Shiver

screen.
    After that, there wasn’t anything to do but return to the kitchen, defeated. So that’s what Sam did, casting a disgruntled look at the table where her son and the criminal who’d burst into their lives and blown them to smithereens sat chatting and eating her pancakes like neither of them had a care in the world. Which in Tyler’s case she was glad of, but when it came to Marco—not so much. Crossing to the counter, fulminating silently over the unfairness of life in general and the absolute unbelievable ongoing crappiness of her life in particular, she poured herself a cup of coffee, snagged a clean plate and some silverware, and finally gave up and sat down at the table across from them.
    Only to find Marco glancing at her coffee with such longing that, mentally heaping scorn on her own inner marshmallow, she immediately got up again and poured him a cup.
    “Sugar? Cream?” she asked over her shoulder from the kitchen counter. Her tone was maybe a little short again, because she was still disgusted at herself for noticing, much less caring, that he obviously wanted coffee. And noticing and caring, too, that it was hard for him to maneuver easily with the crutches, and that carrying a cup of coffee while on crutches would be pretty nearly impossible, which meant that if she didn’t bring it he probably wouldn’t get any.
    What she told herself was, she needed coffee too much in the morning herself to deny it to a fellow human being. If the truthwas maybe something a little different, well, she wasn’t going there.
    “Black is fine.”
    When she returned to the table, setting the coffee down in front of him before sliding back into her seat, Marco mouthed, “Thank you,” and smiled at her again even as, beside him, Tyler chatted away. When Marco turned his attention back to Tyler, listening to her son describing the various misadventures of a friend’s puppy with every appearance of real interest, Sam’s eyes narrowed on them. The last thing in the world she needed Marco to be was nice.
    So maybe he couldn’t help the fact that she’d found him in a car trunk and been thrown in on top of him. If he hadn’t been what he was, none of this would be happening. Which made the whole terrifying mess still all his fault. And made him a dangerous man, in more ways than one.
    “Why are you frowning at Trey like that, Mom? I thought you said you liked him.” Looking her way suddenly, Tyler caught her off guard.
    Over his coffee cup, “Trey’s” eyes met hers and twinkled.
    “I’m tired, okay?” Sam said, putting her own coffee cup down and reaching for a strip of bacon. “Eat your pancakes.”
    Tyler obediently took a huge bite. “How did you two meet, anyway?”
    Mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes, it was such an obvious question that Sam, crunching into the bacon, didn’t know why it surprised her. The hopeful interest in the look Tyler sentfrom her to Marco and back told the tale. It confirmed for Sam the direction her son’s thoughts were taking: just as she had been afraid would happen, in his head he was pairing them off. It was a problem that caused her increasing worry. The older he got, the more he seemed to miss having a father figure in his life. If he even saw her talking to someone remotely suitable, he started matchmaking. Which was one more reason she rarely dated anymore, and almost never brought the men she did occasionally go out with anywhere near Tyler. Unfortunately, under the circumstances keeping him away from Marco was going to be difficult. So was staying away from Marco herself.
    “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” she told him repressively, putting down the half-eaten strip of bacon, while Marco—so helpful!—forked a pancake onto her plate and pushed the syrup in her direction as he answered Tyler.
    “I was in trouble, and she saved me. I owe her, big time.”
    Tyler’s eyes widened. “She saved you? Like a superhero?”
    “No,” Sam answered crossly, while Marco nodded and replied, “Just exactly like a superhero. A superhero who showed up in a wrecker.”
    Tyler chortled. “Wrecker-Woman! That’s you, Mom. You could be in, like, the Avengers. We could get you a costume.”
    He was so obviously finding the idea funny that Sam forced a smile even as she shook her head at him. “Forget it, buddy. And finish your breakfast. I don’t want to be in the Avengers. And I really don’t want a costume.”
    “Think how tight those superhero