Page 30 of Outlaw

My eyebrows shot up, and she smirked.

“That’s a joke.”

Another chuckle bubbled out of me as I turned back to the food and chose some berries, a pancake, and a slice of bacon.

“The bacon is weally good,” Stevie told me.

“Vivi Lu, I don’t think bacon can be anything but good.”

She giggled and stuck the end of the fancy straw into her mouth while she watched me.

I was almost to the stool beside her when Linc walked into the kitchen. If I had been eating, I would have choked on my food.

Good Lord. That man.

His eyes met mine, and I had some difficulty swallowing. I’d thought Hudson was handsome. But he seemed ordinary when compared to Linc. Self-preservation had perhaps dulled my memory of his perfection. Right now, it was here, slapping me in the face.

Broad shoulders with muscular arms stretched the blue pearl-snap shirt he was wearing. The faded jeans it was tucked intolooked as if they had been tailor-made for him. Complete with dark brown cowboy hat and boots, the man was breathtaking. Literally. I wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

Linc’s gaze didn’t have any trouble looking right past me to Jayda, who was busy at a complicated-looking coffee machine, then to Stevie.

“Good morning,” he said, causing her little head to snap around to look at him.

“Hey! It’s my weal dad!” she exclaimed happily, pointing as if I hadn’t seen him the instant he stepped into the room.

The corner of his mouth tugged up, and the way it made his eyes crinkle reminded me of the Linc I used to know. My outlaw. I tore my gaze off him and pulled the stool out to sit down. He wasn’t smiling at me. He was smiling at our daughter, who was impossible not to smile at.

“Morning, Mr. Shephard,” Jayda called out. “I’ll have your plate to you in just a minute. I finally have someone to make a latte for.”

Linc walked into my line of vision again, and like moths to a flame, my eyes were right back on him.

He studied the array of food, then cut his eyes over to Stevie. “Was there something here to your liking?” he asked her.

Blonde curls bounced as she nodded her head vigorously. “The pancakes was weally good. You need to twy them. Jayda puts whipped cweam and bewwies on them. And the bacon was my favowite,” she said, holding up the half-eaten piece in her hand to show him what bacon looked like, I guessed.

“I normally just have eggs and toast, but if you say I need to try the pancakes, then pancakes it is,” he replied, his expression serious, as if her words had changed his mind.

Again, she nodded and bounced on her knees. “You can sit by me. Thewah is a seat wight hewah.” She patted the spot on her other side.

“That’s the best offer I’ve had all week,” he told her, then glanced back at Jayda. “I’ll take the pancakes the way Stevie had them with the bacon, please.”

Jayda looked up at him, her expression a mixture of surprise and amusement. “Got it,” she replied, then placed the latte in front of me.

“Thank you,” I told her again before she turned to start making his plate.

“We awah going to pack up my things and bwing them hewah to youah house,” Stevie told Linc.

He leaned in closer to her. “I’m looking forward to you showing me your favorite toys.”

“That’s my Bluey house!” she exclaimed. “We can bwing that, can’t we, Mommy?” she asked, turning to look at me.

“Yes, of course.”

“Hudson gave it to me.”

And there it was. What I had hoped my oversharing daughter would not mention. I didn’t look at Linc, but I could literally feel the air around us get thick.

“Is there by chance a larger Bluey house that you might want?” Linc asked her.

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