’s hand when he came around to the passenger side and helped her out. She gazed up at him, wishing she could lean on him the way she wanted without there being repercussions. She studied his handsome profile. “You really believe that my ex might come through for Lucas?”
    Hand to the center of her back, he led her to the elevator and pressed Up. “I believe that your son is a great kid. I’ve barely had any time to spend with him and I can see that. So it follows that if Bode gets more thoroughly acquainted with Lucas, he will realize it, too.”
    The doors slid open. Lily entered the elevator first, and Gannon went in after her.
    “And in the long run,” Lily mused, forcing herself to put her own insecurities aside and be the adult the situation required, “being wanted, accepted and appreciated by his father could only be good for Lucas.”
    Gannon nodded, respect for her gleaming in his eyes. “It’s a heck of a lot better than the alternative,” he said firmly.
    * * *
    T HERE WAS A gourmet food shop in one of the retail spaces on the first floor of Gannon’s building. They stopped by.
    In short order, he bought a nice bottle of burgundy, two porterhouse steaks, fresh spinach and raspberries and a decadent-looking carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from their bakery section.
    “You do remember I said I wasn’t really that hungry?”
    “But I am.” He gave her a wolfish grin. “It’s possible when you smell the food cooking, you will be, too.”
    Lily wasn’t sure what she expected from his abode, since to date she only really knew the cowboy and law student sides of Gannon. Suffice it to say, she was blown away when they finally walked in.
    Gannon’s loft was the height of urban sophistication. Approximately two thousand square feet, it sported dark wood floors, rough-hewn brick walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked downtown Fort Worth. The main living area encompassed half of the space and had a combined gourmet kitchen, living and formal dining area. Off that were a cozy book-lined study, a guest room and a master suite—the latter two each with a luxurious private bath.
    All the furniture was heavy, masculine. No upholstered pieces. Just wood and leather. A few modern rugs sporting the red, gray and ivory color scheme of the abode.
    “Wow,” Lily said when they had completed the tour.
“Nice.”
    He grinned, evidently proud of the elegant sophisticated décor, and went to unpack the groceries. “Not how you pictured me living, huh?”
    Taking a seat on one of the high-backed stools at the granite-topped kitchen island, she rested her face on her hand, watching him move about. “Actually, given how fast and far you’ve risen in the legal world, it was
exactly
the way I would have pictured you living.”
    He rinsed the greens and berries and set them in separate colanders to drain.
    “In the lap of luxury,” she explained at his inquisitive look.
    He opened the wine. “Not as cozy as your place.”
    She sipped from the glass he gave her. “True. Hard to imagine you having a family here.”
    He flashed another grin her way and turned on the grill in the center of his stove. While it heated, he crushed a few berries in the bottom of a bowl, and then whisked together a vinaigrette with the ease of a man who cooked well and often. “Who said I wanted a family?”
    Lily felt a stab of disappointment, as well as surprise. Telling herself this could be the deal breaker she had been expecting to surface all along, she looked him in the eye. “Don’t you?”
    * * *
    G ANNON HADN ’ T . B UT somehow this evening, he had begun to reconsider. He shrugged