“Ma, could you get Gwen a coffee?”

My body jolted and my head whipped toward her. “I can get it.”

Then I stilled.

Something was wrong. Not just wrong, very wrong. And it was the look on Hawk’s mother’s face that was wrong. There was sadness there and I didn’t know her, I’d been in her presence less than a minute but that sadness touched my soul.

“Maria, honey, Cabe’s girl needs coffee,” the older man prompted quietly, Hawk’s mother’s body jerked and then she swept that sadness clean away.

Um. What the fuck was that?

“Right, of course, Gwen?” she said, hurrying to me. “I’m Maria. Cabe’s mother.”

She extended her hand and I took it even though Hawk didn’t let me go so I could do this. Her fingers curled around mine and she looked up at me from her petite height as I smiled down at her thinking, no wonder Hawk was hot, she wasn’t a spring chicken but she was still a complete knockout.

Her hand squeezed, mine squeezed back, she smiled a small smile, let me go and moved away.

Hmm. Not sure how that went.

“I’m Von,” one of the men at the stools put in and my head turned to him. He was the dimpled one.

“Hi,” I replied. “I’m Gwen.”

He was already grinning and the grin got bigger when he muttered, “I know.”

Okey dokey.

“Von’s wife, Lucia, is a nurse, babe, she has a shift at Swedish this morning. The hellions who will eventually graduate to tearing up my place are his,” Hawk put in and I nodded up at him.

“Jury,” the other man at a stool added and my eyes went to him.

“Hey,” I replied.

“Your laptop work okay?” he asked and I suspected Jury was the firefighter and I also suspected he was on the cover of the Denver Firefighters calendar, picture used for the month of July, he was that hot. If the firefighters merged with the police officers and they did a group shot that included Lawson and Jury, the paper might spontaneously combust.

“Yes, thanks for getting that for me,” I said to him.

“No problems,” he muttered, staring at me. In fact, they were all still staring at me except Maria who was pouring coffee.

“Agustín,” Hawk’s Dad boomed, moving in my direction, a huge smile on his face, his looks so similar to Hawk’s it was uncanny and boded well for Hawk’s future. Hawk’s Mom was a knockout, his Dad, like my Dad, had managed to age without losing but a modicum of hotness. He lifted his hand and I took it when he went on. “Gus.”

“Gus,” I shook his hand, “Gwen.”

He let my hand go but kept smiling at me huge then his eyes swung to Hawk.

“Cabe, good taste. Nice eyes. Great hair. Fantastic ass,” he remarked and I froze in shock.

“Gus!” Maria shouted, swinging around as the male Delgado brood chuckled.

Gus turned to his wife. “It’s true.”

“Madre de dios,” she snapped. “That may be so but you don’t say it in front of her!”

Gus rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms on his chest. “Why not?”

Her eyes sliced to me then back to her husband and she swung an arm out to me. “Because look at her, you’ve offended her.”

“Um…” I put in hurriedly, “I’m not offended.” And I wasn’t, just surprised. I looked at Gus. “Cookie dough,” I explained. “My booty is carefully crafted from copious intake of cookie dough.”

“Whatever you’re doin’, sweetheart, it’s workin’.” He grinned then advised, “So don’t stop.”

“Divorce. D-i-v-o-r-c-e. Tomorrow. I’m callin’ my lawyers tomorrow,” Maria threatened and this seemed like a practiced speech.

“Woman, you don’t have lawyers,” Gus returned in a way that seemed practiced too.

Hmm. Maria and Gus bickered. This was somehow familiar.

“Well, I’m finding some!” Maria snapped then looked at me. “How do you take your coffee?”

“Milk and half a sugar,” I replied quickly.

“Half a sugar won’t help that ass,” Gus observed helpfully and Hawk’s body started shaking and I knew he was silently laughing

But that was when Maria turned swiftly, reached up, grabbed a mug and threw it at Gus.

Yes, she threw a mug at Gus.

Gus, clearly experienced with evasive maneuvering, ducked and the mug hit the counter and bounced off to fall to the floor, luckily unharmed because, seriously, Hawk’s mugs were kickass.

I stood stock-still and stared.

“Woman!” Gus yelled when he straightened and planted his hands on his hips. “Are you crazy? Now you’ve freaked Gwen out!”

Frighteningly, Maria’s eyes came to me. “Learn,” she warned, pointing a finger at me and leaning in. “All of them, they’re like this. Do not let them get away with it. Put your foot down right off the bat, Gwen, do you hear me?”

“I hear you,” I whispered.

“I didn’t put my foot down right off the bat,” she told me. “Dazzled by his good looks, that was me. Don’t get dazzled by Cabe’s good looks, Gwen, learn from me. He’s just a man. He might do things to make you think differently but, believe me, he’s just a man.”

“I’m not sure that’s true,” I shared. “I haven’t seen it with my own eyes but I think he can walk through walls.”

More male chuckles and more shaking of Hawk’s body against mine but Maria didn’t think anything was funny. “He can’t. I see now, you’re dazzled. Shake that off, querida. The sooner, the better.”

“Uh… okay,” I agreed because she sounded serious.

Her finger jerked to Gus. “Behave!” she ordered then turned back to my coffee.

Hawk’s head dipped so his mouth was at my ear. “You dazzled, Sweet Pea?”

I twisted my neck to catch his eye. Then I whispered, “Behave.”

He grinned at me and my body jolted not from surprise but because a young human ran into it.

I looked down into the black eyes and beautiful face of a Hawk-like little boy as he shifted to the front of me then slapped my thigh.

“Well hello, little person,” I said to him.

He slapped my thigh again as Von warned, “Javier.”

“Orange!” the boy shouted then slapped my thigh again and pointed at my hoodie.

“Yep, orange,” I replied then pointed at my yoga pants. “What color is this?”

“Brown!” he yelled and clapped his hands.

I smiled down at him. “Excellent. Now what color is this?” I lifted my hand and tugged at my ponytail.

“Pretty!” he hollered and I couldn’t help it, I laughed and then crouched down so I was almost eye to eye with him.

“I’m Gwen, who are you?”

“Javier!” he yelled and clapped again.

“Santo,” I heard from my side and I looked to see the older boy standing there, removed, watchful, eyes on me.

“Santo?” I asked and he nodded. “Hey, Santo.”

He didn’t reply, his body started swaying but his eyes didn’t leave me.

“You’re handsome,” I informed him.

He kept swaying and studying me.

“Do you like your Uncle’s big lair?” I asked.

His head tipped to the side. “Lair?” he repeated.

I swept an arm out to indicate the space. “His house.”

“We can’t run at home,” was his response.

I smiled at him. “You like it.”

He took a step toward me and stopped.

“Sunny,” he replied.

I looked at the windows then back at Santo. “Yeah, baby, it’s very sunny.”

“We can run and climb,” he continued.

“But you do it careful, right? So your Grandma won’t get worried?” I asked.

“Careful,” he nodded.

I kept smiling. “How old are you?” I asked.

“Five,” Santo answered, taking another step toward me and holding five fingers up in front of my face.

“Three!” Javier yelled, I looked at him to see he was having difficulty controlling his little hand to show me three so I reached out and gently tucked two fingers into his palm.

“Three,” I said softly.

“Three!” Javier agreed, joyfully looking at his hand.

“Can you hold it?” I asked and his gaze turned intent on his hand, his mouth twisted and he nodded.

Slowly, I removed my hand and he held up his three fingers.

Then I touched my fingertips to his soft, still chubby cheek before dropping my hand. “Perfect,” I told him.

His eyes came to me and he clapped again, then he hurtled himself at me. I braced at the last minute so I didn’t go down on my ass, the kid was freaking strong. His arms went around me and he gave me a slobbery, three year old kiss on my neck then yanked my ponytail.

Then as fast as he did it, he let me go and raced away.

Totally Delgado.

Santo raced after him.

I stood and found eyes on me again, all around, no grins this time; Delgado intensity was coming at me from all sides.

Weird.

Hawk’s arm came back to my shoulders and he curled me into his side again. I looked up and only had a second to prepare before his mouth hit mine for a very brief, very hard, very sweet kiss.

When his head lifted, I found my arms had wound themselves around his middle.

I stared into his eyes and couldn’t read them and lost the ability to try when his hand came up, knuckles skimming my cheek and down, it curled around my neck.

I forgot we had an audience when I re-focused and the look he was giving me set something wrong inside me.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

“No,” he replied.

“Hawk –” I started but I didn’t know what I was going to say.

His hand squeezed my neck. “Totally missed out.”

Something was happening here, something important. I just didn’t get what.

“Hawk,” I breathed.

“Fuck me, totally missed out.”

“Baby,” I replied softly.

“Coffee, querida,” I heard, my neck twisted and I was surprised to see Maria standing there, offering me coffee.

I took it with a, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she muttered, her eyes shifting quickly to Hawk then she turned back to the bacon on the stove.

“So Gwen, what do you do?” Gus asked and I looked at him, relieved at a normal question and how it shifted an atmosphere that had bizarrely grown heavy.

“I’m a book editor,” I answered then took a sip of coffee.

“Like it?” Gus asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“What’s your Dad do?” Gus went on.

“Construction, ex-Army and part-time handyman because his daughter bought a money pit,” I told him.

Gus smiled. “Keeps us young, lookin’ out for our kids, no matter how old they are.”

“Well, I endeavor to give my father every opportunity to stay young.”

Gus’s smile widened. “Bet he loves every minute of it,” Gus guessed wrongly.

“He lectured me for five hours not to buy that house and I bought it anyway so when the bathtub crashed through the floor into the living room, he had to take an hour long timeout so he wouldn’t strangle me and be known on on-line encyclopedias as a daughter-killer so I’m not sure he loves every minute of it.”

“Trust me,” Gus stated, still smiling, “he loves every minute of it.”

“Okay,” I decided to agree.

“And your Mom?” Gus kept interrogating me.

“Meredith is a secretary for a divorce lawyer,” I answered.

“Meredith?” he asked.

“My stepmom.”

“What’s your Mom do?” Gus kept at me.

“Pop,” Hawk said low and Gus’s eyes went to his son.

“She disappeared when I was little,” I answered readily and the Delgado intensity hit me again coming from all sides.

“Sorry, Gwen, I didn’t know,” Gus said.

“It’s okay, Gus, it was a long time ago,” I replied just as Hawk’s neck twisted so he could look toward the door.

I looked up at him to see his brows knit and heard him mutter, “Who now?”

He let me go and moved to the door as I took another sip of coffee, smelled bacon and my stomach informed me I was hungry.

Javier came running into the kitchen. He smacked his Grandma on the leg and shouted, “Bacon!” and I grinned.

There was a commotion at the door, I twisted to look and saw Meredith leading, moving swiftly, her face panicked. Dad was coming behind her, his strides long, his face set in granite. And a woman was following them wearing jeans, boots, a blousy top shot with silver and a cool, beat up leather jacket. She looked half-hippie, half-biker babe, a look she pulled off and one I liked so much I felt a new phase coming on. She also looked familiar but I didn’t know how.

I tensed and turned, putting my coffee cup to the counter.

What now?

“Gwennie, sweetie, she wouldn’t –” Meredith started, her eyes glued to me, she didn’t even glance at the Delgados.