Luca whistled as he danced from one foot to the other. “Cool.”
Campbell nodded, felt a grin split his cheeks. “Yeah, cool.”
FONTANA
Fontana found them like that, heads bent until they nearly touched, cameras in hand, conspiratorial smiles on their faces. She halted in the doorway, tugged her gardening gloves off, one leisurely finger-pull at a time.
Long enough to watch them interact.
Long enough to take Campbell in from head to toe.
He looked a little rumpled today in a T-shirt and jeans, stubble lining his jaw, hair messy from his ride over in the dream machine. His loafers left behind, replaced by dirty Vans the same color as Jaime’s. Sexy without effort, an easier thing for men than women.
He said something to Luca, who laughed as Campbell tapped the lens, shrugged a broad shoulder, and gestured to another part of the camera.
This boy was one Fontana had lost sleep over. In a foster home after being removed from his mother’s care, Luca wore the bewildered expression she recognized from her mirror all those years ago. One he tried to cover with the hardest veneer he could find.
That she understood, too.
Wouldn’t you know Campbell would be the one to crack the boy’s icy facade?
While trying—without trying—tomelthers.
She walked toward them, slapping her gloves against herthigh, pleased they hadn’t noticed her yet. She wanted Campbell unprepared, his expression open for that brief second before he slammed it shut.
“Hey,” she whispered when she reached them.
Campbell shifted, startled, and there it was. Pleasure and white-hot heat, his brown eyes going almost black with it before he echoed her greeting and looked away. She wanted to touch him so badly, she curled her hands around her gloves to keep them occupied.
Luca’s glance bounced between them, then he coughed, like he’d walked in on something he wasn’t supposed to witness.
“The class?” Fontana asked to break the tension.
Campbell and Luca shared a look, then a grin.
“Oh, man,” Luca said, with little of the detachment he’d shown since he started coming to the center, “it’s going to be amazing.”
Campbell swallowed forcibly, color sweeping his cheeks before he reached to rough up Luca’s hair like she’d seen him do to Kit’s.
Fontana’s heart did a somersault in her chest. A breath-stealing, absolute, pull-the-rug-outfall.
Well, well. Campbell True was great with children, and he didn’t even know it.
“I’m sure it will be amazing,” she said once she recovered. “Have you seen his photographs?”
Campbell darted a surprised glance at her. “Haveyou?” he asked, a smile twisting his lips and his words. His eyes had settled, amber creeping in at the edges, long lashes shadowing the crescents beneath when he blinked.
He’s flirting with me, Fontana thought in wonder, and almost forgot to flirt back. “I actually have your latest and greatest.” She paused for effect, tilting her head, drawing it out, toyingwith him.
“Huh.”
“In fact, I read it last night in bed.” She pressed her lips together, fighting the urge to let out a forbidden church-laugh.
Campbell took a quick step forward, then shook his head and glanced at the boy beside him.
Oh, yeah, she had him.
Heaving a huge sigh, he raked a hand through his hair, sending it into even worse disarray. “Checkmate,” he mouthed—just for her.
