Loving Lydia (Atlantic Divide) Read Free Page B

so she turned her mind back to the gentle caramel eyes framed with long dark brown lashes. Strangely comforted, she closed her own eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2
    The good thing about children was they recovered fast. The bad thing about children was they recovered fast. When they did, they were invariably loud, energetic, and starving.
    Lydia glanced at her watch and figured she could survive until later that night on her four and a half hours of sleep.
    She’d opened one suitcase the night before to get her pajamas out, but that was as far as she got. The children’s suitcases needed to be unpacked, and as she opened them, the children bounded all around the room. In her own house, she would have walked downstairs in her pajamas, hair a mess and face unwashed, but this wasn’t her house, so she felt obliged at least to dress herself.
    She pulled on a clean pair of jeans and a pale pink T-shirt, washed her face, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She then took her bouncing children downstairs, through the quiet house, and into the vast kitchen.
    Despite going into labor, her sister had been surprisingly efficient and had all sorts of cereals ready for the arrival of her niece and nephew. Some of them, though, could rot their teeth at twenty paces and others had enough sugar content to send a diabetic into a coma with one spoonful. Surely any child that ate the stuff would spin into a hyperactive frenzy.
    She put four slices of whole grain bread in the toaster, retrieved the butter from the fridge, and persuaded her children to sit at the table and eat.
    Lydia had no idea how to work the huge, brushed steel coffee machine that sat on the counter, so she chewed on a piece of toast while she eyed the offending item. She wished she didn’t have such a coffee addiction, but now was not the time to punish herself with deprivation. She huffed out a sigh, stepped forward, and lifted one of the flaps on the machine to peer inside.
    “Your sister had that installed. She said Jack couldn’t make coffee worth a damn, and she didn’t see why she should always have to make it.” Lydia watched the bear of a man walk across the kitchen toward her and realized she didn’t have much of an instinct to run.
    Sam diverted over to the large oak table and ruffled Aaron’s hair as he leaned over and swiped a piece of toast off the child’s plate. She rolled her eyes as she realized that both her children were poking around with great lack of interest in what she’d put in front of them.
    “Hey, sugar, we never met last night. You were fast asleep.” His voice was a gentle seduction, and as Rosie peeped up at him, he gave a crooked smile that made his dimple appear. “Why, you look just like your Aunt Katie, sugar. Well aren’t you the lucky thing.”
    “Mummy says I have Aunty Katie’s eyes.” Rosie fluttered her eyelashes, and Sam’s smile spread wide across his face.
    “You sure do, sugar.”
    “My name is Rosie, not Sugar,” she corrected.
    “Well, Rosie, I’m Sam.” He held out his hand and engulfed her tiny one in his. “It sure is a pleasure to meet you.” Lydia studied him intently. His hair was an unruly lush dark brown with hints of red. His eyes were a rich toffee color that crinkled at the edges and reflected the smile on his face. She softened as her thoughts strayed and she found herself thinking what a handsome man, and then almost jumped out of her skin when he turned and caught her staring.
    “Something wrong?” He bit into the toast, which she thought must be cold and stiff as cardboard now.
    “I would have said Rosie is shy, but it seems she’s got over that.” She bit her bottom lip and turned back to the coffee maker.
    “I’ll make a deal with you.”
    She froze as she realized he’d moved up close behind her.
    “What’s that?” Her voice was sharp, her back stiff. He stepped gently away.
    “I’ll make the coffee…” He opened a cupboard and took out a foil bag of