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  “Danny!” She clasped his arm, bolting upright in bed. “What is that?”

  He moved slower, his eyes still not open.

  “Brothers,” he muttered.

  What the hell?

  Shrugging off the last vestiges of sleep, she listened more carefully. The bang, bang, banging became clearer. Almost as if a small army had descended on the gatehouse and decided to pound on every side.

  “Football in five!” a deep male voice shouted. The sound seemed to emanate from just below the second-floor deck off the bedroom. “Don’t make us come in there, bro.”

  “Are they serious?” Stephanie realized she and Danny were both naked and definitely not in any position for company. The bedroom was a whirlwind of discarded clothes and tangled sheets.

  Downstairs was no better, she recalled, since they’d made a late-night snack, then ended up feasting on each other on the dining room table.

  “As a heart attack.” Danny yanked back the covers and stood. “Sorry about this, Steph. I’ll go knock their heads together so you can go back to sleep.”

  She glanced at the clock, shocked to discover it was ten in the morning. There was a brief respite from the pounding outside and the quiet seemed to vibrate.

  “Actually, that’s okay. I can’t believe how late I slept.” She’d meant to awaken early to walk along the beach and get her head on straight before she met his family. She was nervous and unsure how they’d feel about her coming into his life again—especially now that she’d discovered he had gone a little crazy when she’d been kidnapped. What must his mom think of her not returning his calls afterward?

  A chant started outside. Deep male voices shouted in unison. “Murph, Murph, Murph.”

  Danny swore at their persistence, barreling into a pair of shorts so he could pry open the French doors and holler at them from the deck. “What the hell kind of welcome home is that?”

  “Danny lives!” someone shouted and Stephanie recognized the Finnish foster brother’s accent. There were some catcalls and wolf whistles over his half-dressed state, but all the voices sounded good-natured, and she was certain the guys were happy to see their brother.

  Hugging the covers tighter to herself, she admired the muscles in Danny’s back as he braced his arms on the deck railing to lean over and shout down to them.

  “No thanks to you all. You nearly gave me a heart attack shaking the damn gatehouse. Go away until I get dressed.”

  When he turned around to come back inside, he was grinning.

  “If you’d like to play football, it would give me time to clean up before I meet everyone.” While she didn’t think the rowdy Murphy males would really raid the gatehouse to retrieve their brother, she’d also rather not take any chances.

  “You sure?” He frowned. “I brought you here to spend time with you.”

  A smile warmed her on the inside. “Thank you, but I’ll be fine. Your family hasn’t seen you in six months. I know they’re eager to hang out with you, too.”

  He leaned close to drop a kiss on her cheek. “After tonight’s party, it’s all about you.”

  Butterflies stirred in her belly at the thought, part anticipation and part nerves. While she wanted to be with him again and experience more of the mind-numbing, gorgeous release he could give her, she wasn’t sure how she felt about the new intensity that lurked in their relationship.

  “I’ll be fine,” she repeated, as much for her sake as for his. Her personal space and autonomy had been hard won from her family the first time, and even more so after she’d come home from Iraq and they’d been twice as protective of her. She would be careful not to give Danny the idea that she needed a protector. “I’m looking forward to exploring the Cape while I’m here. I don’t want to steal too much time away from your family.”

  He studied her thoughtfully, and in the brief silence, she could hear male voices calling to one another and laughing outside. She had the feeling they’d already started their game, never making good on their threat to drag Danny out of the gatehouse he’d said was less than a tenth of a mile away from his parents’ main property.

  “Okay.” He gave a brief nod and pulled on an old concert T-shirt. If her effort to keep things light bothered him, he didn’t show it. “The game should be done by noon.”

  She watched in silence as he grabbed a pair of sneakers out of his suitcase and went to join his brothers. Guilt pinched when she realized she’d put more distance between them. He’d been so very good to her when she’d needed him.

  Had it been wrong of her to ask something so superficial of him as sex? Of course, at the time she’d initiated her request, she hadn’t known that their past meant so much to him. By staying with him now, was she only making their separation in a few weeks that much harder?

  Her chest ached at the thought of hurting him. Maybe the time with his family would be a good thing, giving them some natural space from each other before the tender feelings inside her had a chance to take root. Her independence was a precious thing after the kidnapping, and she wasn’t ready to give it up for any man. Not even the most tempting guy she’d ever met.

  * * *

  DANNY DID HIS DAMNEDEST to walk the fine line between being a good host to Stephanie and still giving her some space. He hadn’t protested when the backyard football game went into overtime, dutifully marching his team back out onto the field after his brother Keith insisted on a coin toss to decide possession in the extra period.

  He also didn’t protest when his brothers decided to throw him—their team captain—into the swimming pool after he’d led them to victory. They’d insisted a dunk in the water was the only way to celebrate since they lacked a Gatorade container to dump over his head.

  Sopping wet and fully clothed, he climbed out of the heated infinity-edge pool his father had installed a few years ago, only to come face-to-face with soon-to-be-groom Jack.

  His second-oldest brother tossed him a towel. Square-jawed and serious, Jack had the same brown hair and green eyes as all the biological Murphys. In temperament, Jack and he were the closest of the brothers, both tending to be quieter and more intense. Whereas Keith and Ryan had inherited their father’s business-mogul tendencies, and Kyle and Axel were content to dominate sports, Jack and Danny shared a rebellious streak that made it tough to find one clear career path. These days, Jack was debating getting into politics in the Maine community where he and his fiancée, Alicia, ran a bed-and-breakfast.

  “I expected you to be a whole lot happier when I heard you were coming home with her,” Jack said without preamble.

  No need to identify “her.” Stephanie had been an unspoken constant in Danny’s life for five years and Jack was probably the one who understood that best. He’d seen how hard Danny fell for her the night they met. Hell, Jack had ended up as Uncle Sam’s property for four years, as much because of Danny’s feelings for Stephanie as any personal call to duty.

  Drying off his face and arms, Danny squinted against the afternoon sunlight. “It’s complicated.”

  “Isn’t it always?” Jack dropped into a wrought-iron deck lounger with fat ivory-colored cushions.

  Clearly, Danny wasn’t getting out of this conversation too easily. The lawn buzzed with catering staff and people assembling an outdoor tent, tables and chairs, but they seemed to have finished prepping the pool area, so this part of the property was quieter.

  “She sought me out for the first time in five years, and she wants to keep things...uncomplicated.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Tell me about it.” Danny shoved aside the cushion on another lounger so he wouldn’t soak the thing through. Sitting directly on the wrought iron, he laid the towel over his knees.

  “But she’s here, right? You’ve got an opportunity to change her mind.” Jack lifted the lid on a cooler built into a wooden cart between them and revealed an assortment of imported beers on ice that must be for the party due to start in a couple of hours.

  Danny scooped up
a longneck microbrew bottled locally. He used the bottle opener built into the drink cart and took a long swallow.

  “And risk pushing too hard? She could be out of here before you even say your vows if she starts feeling pressured.” He’d gotten the message loud and clear from her this morning when she’d said “I’ll be fine” not once, but twice. Obviously, she was already warning him not to get too close.

  “So don’t push. Don’t pressure. Duh.” Jack opened his bottle and took a swig. “Can’t you be...fun? Low-key?”

  “Laid-back,” he muttered, remembering what she’d said when he’d gotten off the ship earlier that week. You look kind of dashing in white...and not at all like the laid-back rock ’n’ roll dude I met five years ago.

  “Exactly.” Jack lifted his beer in mock salute. “Take her out for a sail. Hit up some open microphone nights at the local clubs so you can jam with your guitar and just have fun. I remember she really liked hearing you play.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Danny mused, wondering if he even knew how to be low-key anymore.

  “Hey, I’m getting married to an incredible woman next week, dude. I must be doing something right.” He grinned like he’d won the freaking lottery and Danny was glad for the guy.

  Jack had gone without Alicia for almost as long as Danny had missed Stephanie.

  “I’m happy for you.” Leaning across the space between them, he clinked his bottle against Jack’s in a makeshift toast. “Seriously. You deserve this.”

  “Thanks.” Jack’s expression grew serious again. “But you know, I might not be here now if not for some very savvy advice you gave me a year ago, sitting on the back porch of the house. You remember?”

  Danny nodded. Jack had been flipping out after giving Alicia the deed to the bed-and-breakfast. He’d returned to Chatham without making a commitment to her, unsure where he stood with her since she’d been hurt that he bought the inn without telling her.

  “I told you not to let her slip away.” Hell, Danny even remembered what he’d been thinking at the time he doled out that brilliant piece of wisdom. He’d figured if he ever had a second chance with Stephanie, he sure as hell would hold tight with both hands.

  “Exactly. It was good advice then. It’s good advice now.” Jack turned in his chair as a small band of musicians started tuning up their instruments for the party. “Crap. We’d better go get dressed for this thing. Especially you. You’re the man of the hour.”

  “I suppose I am.” Shoving to his feet, Danny knew he didn’t dare be late after his parents went to this much trouble to welcome him home. He would find his suit and try to enjoy the party.

  Maybe tonight would help show Stephanie he could still lighten up and just have fun. He could introduce her to the family. Surprise her with a few moves on the dance floor. Play a tune with the band if the chamber orchestra was willing to share a stage.

  Everything would be fine just as long as he could forget the clock ticking in his head. And the fear that if he didn’t make every second count with her now, he might never have a second chance.

  10

  “I’M SO NERVOUS,” Stephanie whispered in his ear as they walked across the lawn toward the homecoming party.

  “You belong here,” he told her firmly. “My family has all been eager to meet you for years. I guarantee you’re going to get more of a hero’s welcome than me.”

  “That’s what makes me nervous.” She stopped in midstride on a cobblestone path winding down from the main house to the lawn that led to the beach. “What if I don’t live up to their expectations? Or what if they resent the fact that I’ve been MIA from your life for years?”

  “They would never judge you like that.” He had realized over the past few days that her mother’s sky-high expectations had done a number on her, something he hadn’t really seen when they’d first met. “They’re going to be glad to have you here because I’m so freaking glad to have you here. Okay?”

  She looked incredibly beautiful in a hot-pink dress she’d shopped for the day before back in Norfolk. Strapless and embroidered with tiny glittery bits, the dress glowed just like she did in the light spilling from the house onto the lawn. She wore a ring in the shape of a kitten on one finger, a nod to her whimsical side. But her dark hair was pulled back in a glittery clip, a picture of sexy elegance. As much as he’d rather pull her back to the gatehouse and take her hair down, he knew this night was as important for her as it was for him. Her chance to get to know his family.

  “Okay.” Nodding, she allowed him to lead her down the steps near the rock garden where he used to play hide-and-seek as a kid. “Sorry to be so anxious when this night is a chance for your family to welcome you home.”

  “About that.” He’d seen all his family members privately this afternoon at one time or another. “They’re welcoming out-of-town wedding guests who are spending the week here as much as me, so don’t think I’m going to ditch you to hang out with my Aunt Gladys or anything. I’m your date and I’m not going anywhere.”

  Not unless she chased him off anyhow. He still couldn’t believe she was here with him, that she’d looked him up after all these years. God, he’d dreamed about her so often. Blown off so many opportunities to date other people—and when he had dated, it had been halfhearted at best. He lifted her hand and kissed the backs of her fingers while the chamber musicians switched to something a little more lively. The tune was a soft counterpoint to the laughter gaining volume as folks gathered around the scattered canopies that sheltered the food and the bars.

  “There’s my brother Kyle. We’ll start with him so you know someone before we make a big entrance.”

  “We sort of met on the plane, right?” Her blue eyes went to Kyle, the tallest of his brothers except for their foster brother, Axel, who was huge.

  “Right.” Danny flagged down Kyle and his girlfriend, Marissa. “Stephanie, this is Kyle, your friendly neighborhood power forward for the Philadelphia Phantoms. Kyle, this is Stephanie.”

  Heaven knew she needed no introduction. Kyle especially had reason to recall exactly who she was from that old argument they’d had. His eyes flicked over his brother’s nose and damned if it wasn’t straight again.

  “Nice to meet you.” Kyle was Mr. Debonair in his tuxedo and real haircut, an obvious upgrade since he’d met his girlfriend. “This is my girlfriend, Marissa Collins. She’s a matchmaking guru back in Philly, so if you guys want any relationship advice...”

  Marissa stepped forward to shake Stephanie’s hand, a pair of cat’s-eye-shaped glasses perched on her nose. “Despite what Kyle says, I’m not here in an official capacity. How lovely to meet you.”

  “I love your outfit,” Stephanie said in reference to the silver lace dress the other woman wore. “It looks like something from a red carpet premiere in the fifties.”

  Marissa smiled. “I like shopping for vintage pieces. I usually find great things, and it fits the budget.”

  “What budget?” Kyle teased.

  “Not all of us rake in money for advertising endorsements,” she reminded him drily, although she winked while she did so.

  Danny was interested in the dynamic there. Kyle seemed utterly taken with his new girlfriend and he’d heard they’d moved in together shortly after meeting. How had the guy managed it so fast? If Danny didn’t start making progress with Stephanie soon, he would have to ask. He’d waited for her for too long not to make major strides forward in his limited time home.

  He was about to introduce Stephanie to Axel when the chamber music suddenly came to a halt. A hiss of microphone feedback filled the air and Danny had the feeling his time to escort Stephanie around was about to get interrupted.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention please?” An unknown speaker took the mic, probably one of the dudes in the orchestra.

  “I might have to go shake a few hands,” Danny whispered in Stephanie’s ear, hating to leave her side.

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured hi
m, although he knew that she was nervous about being there.

  Damn it. He should have brought her to the house earlier to introduce her around and make sure she felt comfortable but he’d hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Murphy ask you to join them in welcoming home their son, Lieutenant Daniel Murphy.” On cue, a spotlight searched the crowd for him.

  Kyle slapped him on the back. “You’re wanted at the podium, dude.” He waved his arms to be sure the spotlight found Danny.

  “I’ll be back,” he promised Stephanie, meeting her gaze and holding it.

  The spotlight spilled onto her as much as it did on him and then he got a better idea.

  “Come with me,” he urged her, taking her hand. He wanted everyone to know she was a part of his life anyhow. Or at least, he hoped she would be.

  She froze, but he didn’t give her time to protest. He walked into the bright white light with her at his side.

  * * *

  A FEW HOURS INTO Danny’s welcome-home party, Stephanie needed to run for cover.

  The Murphys had been gracious and kind. Each brother was handsome and charming in his own way. Every significant other was stunning and successful. But the crush of well-to-do people in their party finery, their expensive heels sinking into the manicured sod as if the shoes were disposable, made her feel out of place. Especially when her cell phone kept chiming with texts and calls from her mother back in Long Island. Ever since Whitney Rosen had learned that Stephanie was seeing a Murphy of Murphy Resorts, Inc., she’d been neurotically sending messages to give advice. Or at least, that’s what the content had been when Stephanie had checked two days ago. Heaven knew what Mom’s messages amounted to now, since Stephanie hadn’t been responding. She’d planned to call home when she got to Cape Cod, but those good intentions had vanished when things had heated up with Danny and they’d taken their relationship to the next level.

  As soon as Stephanie made her excuses to Danny, she headed toward the house and turned her phone to vibrate.