Читать книгу Oops...We're Married? - Susan Lute, Susan Lute - Страница 13

Dillon shifted uneasily at the smothering tension that surrounded them as he, Ryan and Eleanor climbed into his pickup. Once Ryan heard that his dad and Eleanor were really married, his son had latched on to Eleanor’s hand as if he was never going to let the woman go.

Even now, Ryan was leaning forward from the back seat of the extended cab, his tiny hand resting possessively on Eleanor’s shoulder. In a brief movement, she shifted, trapping his son’s fingers between her shoulder and ear. Gently, she moved her head back and forth as if she was trying to smooth away some disappointment she knew was coming.

Sudden desire streaked through Dillon at the surprising gesture. Did Eleanor care for his son’s tender feelings? She probably didn’t have a clue how attractive that possibility made her.

“Ryan, sit back and put your seat belt on.” Dillon turned the key to start the engine, still thinking about the seemingly distant woman beside him. Her classic features carefully blank, Eleanor turned away from him, looking into the still night outside her window.

“I can’t believe Jake left me without a ride home,” she mumbled unhappily.

“What do you want to do now?” he asked a little gruffly, unreasonably wanting to shatter her isolation.

“I want to go home.”

“You’re going home with us. You’re my new mom.”

The enthusiasm in Ryan’s little voice sparkled brightly, filling Dillon with regret and anger. Ryan deserved to have a mom. A real mom, not this silent, remote, accidental “mom” who’d gently rubbed her cheek against his son’s small hand before the child reluctantly sat back and fastened his seat belt.

“Ryan, Miss Eleanor and I are not really married,” Dillon gently reminded his son as Eleanor’s stiff posture made him wonder angrily what was really going on behind the silent mask of her features. For a moment, while they’d danced, she’d taken her glasses off, but now they were firmly back in place, a shield she apparently hid behind. “There was a mistake. She doesn’t want to come home with us.”

When Eleanor swung around to glare at him, her silky blond hair swinging wildly around her shoulders, he realized he’d chosen the wrong words. And it made him even angrier. It wasn’t his fault she didn’t want to be married to him. He didn’t want to be married to her, either. And, just for that brief second, crawling out from under some hidden rock in his soul was a feeling of confusing disappointment.

“The man said he married you. That means she’s my mom.”

In a heartbeat, the wildfire in the deep whisky eyes hiding behind the windows of her glasses, changed to disbelieving panic, matching the feeling starting to fuel Dillon’s own emotions.