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Still, I’m glad I’m here to help him through it.

Right now, he needs a friend.

The kissing the other morning rattled me until I realized he was proving a point and nothing more. How many times has he told me he doesn’t do relationships and that he’s all wrong for me and blah, blah, blah? I got the message the first time. He’s a bad boy, and I’m a good girl, and they don’t mix.

He wanted me to know he thinks I’m beautiful, and it’s nice to hear.

Alden used to tell me that too, despite what Loomis intimated. Alden was never short on praise for me, and he was a great boyfriend. But now that I’ve had some distance, I’ve come to realize something was missing, and that something wasa spark. It was chemistry and butterflies. It was,I want to tear your clothes off every second of every day.

Do I have that with Loomis? Yes. I can deny it and push it away, but I feel it burning in my belly every time he looks at me or smiles a certain way. And when the man walks around without a shirt? Yeah, we have it. Or at least I have it with him.

But my mother always taught me never to tie my self-esteem or sense of worth to a man, and I’m not about to start now. Especially with one who doesn’t believe in love or romance. I’ve settled for less than that before, and I won’t do it again just because he says I’m beautiful.

“You know,” he muses, not looking at me as he plays a complicated version of a Beatles song, “I’m going to have to touch you while they’re here today.” Now he glances up. “Perhaps kiss you again.”

And there it is. That spark. Those butterflies. It’s as if he’s reading my mind.

Before I can answer, we hear a boat out in the water drawing closer to the island, and we both still, our eyes locked. Nerves transform his mischievous expression, and I stand, lifting Fen and holding him close on my good side.

Loomis smirks at me. “Already a mama bear, eh?”

“They’re on our turf.”

“Is that a threat? Are you planning on throwing down?”

My lips twitch. “If I have to, yes. Isn’t that an American term?”

He’s smiling at me now, his fingers twirling the strands of my hair as he likes to do. “So fierce, my little mermaid. My attorney promised it’s just an initial meeting so they can feel me out, so I think it’ll be all right.”

“I know.” I blink at him. “I wasn’t nervous about it until now.”

“Funny, I’ve been nervous about it nonstop, but looking at you holding him like that, I know everything will be okay.” With his eyes locked on mine, he leans in and places a soft kiss on the corner of my lips before he switches to the other side in the exact same place. “For luck.”

A moment later there’s a light tapping on the door, and Loomis tenses, sucks in a deep breath, plasters on his Hollywood smile, and answers the door.

“Loomis Powell?” a stern-looking woman greets him. “I’m Jacinda Levi from Child and Family Services in Boston. This is my colleague, Austin Powers.”

I choke. On nothing. I expect Mike Myers to come in wearing some ridiculous ’60s getup with his chest hair showing and for him to say, “Yeah, baby,” in an exaggerated British accent. No such luck. Instead, the dude is about seven foot a million, built like a truck, and you can tell he has no patience or sense of humor forAustin Powersjokes. Likely because he’s heard them all.

“Lovely to meet you both.” Loomis shakes their hands, exuding cautious charm. “Please, come in.”

Their discerning eyes cast about the room and land on me, and in that moment, a smile hits my lips like a tank.

I hadn’t recognized her name at first. But I know her face.

“Jacinda?!” I cross the room in six strides, Fen clinging to me and squealing since I’m moving fast—something the kid loves. “Oh my gosh! Hi! I don’t know if you remember me, but?—”

“Of course I remember you, Dr. Fritz. You were instrumental in the Baby James case.”

My breath hitches, thinking about him. “Do you know how he is?”

“I can’t speak on a child’s progress, but I hope my expression tells you what you want to know.” She smiles, and my chest feels lighter for it. Baby James was one of those cases, one of thosepatients you never forget. His mom was addicted to all kinds of drugs, and when he was born, she tried to drug him to keep him from crying and having the doctors look at him further or take him from her.

I noticed it, saw her do it as a matter of fact, and alerted family services. The fact that Jacinda is here puts my heart at ease and Loomis is beaming at me in a way I’ve never seen before.

“This must be Fenric,” she says, coming closer and examining the baby in my arms. “Should we sit and chat for a while?” She turns back to Austin Powers and Loomis.

Two hours later, they leave, and not with Fenric in their arms. It was intense, and they didn’t mince words about how they didn’t like that Loomis hid Fen for so long or that he doesn’t have any legal information on him. They asked a lot of questions about Fen’s care in the months from when he was discovered on his mother’s doorstep to now.