Lyra Hill hugged her brother as they stood on the front steps of her apartment building. With her on the step above him, they were almost the same height. “You’re a lifesaver.”

He shrugged but the accompanying grin was cocky. “Eh, no biggie. I love hanging with my girls.” He turned to the four-year-old twins currently hawking the front door of the building waiting for someone to open the heavy glass and let them in.

When her boss had called her in on a day she should have been working at home, her brother had saved her by taking Alyssa and Prentiss for the day. They were likely sugared up, but she’d been able to get to the office for a few hours. According to the rundown Alyssa had given Lyra at warp speed upon their return, they’d convinced him to take them to the park followed by a trip for ice cream. Not just ice cream in a cup or a cone the way she would have. Real ice cream sundaes with double cherries and hot fudge. And, as Prentiss had put it with her nose all crinkled in the look she usually reserved for spinach, “no nuts.”

The girls got their wish for the umpteenth time that day when Mrs. Lawson from 1C came out and held the door for the girls so they could scoot in ahead of Lyra.

Lyra rolled her eyes at Billy as the girls raced into the building and around the corner out of sight. She normally had a rule they had to stay in her line of vision, but they knew that rule wasn’t applied very stringently in the apartment building. The neighbors kept an eye out on the girls.

“I better catch up to them.” She waved as he walked away and turned to follow the twins.

Mrs. Lawson fanned her face. “Prepare yourself, honey. Hot and steamy hunk in there. I think he might have melted my glasses.”

Lyra’s feet slowed. “Huh?”

“You’ll see.” Mrs. Lawson gave Lyra a look as she continued to fan herself. “I’ve always hoped maybe you and my Murphy would get together, but even I have to admit he can’t compete with this.”

Mrs. Lawson walked away before Lyra could formulate an answer. She was a little stuck on the idea of her and Mrs. Lawson’s grandson, Murphy, together. Mrs. Lawson had never mentioned that, and Lyra could honestly say she’d never once gone there in her own head. Not that there was anything wrong with Mrs. Lawson’s grandson. He was just so . . . well, so . . . nice. And tame. And, well, boring, if Lyra really thought about it.

Not to mention, he hadn’t once seemed interested in her. In fact, she thought he might be gay, but they’d never talked enough for her to know for sure.

“Huh,” Lyra said, again, this time a statement instead of a question and very much to herself as she followed the girls inside since Mrs. Lawson hadn’t bothered to stick around long enough to explain anything.

Holy Mary Mother of . . . The thought plain petered out in Lyra’s head as her brain melted. At least only Mrs. Lawson’ glasses had fallen victim. For Lyra, it seemed her whole damned head had suffered the damage.

The man in front of her was not tame in the least. He was nothing short of a god. The kind of chiseled jaw you read about, dark brown hair that somehow screamed for a girl to paw at it, and five o’clock shadow to die for. That was to say nothing of his body. He was currently kneeling before her girls.

“Are you a real superhero?” Alyssa was asking. Lyra had noticed the shirt the man was wearing as well, though likely not for the same reasons her daughter had.

Lyra was looking at the way it pulled taught over broad muscled shoulders and a chest that made her breath catch. Alyssa was likely referring to the Captain America logo on the front of it.

The man raised soul-searing eyes and winked at Lyra before lowering his voice to answer Alyssa with a conspirator’s whisper. “I’m not supposed to give away my secret identity. That’s lesson number one of being a good superhero.” He assumed a more bashful look. “Honestly, though, I’m still working on my superhero identity. I’m a little new at it and I haven’t ironed out all the kinks.”

Kink. Lyra shook her head at her reaction to the man. This was not at all like her. Then again, it wasn’t like she dated a whole lot. Being a single mom of four-year-old twins could take a toll on a girl’s social life. She stepped closer and put her hand on Alyssa’s shoulder. Not that it would slow down her little girl’s questions. Alyssa wasn’t shy about going after what she wanted, and answers were no exception. Prentiss, on the other hand, was happy to stand silently by and listen as Alyssa did all the work.

Lyra couldn’t help but notice she was listening avidly, though. She was as interested in the answers as Alyssa was.

“Can you introduce us to Wonder Woman?”

The man let out a big laugh at Alyssa’s question and tugged at one of the twisty pigtails framing her face. “Sorry. Like I said, I’m new at this. I have no clout with Wonder Woman yet. She’s a little high up in the ranks, you know?”

He stood to his full height and thrust a hand toward Lyra. “I’m Luke Reynolds. I’ll be your super for the next month.”

Lyra took his hand and mentally swatted at the swoon happening in her head as his warm hand engulfed hers. She could practically hear her girlfriends giggling and telling her to enjoy the moment.

She shook the voices right out of her head and smiled. “What happened to Kyle?” Kyle was the young doctorate student who normally served, for better or worse, as the building’s super.

Alyssa answered for him, so they must have already covered this territory. Leave it to Alyssa to challenge anyone new in the building. “He’s counting testicles.”

Lyra could feel the heat race to her face as her eyes shot to the man in front of her, but her new super took it in stride. He looked down at Alyssa, the edges of his lips twitching as a smile tried to break free. “Tentacles. He’s counting tentacles.” Now he turned to Lyra. “Kyle is going to be on board a marine biology vessel tracking a mutation in the number of legs in some kind of octopus for the next month. From what I’m told, it’s a dream internship for someone in his field.”

“Ah.” Lyra nodded.

Kyle was a nice enough kid, but he wasn’t the greatest super in the world. He tried, but his skill level at fixing things left something to be desired. She could put up with looking at this guy for the next month for sure, and who knew, maybe he’d turn out to be good at fixing things as a bonus.

Her friends’ voices were back in her head with all kinds of comments about fixing things, complete with Joey Tribbiani-style grins and nods.

“Anyway, you’re stuck with me.” Luke smiled again and damn if her panties didn’t start trying to wriggle right off. This had to end. Had to.

Prentiss tugged on her sleeve, drawing Lyra’s attention back to the girls.

“Uncle Billy says I can take apart his old clock.” Prentiss pulled a digital alarm clock from her backpack and looked up at Lyra patiently, wide brown eyes waiting.

“Oh goodie.” Lyra pulled her keys from her bag and moved toward their door, marked 1B. “Sorry,” she said over her shoulder to her new across-the-hall neighbor and temporary eye candy, “apparently, we’ve got technology to reverse engineer.”

Alyssa rolled her eyes. Unlike her twin, she was much more into fashion than engineering. “I have to plan our outfits for tomorrow.” She said this to Luke as though he should understand it, and he nodded with equal solemnity, not missing a beat.

Lyra wondered if he had kids.

“Hey, let me know if you come up with any ideas on that superhero identity thing. I can use all the help I can get.” His expression was completely serious and Lyra was now sure he must have kids, or maybe nieces and nephews at the very least. Some small part of her hoped it was nieces and nephews and not a wife and kids.

It sucked when he caught her looking for a ring on his finger a heartbeat later. She blushed and turned away. “Okay, girls, let’s get out of Luke’s hair.”

And get him out of mommy’s head. She must be tired. The man was criminally good looking, but still, he shouldn’t be such a distraction. She had dinner to prep and lunch boxes to wash and reload for the morning. She didn’t have time to fantasize about things like the Incredible Hunk or Handsome Man or any number of just-right superhero names she could come up with for her new neighbor.