As she held Thomas, Mac cleaned up the mess around the high chair and restored order to the kitchen. Even though he was tall and broad shouldered, he moved with an easy grace. Rippling muscles under a snug T-shirt had Maddie licking her lips and remembering what it had felt like to kiss him. He bent over to wipe the baseboard and his shorts tightened over his taut rear end. Infused with heat that made her skin tingle with desire, Maddie looked away.

“I need to make a quick phone call,” he said when he was done. “And grab a shower. Are you sure you’re all right?”

Maddie skimmed her lips over Thomas’s soft, damp hair. “We’re fine.”

Mac withdrew his cell phone from his pocket. “Be right back.”

She imagined he probably had a girlfriend in Miami waiting to hear from him. The thought filled her with irrational jealousy. Tiffany’s warning came rushing back to her. Before she could get too mad with herself for being stupid and jealous, Mac returned and stashed the phone in his backpack. He approached them, casting a downward glance at Thomas, who was beginning to doze off. “He’s so cute,” Mac whispered, smoothing the baby’s fine blond hair into place. “And so good.”

“He really is.” Unnerved by the intimate whisper and the natural, gentle caress he’d bestowed upon her son, Maddie kept her eyes on Thomas. “If I had to go it alone, I definitely got the right kid.”

“Why are you? Going it alone, that is?”

After a long awkward pause, she finally ventured a glance up to find his cool blue eyes trained on her. “That’s, um, a long story.”

He flashed that irresistible grin. “Good thing we’ve got all night. You can talk to me through the window while I’m sleeping on the deck.”

Before she could tell him she didn’t talk about Thomas’s father—with anyone—Mac grabbed his backpack and shut the bathroom door behind him.

Maddie closed her eyes and tried to calm her racing heart and mind. Nothing good would come of the crush she could feel developing. His attention toward them was temporary, and she needed to remember that. She couldn’t let Thomas get attached to a man who wouldn’t be around in a few days. The bottle fell from Thomas’s slack lips, and he snuggled in deeper. Normally, she’d transfer him to his crib at this point, but she feared she might drop him. She hated to admit Mac might be right about something.

While she waited for him to help her, she kept her eyes closed and listened to him singing Sinatra in the shower. Smiling for the umpteenth time that day, she floated on an unusual cloud of contentment with her baby asleep in her arms and a sexy guy singing in her shower.