Page 16 of The Live-In Temptation (Steele Brothers of Starlight Cove #2)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHLOE

When Xander had asked if I’d come with him and Emma to the weekly family dinner at his mom’s, I’d had a momentary blip of panic. I didn’t do meeting the family, and I certainly didn’t do family dinners.

And then he’d reminded me that I was panicking for a reason I’d entirely manufactured on my own. He was on call this weekend, and since I was the nanny , he needed me there with Emma in case he had to take off.

So, I wasn’t going to be there meeting the family . Yes, his family would all be there, and I assumed they wouldn’t just ignore me, but it wasn’t going to be like that . I’d be there strictly professionally. Obviously.

Except now, walking up to the back door of his mom’s house with Emma’s hand in mine while she talked a mile a minute about all the things she wanted to show me at Mimi’s house, it didn’t feel professional.

It felt…cozy.

“And Mimi has this magic door unblocker! Only some people can unblock the door, and I’m one of them!

She says I’m the best unblocker in the whole world .

Watch!” Emma ran ahead of Xander and me, tugging off her mitten as she pressed her thumb to the keypad.

The lock disengaged, and she shot a bright-eyed smile over her shoulder. “ See ?”

“Wow!” I grinned at her infectious enthusiasm. “That’s some magic thumb you have.”

“Thanks!” With one more smile tossed our way, she turned the knob and pushed open the door, revealing the kind of home I’d never known.

The kitchen was big and bright, all warm woods and soft light, with a breakfast nook tucked under bay windows overflowing with potted plants and herbs.

A wide, double archway led to a dining room and a family room just beyond that with a wall of filled-to-bursting bookshelves anchoring the space.

The scent of garlic, meat, and something vaguely sweet hung in the air like a hug I didn’t even know I needed.

Though I’d met everyone in Xander’s family at one time or the other since I’d first come to Starlight Cove, seeing them here, in this environment, was something altogether new.

Declan—my single-time tattoo artist—sat at the dining table, glaring daggers at a half-folded napkin while Sutton stood beside him, patiently explaining the difference between a swan and whatever crumpled-up object he had in his hand.

Laurel sat across from them, phone in hand, her mouth quirked in the kind of I’m absolutely up to no good grin I’d come to expect from Sutton’s teenage daughter.

Atlas stood at the head of the table, arms crossed and expression carved from stone as he watched over the whole production.

Lincoln’s voice drifted toward us from the other room, calling something about napkin travesties before he appeared in the doorway, eyebrows raised like he was the only sane one in a house full of lunatics.

“Oh good, you’re here. Just in time to witness Dec’s humiliation at the hands of origami swans. ”

“Give it a rest, Lincoln,” Xander’s mom said, exasperation in her tone. “They haven’t even taken off their shoes yet.”

“I have, Mimi!” Emma called, kicking off her boots as fast as humanly possible. “Are you making psghetti for me?”

Holly turned around just in time for Emma to crash into her for a hug. “I am . A little birdie told me that’s what you were hoping for.”

Emma stared up at her with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open. “You talk to birds?”

“Big, grumpy ones,” Lincoln said. “She’s got three of them barking in her ear every day.”

“Birds don’t bark, Uncle Linc,” Emma said, the duh heavy in her tone. “They chirp .”

Lincoln crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter. “I’m afraid only one of her birdies chirps. And he’s definitely her favorite.”

Holly rolled her eyes, absently smoothing a hand down Emma’s hair as she regarded Lincoln. “I don’t have favorites—with little birdies or sons.”

“Who said anything about sons?” he asked.

“Hello again, Chloe,” Holly said with a smile, completely ignoring Lincoln. “I’m so glad you were able to join us!”

“Oh, sure.” I nodded, shrugging out of my coat when Xander reached for it. “Thanks for having me. I’m happy to go where the tiny human goes.”

“What’s going on in there?” Xander asked, stepping up behind me in a way that made every nerve ending in my body stand at attention.

Why? I had no idea.

He wasn’t even close. Not really. About as far away as someone would be while standing in line at the grocery store. But when it came to Xander Steele, I was coming to realize it didn’t matter. If I was anywhere in his vicinity, I felt it like static through my entire body.

Irritating and inconvenient.

Lincoln grinned. “Declan lost a bet, so he’s folding napkins into swans. Sutton’s instructing him. Laurel’s recording the entire thing for future blackmail potential. And Atlas is supervising.”

“Right.” Xander nodded. “So just a normal Sunday, then.”

“Pretty much.”

“Since Declan is so busy with the fancy napkins you just had to have, that means you’re on table-setting duty,” Holly said, gesturing toward a stack of dinnerware on the counter.

“ Mom .” Lincoln huffed in a way that I would’ve expected from a teenager, not a grown-ass man. “Dec was supposed to do it this week!”

“And yet you insisted on making a bet with him that you knew he was going to lose, all so he could make some stupid swans out of napkins.” She patted his chest. “That means it falls on you, my lovely child.”

“What about Xander?” Lincoln gestured toward where Xander still stood next to me—far too close and yet not nearly close enough. “He’s not doing anything.”

“I didn’t ask Xander, now did I? I asked you , my sweet, chirpy little bird.”

“Come on, Uncle Linc,” Emma said, grabbing his hand and tugging him toward the dining room. “I’ll help you!”

The petulant look melted off his face as he smiled at Emma. “You’ve got a deal, little bean. Just make sure to give Uncle Dec the cracked plate because it’s his favorite…”

As they headed into the other room, Holly turned to me with a smile. “I hope you like spaghetti, Chloe. It tends to be a fan favorite around here.”

“Oh, I?—”

“Holly’s specialty,” Sutton said, strolling into the kitchen and shooting me a grin like she knew something I didn’t. “She made it for Laurel and me, too. The first time we came to family dinner.”

Before I could freak out about that little detail my wily friend slipped in way too casually, Holly asked Sutton to grab the garlic knots as she dished up the spaghetti in a large serving bowl.

“Well, it’s a crowd-pleaser, so I figure I can’t go wrong with it.” She glanced at me, her brow furrowed. “As long as you’re not a vegetarian…”

I shook my head. “Oh god, no. I like bacon too much for that. Although I did give it a go when I was in Thailand for a month, but it didn’t stick. Once I got back to the States, I basically ate my weight in bacon every day for a month.”

“Oh, I love Thailand!” Holly said. “What were you doing there?”

“I was a caretaker at an elephant sanctuary.”

“Really?” Holly’s brows lifted as she studied me with curiosity. “That sounds so interesting! Sutton tells me you have a bit of an eclectic résumé.”

I slid a glance to my friend, who only returned my stare with a smile. “Eclectic is a very nice word for what others might call a mess.”

Holly laughed and glanced back at Xander before returning her gaze to me. “Well, I’m just glad those people—whoever they are—could see past the mess and realize what a great addition you’d be to any…job.”

I didn’t have much experience with family dinners—by the time I’d oopsie-babied my way into my family’s lives, my older siblings were out of the house and my parents weren’t all that interested in doing the whole raising-a-kid-thing again. But this? This was…something.

It was loud and funny and addictive. Not to mention delicious.

There were too many conversations happening all at once, nonstop bickering between the brothers as Sutton attempted to play referee and Laurel egged them on, and my little sidekick passing me bits of her garlic knot under the table like we were part of some kind of secret mission.

It was pretty perfect.

So perfect, in fact, I had to keep reminding myself it wasn’t mine.

I buckled myself into the passenger’s seat of Xander’s SUV and peeked behind me toward Emma. She was already passed out with Pinkie clutched tight to her chest, her mouth hanging open, not a care in the world. “She’s gonna sleep well tonight.”

“She conked out mid-sentence,” Xander said as he started the car. “Something about a dragon who runs a food truck.”

I smiled, warmth bubbling in my chest at her reciting one of the bedtime stories I’d told her this week. “All that trash-talking she did while challenging everyone to Uno really wore her out.”

Xander huffed out what might’ve passed for a laugh and shook his head. “It’s hard to believe.”

“What is?”

He glanced over at me as he drove us through the quiet of Starlight Cove, the glow of lampposts intermittently lighting up the dark interior as we passed.

“Hard to believe she’s the same kid I brought here to meet them only a couple months ago.

Hell, she doesn’t even seem like the same kid she was a couple weeks ago. ”

My heart hiccupped, and I looked out the window quickly, glad there was no visible sign that my throat suddenly felt too tight.

But he didn’t mean it like that . He didn’t mean because of me . I knew that.

Obviously.

It was just Emma’s natural growth while becoming more comfortable around people—especially those in her inner circle—and the hard work she was doing with her therapist.

But still.

I couldn’t help my stomach from doing a tiny little pirouette, my heart warming at the thought that I might’ve had a little something to do with coaxing that sweet little girl out of her shell.

“Thanks for coming tonight,” Xander murmured. “Even though it turned out to be unnecessary.”

I shrugged. “No big deal. I had fun. Your family’s kind of…”

“Annoying? Irritating? Obnoxious as hell?”

I breathed out a laugh and glanced over at him, running my gaze over his profile. “I was going to say great. Your family’s kind of great.”

“Yeah. I guess they’re that too.”

Silence stretched for a beat as we drove through the quiet town toward his house. I picked at the hem of my sleeve, pretending like I wasn’t reliving every second of tonight while also shoving down that incessant bitch inside me who was begging to join in that again.

“I didn’t realize you’d met Declan before,” Xander said, his voice cutting through the silence.

“What?”

“At dinner.” He cleared his throat, very diligently staring straight out the windshield. “Dec asked how your tattoo was healing.”

“Oh. Yeah.” I nodded, tucking my hair behind my ear. “When I first got here. Wanted to add to my collection.”

“Collection?” He snapped his head toward me, his gaze flicking down to my collarbone hidden beneath my sweater, and just why in the hell did that make my clit tingle?

“Well, maybe not a collection, but definitely tattoo s , plural.”

I didn’t know if it was the heavy silence in the car, the way Xander seemed to be white-knuckling the steering wheel, or the fact that I couldn’t get my mind off the memory of him in his towel, the black lines of his tattoo poking out of the top, but something made me lose my mind and blurt out a question I had no business asking.

“How about you? Just the one?”

“I have a few.”

God . The way he’d said it, in that low, smoky rumble, nearly did me in. Had me imagining all kinds of things I had no business imagining. Like where else on his body was permanently marked. And what they would taste like when I traced them with my tongue.

“Well.” I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat, crossing my legs and hoping it wasn’t obvious just exactly what I was doing. “That feels like dangerous information to have.”

Xander glanced over at me for the briefest second before returning his attention to the road.

It could’ve been that fleeting look, or how he tightened his grip on the steering wheel, or that not-so-subtle tic of his jaw, but I began to wonder if maybe that wasn’t the only thing dangerous between us.