LITMIR.BIZ

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and he shrugged and dutifully followed them down the stairs. Not a good sign. The only other women in his life he had a tough time saying no to were Grace and Emma, and just look how wrapped around their meddling little fingers they had him.

      Dinner at Harbor View wasn’t at all the grand affair he would have expected. Place settings were jumbled haphazardly around one end of a huge mahogany table in the formal dining room—by Alex, he assumed, judging by the boy’s proud face. Beau was seated next to Elizabeth on one side of the table while Luisa and her grandson sat across from them.

      He had to admit, the food was divine, the best home-cooked meal he’d had since the last time he ate with the Dugans. With that distant, vaguely unapproving look still on her lovely round features, Luisa filled his plate with some kind of spicy casserole, full of peppers and cheese and tamales.

      He had two helpings and was trying hard not to make a pig of himself by asking for a third while he watched the three of them converse in the mysterious, gracefully beautiful language of the hearing impaired.

      They laughed suddenly, all three of them. He had no idea why and he thought this might be a little like what the hearing world was for a deaf person. Perhaps they were always a little afraid they had missed some kind of joke.

      As their laughter faded, Elizabeth glanced at him. That expressive, telltale color climbed her cheeks. “Oh, Detective Riley. We’re excluding you. I’m so sorry. We’re being terribly rude.”

      He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I find it fascinating to watch. What was so funny?”

      She signed the words she spoke for the boy’s benefit. “Alex was telling us a story about what one of the other children did at school yesterday.”

      “This is the sign for school?”

      Whatever he did must have been way off. The three of them shared a look, then the kid burst into laughter. He could see Elizabeth trying hard not to join him, but eventually she lost the battle. She smiled first, something that completely transformed her solemn features, then she gave in to full-fledged laughter.

      Her laugh was magic, he thought, entranced by it. By her. It was like walking through a dark, brooding forest and suddenly stumbling onto an enchanted, exquisite waterfall.

      Now where the hell did that come from? Beau blinked, astonished at himself for the fanciful image. He wasn’t at all the sort to wax poetic, especially not over a woman in a completely different stratosphere like Elizabeth Quinn.

      “What did I say?” he asked gruffly, embarrassed more at his thoughts than by any sign language faux pas he might have committed.

      “That’s the sign for cracker. They’re similar but not the same. See, here’s school.”

      She showed him and he repeated the sign until he had it right.

      “Now how would I say dinner was fantastic?” he asked Elizabeth.

      She showed him and he turned to Luisa and copied the signs exactly as she had demonstrated, feeling all thumbs at how much more difficult it was than they made it look.

      The housekeeper unbent enough to give him a small smile and touched her left fingers to her chin then brought her hand downward away from her face with her fingers together and her thumb extended.

      “That’s thank you,” Elizabeth explained. She repeated the same motion. “And that’s also one of the ways you can say you’re welcome.”

      He turned to Luisa again and mimicked her actions. “Now how do I say I like your puppy?” he asked Elizabeth.

      This time the signs were a little more complicated but he managed to repeat them to Alex.

      The boy smiled with delight, and for an instant Beau was struck by how something in his large brown eyes reminded him of Marisa. Before he could analyze why, Alex’s pudgy hands flew rapidly through a series of a dozen signs, none of which Beau had any clue about.

      He laughed a little. “Whoa. What was that?”

      Elizabeth smiled again. “He said the puppy’s name is Maddie and she’s learning to play fetch but she’s not very good yet.”

      “My favorite game.”

      Alex signed something again, words that made Elizabeth give a hard shake of her head and respond quickly. The little boy looked stubborn as he repeated the signs, and Beau was consumed with curiosity.

      “What did he say?”

      She paused and color flared on those delectable cheekbones again. “He wants you to come outside and play with him and Maddie for a while. I told him no, that you were very busy. I’m sure you have other things to do.”

      He ought to say no right now before this complicated woman and her taciturn housekeeper and the cute little boy managed to dig any deeper under his skin. But Alex was gazing at him eagerly out of flashing dark eyes that were painfully familiar and Beau knew he couldn’t disappoint him.

      “Tell him I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

      Chapter 5

      Elizabeth sat on her favorite bench overlooking the Sound and the city lights watching Alex and Beau play with Maddie.

      Beau stood on the pebbled shore looking strong and masculine while he threw Maddie’s favorite ball far into the water, much farther than either she or Alex would have been able to throw it. Maddie loved the exercise. She would joyfully paddle after it and then Alex would summon her back to shore with the hand signals they had worked out.

      All three of them seemed to be having the times of their lives. The communication barrier between Beau and Alex didn’t appear to bother either of them. A few times Beau stopped what he was doing to ask her the sign for a word or a translation of something Alex had said, but they didn’t seem to need many words between them.

      Maddie bounded out of the water and shook to dry herself, sending a flurry of water droplets flying onto both of them. Beau laughed, deep and rich, and Alex joined him with his sweet little giggle.

      Her heart twisted with love for him. Tina’s son was such a sweet, happy boy, despite his challenges. The two of them made quite a picture in the golden light of the setting sun—the big, gorgeous detective and the dark-eyed little boy.

      Seeing Beau interact with Alex was a revelation. She wouldn’t have expected Beau to be so good with small children. The day before at his desk he had struck her as someone too impatient, too forceful to have much time for the pesky questions and inevitable dawdling that come with children.

      That impression had probably been created out of her own nervousness, she acknowledged, and her embarrassment at finding out he was the same man she had treated so rudely at Grace Dugan’s party.

      Whatever the reason for her misperception, he and Alex seemed to be dealing together famously.

      This was so good for Alex. With no father in his life, he had spent nearly his entire five years surrounded by women. His mother, Luisa, herself, his schoolteachers and speech-language pathologists. All women.

      Even though men had certainly come and gone through Tina’s life, Elizabeth knew she’d worked hard to keep that part of her world separate from her son.

      Heaven knows, the times he spent here at Harbor View with her and Luisa had been virtually male free, except for the gardener and occasional visits by old friends of her father.

      Although he hadn’t objected to the child’s presence at Harbor View, her father had shown no interest in him, even though Alex had stayed frequently at the house in the months before Jonathan’s death. As long as the child stayed out of his way, Jonathan hadn’t minded his presence.

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