Page 35 of Inheriting Miss Fortune

While listening to them talk about the town and its people and events, I learned a great deal about the place Dev had decided to call home. I could see the appeal. Unlike in the small town I’d grown up in, the townsfolk here in Majestic seemed open-minded and eager for new opportunities. It sounded like a charming small town, which I had to admit could make it a good place to raise Lellie.

If only Dev wanted her.

As the evening wore on, I couldn’t help but notice what a natural Dev was in caring for his daughter. He was gentle and attentive. Even though he didn’t know much about babies, his affection for her was obvious. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her. At first, I’d thought it was out of concern for her safety. And there was that, for sure. But he also watched her with a sweet kind of fascination. I caught him smiling tenderly at her when she tried and failed to balance a piece of pasta on her spoon all the way to her mouth and grinning like a fool when she stacked three containers in a row without them falling over.

He was fucking adorable with her… and it was winding me up in unexpected ways.

First and foremost, I still couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to keep her. He’d said he wasn’t what was best for her, and then he’d implied he had trouble controlling his temper. Or… well, that wasn’t actually what he’d said. He’d said he hadn’t wanted to be around her when he wasupset.

Was he seriously implying a parent couldn’t be upset around their children?

“Foster,” I said, remembering a story from earlier in the evening about the age difference between the sheriff and his little sister. “When you were a teenager and Anna was younger, did you ever get upset around her?”

He looked at me like I was cognitively impaired. “Uh… is this a trick question? Of course I did.”

I glanced at Dev before looking back at Foster. “You don’t think being upset around little kids can be detrimental?”

Foster looked between Dev and me as if searching for the catch. “I guess it depends on what you mean by upset. Are you talking about abuse?”

“No. I just mean being disappointed or angry. Losing your temper when they’re in the vicinity.”

“That’s… standard fare for a teenage boy, isn’t it?” He scratched the back of his neck. “At least for me. One of the reasons I wanted to be a cop was because injustice got under my skin so badly. Still does, obviously. I remember one time I learned a few kids in Anna’s class had stolen her new snow boots. I wanted to beat the shit out of them.”

“Did you take it out on Anna?”

“Of course not,” he said at the same time Dev said, “Tully, what the fuck?”

I waved my hand in the air. “So you’re saying that it’s natural. It’s not detrimental to be your regular self around a little kid, even if that means ups and downs in your mood.”

Foster seemed to understand there was subtext here. “I would say it’s necessary. How else do you model proper self-control to your kids? If they never see you upset, they’ll think it’s not natural to get upset. And if they don’t see how you handle it, they?—”

Dev stood up and lifted Lellie off the ground. I could tell he knew exactly what I was doing, and he wasn’t happy about it. “Sorry to cut your visit short, Foster. It’s time to get this girl in bed.”

Foster’s easy grin was the exact opposite of the tension I felt. “Yeah, no worries. Thanks for including me tonight. I had a good time getting to know this little one.” He cupped the back of Lellie’s head and leaned forward to press a soft kissto her forehead. “Lellie-girl, will you let me come visit again sometime?”

She leaned her head against Dev’s neck and peeked at Foster with a shy glance before giving him a smile. Foster beamed at her.

I couldn’t help but realize he would make a good dad, too. In fact, the two of them would be a dream come true for Lellie.

I didn’t realize I was holding my hands in fists until I felt the bite of fingernails in the tender skin of my palms.

“Nice to meet you, Tully,” he said to me before clapping me on the shoulder.

I hoped I managed to mumble something polite in reply.

After he left, Dev muttered something about giving Lellie a bath and disappeared into the bedroom. I busied myself by cleaning up both the makeshift toys and the remains of dinner. It wasn’t until Dev never reappeared that I wondered if he was avoiding me.

I finally peeked in to see him dead asleep, curled up next to Lellie, who was also out like a light. Three picture books were spread out around them as if Dev had fallen asleep mid-story. Dev had changed into a soft T-shirt and baggy knit shorts, and the sight of his long muscular legs stopped my breath.

My hands remembered the feel of those muscles, of rough hair against soft skin. Of the contours, the curve of his inner thighs.

My tongue remembered, too.

I stood there staring at him, drinking in every inch of him since he was safely tucked away from my hungry attention in the escape of sleep.

He was the sexiest man I’d ever known. Even Katie had called him sexy. One night, we’d been out to dinner at an Italian place after work, and she’d pointed out a man across the restaurant.

“That guy looks like my friend Dev,” she’d said only a couple of months after the night of her party and my hookup.

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