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"You’re already looking at Eve, Cammie and Travis as yours," Garrett pointed out "We just don’t want to see you get hurt, man"
"I just hat you both already have," Donovan said, his voice lowering and shaking lightly with emotion "And nore what I feel when I look at her just because I don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle yet Just like neither of you turned away from your wives who at that time were just a mission Just sorudging voice "Know that we have your back and that if you have feelings for Eve, beyond that of someone in need, then we consider her family and one of us We’ll do whatever we can to help No e’ll allow any haro into this with your eyes open You’d be taking on a teenager and a four-year-old, and that’s not going to be easy"
Donovan laughed, so from his shoulders "Isn’t that what Ma did with Rusty? Travis isn’t the belligerent, defensive kid that Rusty was, not that she didn’t have good reason to be Travis is a good kid Scared but determined to protect his sisters He shouldn’t have a care in the world at his age, but instead he’s giving up his childhood and beco before his tih it’s not like I’h to have fathered hi their rigid stances
"Yeah, well, you would have had to have gotten one hell of a head start if you fathered a fifteen-year-old kid when you weren’t hed "Some days I feel a hell of a lot older We’ve all seenlives than any dozen people will ever see or experience That shit ages a person It’s ti a fa still I love KGI I wouldn’t have any other job But I don’t want it to becouys have A wife to come home to Children to fill my house I want a reason to live and a reason to come back froed quick, worried glances Donovan knew he sounded weary and that they weren’t used to hearing this kind of heavy shit froe He was ready for life to stop passing hi for eachto come home to afterward
"Don’t look at me like that," Donovan said dryly "Like it’s ti boy I can take care ofinway ahead of yourselves anyway Contrary to what yourecklessly into a situation without exale first But when I say this, I know you’ll understand what I mean, because it was like this for you when youer I see someone who’s different from every other mission I’ve worked Ito stop et it," Garrett said softly "It was like that for etting too emotionally involved You orried about me at the time and you even offered to take over thein overthe favor here"
Donovan sot this Okay? Now if you till get on hoet Eve to trust h to share whatever trouble she’s in"
Sam held up his hands init up again Swear Just watch your six and know that we’ll be watching it too Goes without saying that whatever you need, we’ll do"
Donovan rose frorinned at his brothers "I know it’ll be hard for Garrett to keep his rumbled
"Hmm, and now I have blackmail material You step out of line and I tell Sarah you’re dropping F-bolared back at Donovan while Sahter Donovan herded his brothers toward the door, anxious for theone Eve and the others had been asleep for several hours and they’d be hungry soon He wanted a few moments alone with Eve so that maybe she’d open up to hi the plates of lasagna and preparing to get a tray together so he could bring everyone food in bed when he looked up and saw Eve standing in the doorway of his kitchen
He was ridiculously chars and bare feet visible Hair tousled and her eyes droopy with the reazed nervously in his direction He liked her in his space Like she belonged here With hiht here and now only solidified his feeling ofpossession Was this what his brothers had felt when they’d first met their wives? Had they known from the first moment that she was the one? He knew Garrett had been in way over his head from the moment he’d seen Sarah
And yes, as Garrett had said, Donovan had even warned hiood it had done hiotten it then And he knew, just as Garrett had known, that Eve’s future was inexorably tied up with his He accepted that Would accept no other possibility But he also kneasn’t going to be easy But then it hadn’t been easy for any of his brothers or their teaood was easy
"Co her toward the table He knew she was uncomfortable dressed in only his shirt, but he was deter there in just a thin pair of panties and his oversized T-shirt "I ar you in bed, but if you’re up to it, you can eat with me at the table, and then we’ll wake Travis and Cammie up to eat Unless they’re awake already?"
He knew she would have gone in and checked on Travis, and he also knew she wouldn’t have left Cah he had intended to bring her dinner in bed, he now jumped at the opportunity to have dinner with her--alone--in the kitchen They needed to get a lot out of the way And he had to see if she trusted hih yet to confide in him
"No, they’re still asleep," she said in a low voice as she moved toward the table
Unease was evident in the way she held herself, the hesitance in her eyes as she watched hi aardly next to a chair still pushed underneath the table And she was quick to hide her legs behind the table, as if the is weren’t already burned into his na, just out of the microwave, and set it down in front of her
"What would you like to drink? I have sweet tea, lemonade or a variety of sodas"
As he spoke, he pulled her chair out for her and ht her elbow,sure she didn’t suffer any effects of the medication he’d administered earlier She went utterly still at his touch and then glanced up at hi lashes
She had to feel it too This electric connection between them No way could she be unaware of the current To reinforce the sensation, he caressed the skin just above her elboith his fingers It was a gesture meant to comfort, but the heat from her flesh bled into his hand and up his arm
"Tea is fine," she lass and a fork for you to eat with"
He pushed the plate so it was directly in front of her and then went to collect her drink, forks for both of the inside the ht hers to the table
A lass across the table before taking the seat catty-corner to where she sat at the head