Page 54 of Kiss Me Tonight

Lurching forward, I snake my arm through hers. “Dominic, this is my sister Willow.”

Dominic peers down at her, his expression unreadable. “You the one with the EXWIFEY license plate out front?”

My sister practically preens beside me. “I have a morbid sense of humor.”

“Doesn’t morbid mean you like dead people, Aunt Willow?” Topher asks, narrowing his eyes in that way that always alerts me he’s got something up his sleeve. “You know what? Now that I’m thinking about it, Uncle Larry always did seem a littlepale.”

Willow audibly chokes. “I did not marry a vampire, kid. And you should probably invest in a dictionary because that isnotthe definition of morbid. Don’t schools give them out free nowadays?”

“There’s a thing called the internet. I don’t need them to give me a dictionary.” My son leans in, innocently batting his eyelashes. “You’re too old to remember having internet at school, right?”

This time, I can’t help but laugh out loud. It bubbles to life in my chest, making me gasp for air a little when I say, “You two are insane. Also, no fighting in front of strangers.”

“Not quite a stranger anymore,” Dominic cuts in, jutting a finger over my shoulder to point at his house next door. “Also, based on the way Topher here hustled me today, I should be awarded an honorary Levi medal. It was brutal out there.”

In the midst of Dominic-wannabes and morbid wordplay, it totally slipped my mind as to why he’s here. In my courtyard. Particularly when he made it a point to mention that he has plans tonight . . .

Throat absurdly dry—from nerves? Guilt? Lust?—I only nod. Then blurt, “Thanks for bringing Topher home.”

Fifteen-year-old boys are not known for their subtlety. Topher snickers under his breath. “Yeah, Mom, because he hadsucha far way to go.”

The twenty feet separating our two houses suddenly feels even smaller than normal. I meet Dominic’s dark gaze, surprised to find that he’s actually removed his ball cap. It’s dangling from a finger down at his side, but his attention is rooted on me.

“I thought you had plans?” I ask.

“He canceled them,” Topher butts in before ambling over to Willow. “Coach said he needs to talk with you, Ma.”

My eyes fly to the laptop, which is still perched on the Adirondack chair. It sits there like a beacon of impending disaster. Slowly, I move toward it. Only a step. Nothing too obvious. “About what?”

Did he hear the moaning coming from the laptop when he walked in the house?

I hope not.

Really, really hope not.

“Adult stuff, apparently,” Topher says, which does nothing at all to alleviate my anxiety. “I don’t know. Aunt Willow, want to grab some ice cream from Cookies and Joe?”

My younger sister narrows her eyes on her nephew. “Is this blackmail? I bring you to the diner and you forget about sitting on your buddy’s front stoop for an hour?”

“Sounds like a fair trade to me.”

Willow’s grumbling is belied by the wink she sends my way. “All right, fine. You’ve twisted my arm, nephew. Ice cream it is.”

“And then after you have to bring me to the video game store before it closes.”

My kid is nothing if not an expert at maneuvering people to act in his best interests. Hiding a grin behind my closed fist, I watch my sister and son bicker their way back into the house. Over the years, they’ve built more of a brother-sister bond, considering how young I was when I first learned I was pregnant.

Willow was even younger. By the time of Topher’s birth, she had only recently turned nineteen. I was a month shy of my twenty-second birthday.

“Your son’s a swindler.”

Jumping a little, I look swiftly to Dominic. “Figured that out already, did you?”

Without waiting for me to offer him a place to sit, he takes a seat on the Adirondack chair like he owns the damn thing. Long legs planted down on the brick patio on either side of the chair, arms crossed over his chest. He drops his head back, twisting it to the left so he can still get a read on me.

Lord, those eyes of his are the very definition of temptation.

Lips tipping up in a delicious grin, Dominic says, “He’s ruthless. He’d wait till I was about to nail a ball in the hole and then—”