Wide-eyed, I stood in the middle of my kitchen, dish towel in hand, watching the scene in front of me unfold with bated breath. I had a table to clear, dishes to wash, and a plate to make for Felix, but I couldn’t pull myself away from gawking at what was happening in the middle of my living room long enough to do any of those things.

Anthony was sitting on the floor, his legs outstretched and his back pressed against the front of the sofa. Lucca was nestled in between his legs, holding a gorilla figurine in one hand and a blue block in the other. Together they were constructing a colossal building out of plastic blocks. What it was I didn’t know. At that moment, all I could decipher was the fact that Anthony was playing with my son.

I repeat; he was playing with my son.

Seeing them together made my chest feel warm and fuzzy.

“Put it on top of the red one,” Anthony said while guiding Lucca’s hands to place another block at the very top of whatever they were creating.

“What are y’all building?” I managed to ask in a shaky voice.

Anthony didn’t look at me as he helped Lucca snap the blue block on top of the red one. “Empire State Building.” He nodded to the gorilla figurine Lucca was clutching in his hand. “We’re going to have King Kong climb it.”

“Kong!” Lucca shouted. “Kong, Ma-ma, Kong!”

I tossed the dishtowel I was holding in my hand over my shoulder. “Fine,” I huffed in a sarcastic tone, “just make sure Kong doesn’t climb my curtains and destroy the blinds.”

Lucca giggled and looked toward the window.

Way to give him ideas, Shelby.

Anthony’s eyes met mine. “Not making any promises, gorgeous.”

I rolled my eyes and pointed at the two of them. “You two together are going to be trouble. I can already see it.”

Anthony helped Lucca snap a yellow block on top of the blue one. “Yeah?” Another block; another snap. “Does that mean you’re going to invite me back for dinner again?” He smiled at me, and my stomach did that weird flippy thing again. “Or do I need to go buy another dessert real quick?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked my hip to the right. “Trying to bribe me with food? You fight dirty, Tony.”

The smartass smirked. “Might as well get used to it now. I never fight fair.” His gaze was intense, determined. “Not when it comes to you, and never when it comes to getting what I want.”

What the hell am I supposed to say to that?

Anthony opened his mouth to say something else but stopped short when Lucca karate chopped their building, sending a mountain of multi-colored blocks tumbling to the carpeted floor. “Ah, come on, piccolo principe!” Anthony hollered in a playful tone. “King Kong is supposed to climb the building not destroy it!”

* * *

One hour later

Baby monitor in hand, I slipped out of Lucca’s nursery and shut the door softly behind me. My eyes immediately found Anthony, who was sitting in the middle of my sofa, his long legs stretched out in front of him. His hands rested on the back of his head; his fingers were interlaced with one another. The position made the black, button-up shirt he was wearing stretch taut across his broad chest and ripped abdomen. It also made the muscles in his shoulders and arms bulge.

It’s a miracle I didn’t begin drooling on the spot.

Steel grey eyes met mine. “He asleep?”

I nodded. “Out like a light.” I fidgeted. I didn’t know what to say, what to do.

Once again, I was way out of my damn element.

Dropping his hands from the back of his head, he leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “Took the plate you fixed out to Felix. He said to tell you thank you and that he’d cut the lawn for you tomorrow.”

“That man.” I scowled. “He already does too much for me. He doesn’t need to start worrying about my lawn too.”

Anthony raised a brow. “Shelby.” The way he spoke my name caused chills to race down my spine. “Come here.”

I didn’t have an obedient bone in my body, and I never listened to anything anyone demanded of me, but for some unknown reason, my feet moved, carrying me straight towards him.

Stopping to stand in front of him, I looked down with an expressionless face. “You rang, dear sir?”

He chuckled, leaned forward, and placed both of his hands on my hips.

My skin warmed at the simple contact, and before I could ask him what in the hell he was doing, he pulled me towards him. A surprised yelp slipped from my lips when I landed on the couch beside him.

“What are you—” My words were cut off when he wrapped his fingers around my ankles and lifted my legs into his lap. When he released one of my ankles, I pulled my leg back to kick the crap out him because nobody—and I mean no-fricken-body—manhandled me that way, but I stopped myself from doing so when his fingers applied pressure to the sole of my right foot. “Oh God…” I moaned as he massaged the tender muscle in a slow, circular pattern. “That feels soooo good.”

Again, Anthony chuckled. “Lay back and relax, baby.” My eyes slid closed, and the sassiness I was about to sling his way died on my lips. How was I supposed to fuss at him for bossing me around when his fingers were working magic on my body? “How was work?”

“Was good,” I whispered. “Did some laundry. Filled out a bunch of paperwork. Saved a teenage prostitute from her asshole pimp…”

Anthony’s fingers stilled, and I whimpered. “Pardon me?”

Pushing my foot into his hand, I replied, “If you want me to talk, you’re going to have to keep doing what you were doing.”

His fingers moved again, and I dang near melted into the sofa. “Her name is Ashley. She’s seventeen. Gorgeous girl with a not-so-gorgeous past.” I closed my eyes again and leaned my head back. “Her mom is a total bitch who kicked her out over her boyfriend. After that, it didn’t take her long to fall into the arms of a pimp who promised her the world.” My voice broke on the last word. “But instead of the world, all he gave her was a couple dozen beatings and obliterated her sense of self-worth.”

“Shelby—”

“She reminds me of myself, you know.” I didn’t stop to question why I was saying the things I was saying. At that moment it just felt natural, felt right, to spill my guts to him. “From her past with her mom to the way life has continuously kicked her around, she and I are so much alike.”

Anthony’s fingers dug deeper into the arch of my foot. “Tell me about your mom, sunshine.”

Sunshine… there was that name again.

I loved hearing it, but it didn’t fit me. There wasn’t a single thing bright or beautiful about me. At least not on the inside.

On the inside, I was nothing but a mess of darkness and pain.

“You sure you want to hear this, Tony? Because if so, I’m warning you now, you probably won’t view me the same afterward.”

“There’s nothing you could say that would make me feel any differently about you,” he replied without missing a beat. “Don’t care what’s happened to you or what kind of shit you’ve been through. You are not your past. Understand?”

Oh, but I was.

My past had marked me, scarred me. And no matter how beautiful and put together I appeared to be, I’d always be damaged, tainted. But if he wanted to hear it, I’d tell him. Well, I’d tell him some of it. No way would I confess everything. The only person who knew everything was Maddie, and she’d take my secrets to her grave.

“I grew up in a Podunk town outside of Mobile, Alabama where I lived with my mama in a rodent-infested trailer until I was seventeen. Mama, she was a junkie, a stripper, and later a prostitute.” Anthony’s fingers kept moving, kept massaging. “She didn’t have a drug of choice. It didn’t matter if it was crank, crack, or black tar heroin, she’d snort it or shoot it up as long as it got her high.”

Sweet baby Jesus … his hands … they’re pure magic.

“Keep talking, baby.” His voice was rough, gravely. Moving his hands from my foot, he rubbed my calf in long, steady strokes.

“Okay.” I scooted closer to him. I wanted—no, needed—to be closer to him. At that moment, his warmth was comforting, his presence calming. “She never hit me, but she was abusive in other ways. Not to mention neglectful. We never had food, and I never had clothes that fit. If it hadn’t been for the local church occasionally bringing us boxes of both, I probably would’ve been running around naked before eventually succumbing to death via starvation.” A humorless chuckle spilled from my lips. “Living with her, growing up in that hell hole—I learned how to fight, how to be strong.” I bit my bottom lip, and if I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn tears welled up behind my closed eyelids. “But I also learned that even the best fighters sometimes lose—” I exhaled softly and laid my hands on my belly protectively “—and even the strongest warriors sometimes fall.”

Anthony’s touch became gentler, more soothing. “Did you fall, Shelby? Is that what happened?”

Lifting both of my hands, I laid them over my face, shielding myself from his scorching gaze. “Yeah, sugar, I did,” I whispered. “I fell right into the arms of a monster.”

Silence engulfed us, and I waited for Anthony to get up and leave.

If he knew how pathetic and weak I’d been…

To my surprise, he didn’t get up.

Instead, his hands moved to my neglected leg and massaged my other calf. “I grew up in a good family.” My eyes slid open when he spoke.” I was a single child, and my parents spoiled me rotten.” He laughed to himself, and I couldn’t help but smile at the look on his face. Even if he hadn’t told me that he’d grown up in a good family, it would’ve been obvious from his expression. “My parents owned a pizzeria in the Bronx called Little Italy. It’d been in my family for three generations.” His smile grew brighter. “I used to go there every day after school and help them out. I mostly washed dishes as a kid but, when I got older, I helped Papa out in the kitchen.”

“So that’s why you said the only thing you could cook was pizza?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Pathetic as it sounds, it was the only thing I ever mastered.” Suddenly, the smile he’d been wearing fell, and his face darkened. My calf muscle tensed under his touch, but he didn’t seem to notice. “The day after I graduated high school was the worst day of my life.” His fingers tightened on my leg, and his knuckles turned snow white. “My parents were at the pizzeria when this guy came in…” His voice trailed off, and he exhaled harshly. “The son of a bitch was high, pulled out a gun on Papa and demanded he empty the register. Papa followed his order, but it wasn’t enough. The guy—” another exhale “—he was on the run for strangling his wife to death in front of their six-month-old daughter.” I gasped, but Anthony kept speaking. “He didn’t want to leave any witnesses so he shot my parents. Killed them both on the spot.” I swear I could feel my heart breaking for him. “They were the only family I had.”

“Anthony—”

“What happened to them, it’s the whole reason I became a cop. I wanted to help, wanted to stop others from having to go through the shit I went through. The loss; the pain. The fucking heartbreak.” His jaw clenched, and he shook his head. “Before coming here, I worked in SVU.”

“SVU?” My brows furrowed. “Special Victims? Like on Law & Order?”

He nodded again. “I thought I could make a difference, thought I could help, but all I did was lose one victim after another.” He visibly swallowed. “Yeah, I helped save a bunch, but I also lost some. I lost too damn many”—his head turned, and his agonized gaze crashed into mine—“ and I couldn’t handle it anymore. So I turned in my badge and moved on.” Silenced weighed heavily between us for a minute. “For the last two years I’ve bounced all around the country. Seattle. Phoenix. Memphis.”

“And now you’re here,” I stated.

He jerked his head down once in affirmation. “Now I’m here.” His fingers stopped moving on my leg. “You want to know something?” I nodded because I wanted to know whatever he was thinking. “Crazy as it sounds, Georgia feels like home. It feels like this is where I’m supposed to be.”

I didn’t know what to say to that so I stayed silent.

“I lied to you that day in my driveway, Shelby.”

My heart clenched in my chest.

He lied to me?

Swear to God, I was going to Taser him in the nuts, and then I was—

“When I told you that I wouldn’t tell you why I called you sunshine until you were ready, I lied. I still don’t think you’re ready, but I’m going to tell you anyway. I just...” His head dropped back and he stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. Then his eyes met mine again. “I just hope you don’t run for the hills.”

I couldn’t breathe.

Could. Not. Breathe.

“Tony,” my voice was barely a whisper. “Tell me.”

He stared at my face, unblinking. My stomach flipped, and my heart pounded against my ribcage. Fidgeting on the sofa cushion, I looked away from him, breaking our mutual stare down.

“Look at me, Shelby.” Much to my dismay, my head whipped around at the speed of light.

Since when did I become so damn obedient?

“I’ve lived in darkness for a long time, baby. Between what happened to my parents and the rest of the stuff that happened when I worked as a patrol officer and then in SVU, I feel like I’ve been surrounded by nothing but darkness and evil for far too long.” His jaw clenched again, and I swear I could feel his eyes boring holes into my face. “But that changed the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

Suddenly feeling like I was suffocating, I gasped for breath.

Turning to the side, he placed his hands on the sides of my face. “In an instant, you became my light.” His calloused thumbs ran over the apples of my cheeks. “You became the good in a world filled with nothing but bad, sunshine.”

My mind blanked.

My heart stilled.

“You may be good looking Tony,” I wheezed, “but you’re crazier than I am. And that is saying something, sugar.”

I was trying to be funny, but he didn’t laugh.

“You’re my un colpo di fulmine,” he whispered as he continued to caress my face.

Blinking rapidly, I sat up and leaned closer to him. I expected him to remove his hands, but he didn’t. “And what does that mean? You keep speaking all this Italian knowing I don’t understand a lick of it.” Reaching over, I clutched his shirt in my shaking hands. “You’re going to drive me nutty; you know that?”

A small smile ghosted his lips, and he leaned an inch closer. For a second, I thought he was about to kiss me. “I’ll tell you one day. Just not today.”

This asshole!

“Anthony Moretti, how fricken dare—”

Ring, ring, ring!

“Shit,” Anthony cursed, dropping his hands from my face. “Hold on, baby.” Standing up from the sofa, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and lifted it to his ear. “Moretti,” he barked, his tone harsher than I’d heard it all night. “Where?” Running a frustrated hand through his hand, he paced between the kitchen and living room. “Secure the scene. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

I scrunched up my nose at his words.

Surprisingly, I didn’t want him to leave.

Anthony turned around and walked back to me. I stood up and crossed my arms over my chest. “Work?”

He stopped less than a foot in front of me. He was so close I could feel the heat radiating from his skin. My fingers twitched with the need to touch him, to pull him close. I didn’t know why, but all I wanted was to wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face in his chest.

I didn’t understand any of it.

“You work tomorrow?” I nodded. “What time do you get off?”

I stared into his eyes. “Five.”

His face inched closer to mine. “Want me to pick you and Lucca up? I can take you to my house. I’ll order takeout, and we can watch a movie or something.”

A movie or something? He sounded as out of his element as I felt. “You want to have supper with us again?”

His arms slid around my waist, and he pulled me closer. “Yes.” One word. So simple yet so complicated.

I swallowed around the softball lodged in the base of my throat. “Okay.” I huffed out a breath. “But you’re not picking me up. I’ll drive to you. That way I have a way to escape if need be.” I poked him in the chest with my finger. “You know, in case you decide to let your crazy shine, and I have to make a run for it.”

Silence.

Then, “You’re a damn smartass, you know that?”

I shrugged and pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. “So I’ve been told.”

Shaking his head, Anthony chuckled. “Tomorrow. Soon as you get off work and pick up Lucca, I expect you to be at my house, Shelby.”

I took a step back and crossed my arms over my chest for a second time. “Whatever you say, sugar.” I winked at him. “Just make sure you’re home. I don’t want to be waiting on your front porch like a fricken fool.”

He pulled his keys out his pocket and clutched them in his fist. “I’ll be there.” Lifting his hand, he brushed a thumb across my jaw. Closing my eyes, I turned my face into his touch.

Jesus, what is it about this man?

“But just in case I’m not, use the spare key.”

My eyes popped open. “Excuse me?”

Taking a step back, Anthony smirked and then winked at me. “You heard me. Spare key. It’s taped to the bottom of the garden gnome in the front yard.”

He’d lost his damn mind.

And people think I’m nuts.

His phone rang again, and he continued moving backward.

“Tomorrow, sunshine. Soon as you pick up my little dude from daycare.”

His little dude? Had I missed something or…

“You, me, Lucca, takeout. Maybe a movie afterward.” His gaze never left mine as he opened the door and stepped outside. “You better be there, Shelby. Don’t make me chase you, baby.”

I licked my bottom lip, followed by the top. “What if I want you to chase me?”

His expression intensified and my skin heated. “Then run.”

It was the last thing he said before shutting the door.