The Matchmaking Twins

“Oh, my gosh! The boys.” She turned to Aiden and Caden, who were standing ankle deep in the water, trying to catch bullfrogs and smiling through chattering blue lips. “Come on, kiddos. Let’s go inside and get you in a hot bath to warm you up.”

She jogged over to where the boys were and helped them get out of their soaking wet life jackets before steering them toward her cabin. She noticed Aiden’s ACE bandage was gone and probably long forgotten. He didn’t have so much as a limp.

“Uh, what about me?” Luke asked, still standing there, droplets of water trickling off the ridged planes of his abdomen. “Aren’t you going to warm me up, too?”

She’d worked alongside men with oversize egos and the predispositions to flirt with a rock. But judging by the torch he was still carrying for his late wife, he was probably only making a dig at her for staring at him so blatantly. Even if he had been flirting, she knew better than to engage in any sort of banter that could lead to him thinking she was the type of woman who would welcome some tired line like that one.

“Simmer down, skipper. There’s a stack of towels on the dryer in the mudroom. Help yourself while I get the boys in the tub.”

“Maybe the water isn’t the coldest thing I’ve been exposed to lately.” He’d mumbled the words, but she’d heard the remark and shot him the withering look she’d perfected back when she was a Lance Corporal and the lone female in a platoon full of horny, young twentysomething-year-olds thousands of miles away from their wives and girlfriends.

She left him standing on her back porch and, after making sure the twins were in a warm bath and had something dry to put on afterward, she went into her room to change out of the jeans she’d been wearing when she’d stepped into the water to get the kids out of their vests. Come to think of it, her blouse was a little damp, too.

A few minutes later, when she padded out of her bedroom wearing cropped turquoise yoga pants and a plain white tank top, she found Luke in her living room, the towel he’d wrapped around his hips cinched low and tight. He was leaning against the back of her pink toile sofa; the only thing between his golden skin and the terry cloth material was the damp fabric of his shorts.

She sucked in her breath and felt her nipples tightening into hard buds.

“Nice, uh, outfit,” he said. But his steel-blue eyes weren’t looking her up and down. They were staring at the two points barely concealed by the thin white fabric of her tank top.

“You know what?” She crossed her arms over her chest, knowing the gesture was made to cover herself, as well as hold herself back from him. “I think I have a shirt around here somewhere for you to use.”

She made an about-face and hustled to her bedroom where she stared at a pile of oversize T-shirts she’d accumulated over the years. Although many of the tees were gender neutral and came from a variety of tactical units and trainings she’d participated in, she was hard-pressed to find any sized double extra large, let alone double extra sexy. She finally settled on a dark green one at the bottom of the pile.

She’d been in such a hurry to get Luke covered up, it wasn’t until she was standing in front of him with the shirt that she realized she should’ve grabbed one for herself instead of practically exposing herself in her skimpy tank top. Again.

“Hey, Officer Carmen,” one of the boys said from behind her. She jumped away from Luke, as though her skin was completely on fire. “Where should we put our wet bathing suits?”

She blushed, thankful her back had been toward the bathroom door so the twins hadn’t caught her reacting so physically to their father. She needed to get them out of there. All of them.

“Let’s put them in the dryer so you can get them back on as soon as possible.”

“That’s okay,” Aiden said. “I like wearing your stuff. It’s soft and smells good.”

Luke groaned when he saw his son in one of her oversize shirts. Apparently, he didn’t like his son wearing a shirt that read “My Heroes Have Always Been Marines.”

Well, it wasn’t like she had kid-sized clothing just lying around her house. And the boys didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Caden was still pumped from winning the round of rock-paper-scissors and getting dibs on the red one with a bulldog wearing a drill instructor hat.

“Do you guys need a ride home?” She handed over another T-shirt to Luke and walked toward the kitchen, trying to put as much distance between them as possible.

“No, but can I use your phone?” Luke asked. “Mine was in the boat when we tipped over and Cooper was supposed to meet us at the pickup point. I don’t want him worrying if he sees the canoe floating by. He can probably swing by here and give us a lift.”

“I’ll just go make some hot cocoa,” she said, then handed him her cell before walking to the kitchen. Normally, she found comfort in the sunny room with its blush colored walls, dark-stained wood cabinets and oversize white farmhouse sink. But today, the ninety square-foot space was closing in on her.

The boys followed her, and she could hear Luke making his call to Cooper and explaining where they were. She was just filling up four mugs when he walked into the kitchen, still wearing that damn towel. Too bad she didn’t have any shorts big enough to fit him. Or a cabinet big enough to hide in.

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