Page 37 of The Live-In Temptation (Steele Brothers of Starlight Cove #2)

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

XANDER

We’d barely walked through my mom’s back door when the noise hit us full force.

“You touch that roll, and I’ll stab you with a butter knife,” Sutton said, pointing a finger at Lincoln.

He froze, hand hovering an inch above the bread basket. “I was testing for warmth.”

“You were testing my patience,” Mom said, not even turning from the stove.

Declan, seated on the counter like he was fifteen, smirked. “He’s carb-loading to flirt with Farmer Girl later. Needs the stamina.”

“Says the guy still trying to recover from the hot librarian’s sudden interest in getting a tattoo from someone else,” Lincoln shot back.

Declan’s brows slammed down, that Steele glower sliding into place. “Don’t start, Linc.”

“How about you both shut the hell up?” Atlas stood like a bodyguard next to Sutton, his arms crossed over his chest, his scowl as deep as the ocean. “You’re being shitheads.”

Emma gasped dramatically as she toed off her boots. “That’s a dollar in the swear jar, Uncle Atlas!”

“I actually think he owes about twenty,” Laurel murmured from her perch at the breakfast nook as she scrolled on her phone.

Sunday dinners were always so fucking much—basically, the aftermath of a tornado—but from the very first one I’d brought Chloe to, she’d slid into the mayhem effortlessly.

Just like now, as she slipped straight into the fold as if she’d always been here, guiding Emma toward Laurel before sidling up to Lincoln, a smirk on her face.

“Hey, warmth-tester. What level are they?”

“Uh…level perfection ,” he said. “Cool enough to eat but warm enough to basically melt in your mouth.”

“Grab one. I’ll distract them.”

“Marry me,” Lincoln said, and I couldn’t stop the short growl that rumbled from my chest. Thankfully, it was quiet enough that only one person heard it.

Unfortunately, that single person was my idiot youngest brother who shot me a smirk and stepped closer to Chloe just to piss me off.

“We could go down to town hall tomorrow.”

She popped half a roll into her mouth before tossing the rest to him, then spun around. “Linc’s been a bad boy, ladies. He swiped a roll.”

Lincoln gasped and held a hand to his chest. “That was cruel.”

Meanwhile, something close to a laugh rumbled out of Declan, but it came to a screeching halt when Chloe smacked him upside the head.

“Jesus, what the hell did I do?” he grumbled, rubbing a hand on the back of his head. “I’m just sitting here.”

“Please.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “You egg him on like you get paid to.”

“Do you blame me? He’s a pain in my ass.”

“You’re all a pain in my ass,” Mom said. “Now, either help with dinner or get out of my kitchen.”

Everyone stayed right where they were, hovering in the hub of the house, the conversations spilling into each other, just like always.

Lincoln was teaching Emma a card trick while Laurel and Declan heckled him.

Sutton and my mom were discussing whether one of the sex scenes in their latest book was physically possible or strictly fantasy fodder, while Atlas supervised the entire thing.

And then there was Chloe, wearing a sundress in the middle of March as if she could usher in summer with her will alone. She stepped up next to my mom, seamlessly took over gravy duty, and jumped into the debate about the book.

And all I could do was stand on the outside looking in.

Sunday dinners weren’t new…they were tradition, which meant I was used to this. Used to my brothers bickering and Sutton multitasking and Emma playing games and Laurel roasting people twice her age. All of that was familiar. But Chloe?

She was the piece I hadn’t even realized was missing.

Unfortunately, that didn’t matter because she wasn’t supposed to stay. The plan was for her to leave at the end of March. That had always been the plan.

So then, why did it feel like someone had hollowed out my chest as I watched her stir gravy and talk with my brothers and laugh with my mom and shoot a secret wink at my daughter, all while knowing it could never last?

After dinner, I was standing in the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. Taking a much-needed break to catch my damn breath.

“Chloe fits, doesn’t she?” Mom said, following me in as if she knew I needed the company. She tipped her head toward the sunbeam currently shining brightly in the family room —laughing with Sutton and teasing my brothers and absent-mindedly braiding my daughter’s hair.

Like she belonged.

“Doesn’t matter. She’s not staying.”

Mom turned to look at me with raised brows. “Has she actually said that?”

“She’s said she’s leaving, so yeah. Pretty much.” I kept my voice even, refusing to allow even a crack to show. “At the end of March. She made that clear.”

“She made it clear then . Things have changed.”

“Have they?” I asked because, yeah, I’d been hoping.

Hoping maybe Chloe would change her mind. That whatever this was between us meant something real to her. But she hadn’t said a word. And I wasn’t going to be the idiot who asked, just to hear her say no. Not when she was born to fly and spread her chaos everywhere she went.

“ Haven’t they?” Mom bumped her shoulder against mine, her attention on the side of my face while I was trying valiantly to keep my attention off the one woman I couldn’t seem to get out of my mind. “You look at her like she’s everything. And I think maybe she could use a bit of that in her life.”

“She’s my nanny. Nothing more.”

Mom hummed in that way that said she knew I was full of shit. “You’ve always been the steady one, Xander. But even anchors deserve to get swept away once in a while.”

I didn’t respond to her. I couldn’t. So instead, I just watched from the periphery while Laurel played DJ for Chloe and Emma, the two of them spinning in clumsy circles, dancing and laughing, and my heart fucking ached watching it.

Because I wanted it so goddamn badly.

Wanted Chloe. Here, at Sunday dinners. Here, dancing with my daughter and bullshitting with my brothers. Here, in my town and in my house and in my bed.

But I’d learned a long time ago that wanting didn’t mean keeping. And Chloe? Wild, beautiful, radiant Chloe?

She was never mine to keep. And she sure as hell wasn’t meant to stay.