Could it be that rushing things with Heather wasn’t the way to go, either?

“Oh, I almost forgot,” she said getting up from the table to hand him a photo, “I found this under a pillow. The frame is broken, but I don’t think Cuddles did any damage to the picture.”

It was an old black and white photo, one of the only ones he had with his father in it. His mom and dad had their arms around each other and Marcus, Smith, Chase, Ryan, and Zach were doing their best to hold still for the photographer.

“If it wasn’t black and white, I would have thought the man in the picture was you.”

“It’s what everyone says. I’m the carbon copy of my father. When I was a kid, we would spend hours under the hood of some junky car he was trying to put back together.”

“How old were you here?”

“Four.”

His father had died only three years after the picture had been taken. Three years and two weeks. The anniversary of Jack Sullivan’s death was never a good day. Zach’s crew at work had learned to steer clear of his shitty mood once a year.

“You look like you’re dying to rip off that bow tie,” Heather said with a small smile. One that told him more about the way she felt about him than she’d willingly given up to him so far.

“You know the way the living room just looked?” He grinned, remembering. “Multiply that carnage by five after this picture was shot and we were let loose.”

He loved the sound of her laughter, the way it pushed away the dark clouds that came from thinking about his father.

“I wouldn’t think a woman as beautiful as your mother could deal with so many boys,” Heather commented.

“Even when she was yelling at us, you could have sold a picture of her to a magazine.” He smiled down at the black and white, keeping his focus on his mother rather than his father this time. “Even now, after everything we’ve put her through, she’s still a great-looking broad.”

He looked up to see Heather staring at him as if she’d never seen him before this very moment. Damn it, he’d never had a problem with flapping his lips around women before. It was usually the other way around, when they couldn’t stop telling him how excited they were to be with him, how much they were hoping to meet his famous brothers.

“I thought there were eight of you?”

“Mom was pregnant with my brother Gabe in this picture. Lori and Sophie came a couple of years later.” He decided to break the ice for her, just in case she’d been holding out on him. “Smith is that one. And there’s Ryan.”

She looked at the picture again. “Who are the other two?”

He frowned. Didn’t she care that Smith was one of the biggest movie stars in the world and Ryan was the star pitcher for the Hawks?

“Marcus and Chase.” He studied her face carefully to make sure she wasn’t putting him on. Sure, if she wasn’t a sports fan she might not know who Ryan was, but she’d have to live under a rock to not know who Smith was. “You watch movies, right?”

“Of course I do.” She got up, picked up their empty plates, and took them over to the sink. “Seen anything good lately?”

Atlas pawed at the screen door and Zach got up to let the Great Dane go take care of business. Of course Cuddles went with him. He hoped she’d learn something about using the grass rather than his hardwood floor in the near future.

“You really don’t care that Smith Sullivan is my brother?”

He didn’t know why he was pushing her so hard on it. But he didn’t want to be disappointed later when it turned out she’d been secretly angling for an invitation all along.

She paused with a plate in one hand and a sponge in the other. “He is?” She laughed at herself. “I should have put two and two together earlier, shouldn’t I? I’ve been so busy with my business this past year that I guess I don’t get out as much as I used to.” She shot him a look as if she was afraid she’d offended him by not caring about Smith’s fame. “But I hear your brother has been really great in his recent movies. Is there one I should make sure to see?”

He joined her at the sink, drying the dishes she’d just washed. “Seen one, you’ve seen ’em all.”

“I can tell from the way you talk about all of them how much your family means to you,” she said softly.

“I’d take a bullet for any one of them.”

“You would?”

He didn’t have to think about it. “We’re family.”

“Family.” She was silent for a long moment. “They’re lucky to have you.”

Wanting to erase the shadows that didn’t belong in her pretty eyes, he said, “That’s what I’m always telling them.”

She shook her head. “Go check on the dogs, would you? I think we should get away from the scene of the crime for a bit to do more training. I’ll finish up in here.”

He was heading out of the kitchen when he realized he’d forgotten something important. He walked back to where she standing on her tippy-toes to put the clean plates back in his cupboard.

Before she realized what he was doing, he kissed her on the cheek.

“Thanks for breakfast, Heather. And for coming to help with Cuddles. I’d have been completely lost without you.”

Her skin was so soft, and she smelled so good, he wanted to do so much more than kiss her cheek. Instead, he forced himself to step away and head toward the backyard. He hadn’t given up his quest to get her into his bed, but just then it didn’t seem right to try to seduce her the way he normally would have.