” He took it and squeezed. His grip didn’t let up.

He was strong, but so was I, and I matched him until our knuckles turned white from the effort.

I studied him as we vied for top dog. He was shorter than his father and brothers, and wider as well, with dark hair and his father’s baby blue eyes.

The rest of him was hard and angular, the first Carmichael I’d met who wasn’t Hollywood good-looking. He wasn’t ugly, but his expression didn’t do him any favors.

I stepped in and clasped my left hand over his. I bore down hard and stared him in the eye.

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” I barely kept the strain out of my voice.

“Likewise.” He squeezed back, and I felt bones grind.

Harold seemed content to watch the whole thing, but Anne cleared her

“Paul,” she said, “this is Rich’s friend, Terry.” She waited several heartbeats and then said, “Boys…?”

Neither of us were willing to let go first.

She cleared her throat again, louder. “Boys!”

Rich released first. Or maybe I did. It was too close to call, and we both knew it.

I gave him a steady, unapologetic look before I turned to the other man like nothing had happened. “Nice to meet you. Paul Hughes.”

“Terry Aguilar.” His handshake was firm and mercifully brief.

I dropped my hand to my side and flexed my fingers to get the blood flowing again. Rich saw and abruptly stopped doing the same thing. Part of me wanted to laugh, but the rest of me was too preoccupied trying to get my heart rate and breathing under control.

“Well, that was interesting,” Danny said. “Who won?”

“Daniel,” Anne warned.

“Yes, Mother. I’ll behave.” He glanced at me. “I dunno ’bout you, but I’ve had a long day. You ready to hit the rack?”

I looked at my watch. It was almost one in the morning as far as my body was concerned.

“James and Lynne and the boys went to bed a while ago,” Sabrina said to Anne as the mood in the kitchen turned domestic. “Harry’s girls are still up, but they were getting settled when we checked on them. Grace is already out like a light.”

“Thank you, dear,” Anne said.

“I think I’m ready for bed too,” Sabrina said. She kissed Danny on the cheek. “See you in the morning. Sweet dreams.”

I glanced at Christy and wondered if I was ready to kiss her in front of her family. I decided I was and almost laughed at her look of relief. I kept it to a chaste kiss on the cheek, though.

“Sweet dreams,” I said softly.

Her eyes flashed at what I’d left unspoken.

“See you in the morning,” I told her with a grin. Then I smiled at her parents. “Thanks again for inviting me.”

“Our pleasure,” Harold said, and even sounded like he meant it.

I glanced at Rich and Terry. “Nice to meet you guys.”

“You too,” Rich said, but his voice was flat.

Terry nodded but seemed to dislike me on Rich’s behalf. I couldn’t really blame him, though. I would’ve followed Trip’s lead in a similar situation.

The girls smiled at Danny and me and headed toward Christy’s bedroom.

Danny and I waved to the others and went out to the porch.

“Well, that went better than I expected,” he said once we were alone.

“Are you kidding? Did you expect violence or something?”

“With Rich… who knows? Not with Mom and Dad around, but…” He shrugged. “You seemed to do okay with Dad.” He started undressing for bed.

I did the same. “I’m not so sure.”

“Did he do the whole ‘what are your intentions’ thing?”

“I figured. What’d you say?”

“Told him to mind his own business.”

“I was polite about it, but I said it’s between Christy and me.”

“And how’d he take it?”

“Better’n I thought he would, to be honest.”

“Yeah, the old man’s a politician.”

“Your mom saved me.”

“Uh-huh. You probably realized by now, but she runs the show around here. Dad wears the stars, but Mom is the commander in chief.”

I told him what she’d done with the cake.

I wasn’t ugly, and I knew I had a decent body, but something about Danny made me feel plain. His personality was the exact opposite, though, and I felt totally relaxed around him.

He climbed under the covers on the couch, and I did the same on my cot.

He yawned and checked his watch.

“You set an alarm?” he asked.

“No. My stupid body will probably wake me up at five thirty. Eastern, of course.”

“Try not to wake me when it does,” he said with a laugh. His watch beeped as he set an alarm for himself.

Both of us were tired, so we didn’t chit-chat much. The night was cool, but a couple of blankets were more than enough to keep me warm. The cot would take some getting used to, though. Still, it was clean and dry, as promised.

Sure enough, I woke up disgustingly early. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but I gave up after an hour or so. I opened my suitcase by feel and found my running clothes.