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.She was like a cornered animal, ready to fight or run if he advanced too far, too quickly.“Your turn.” She sighed and he chuckled.“Humor me.”“Fine… How many nieces and nephews do you have?”“I have four nieces and seven nephews.And, because I know you’re going to ask this next, I am an awesome uncle.I’m their favorite uncle.”“Oh yes,” she said derisively, “my next question was going to be one that deliberately stroked your giant-sized ego.”He laughed.“Hey, it’s just the facts.”“Must be a noisy Christmas.”“Is that a question?” he said, lowering his voice to a tease.“An observation.But if you want me to tick it off, then I’m more than happy to do so.”Doyle grinned.An observation.Slowly but surely Sal was warming up.“Oh yes,” he laughed.“Big and crazy and noisy as hell.”“And you love it.”“Of course.Christmas is about family, right?”She seemed to think about that for a bit, absently chewing on her lip.What? She had to think about Christmas?“What do your parents do?”“They’re retired now, too, but they were both primary school teachers.Met at uni, been together ever since.”“And what are they doing now that they’re not working?”“Looking after grandchildren.Traveling the world.My mother’s into golf and my father’s taken up bonsai.”“Golf, huh? Is she any good?”“She plays three days a week—sometimes more.I don’t like to take her on.None of us do.She’s got a killer swing.”She looked at him then, and even though it was overcast tonight and darker, he could feel her gaze skating over his torso and landing on his biceps.“Are you telling me you can’t hit a ball farther than a woman?”“Oh, I can hit it well enough, I just can’t seem to get it on the damn green.”She laughed then.“Hard to imagine you with poor aim.”He chuckled.“That’s okay,” he said, his gaze finding hers despite the night.“I excel in other areas.”Like orgasms.And he could tell by the way she tore her gaze away from him and stumbled a little that she’d been thinking the same thing.Doyle smiled.Had he actually flustered her?“Does your family live in Brisbane?” she asked after a couple of pregnant seconds.“No.Only Abi.The others are all just north of the border.”“And are you close with your sisters?”“Now.Sure.I guess we all had our moments growing up.”“Like what?”“Like my second sister putting her two pet mice in my bed when I was a kid and scaring the living daylights out of me.”“Ah.That explains your dislike of the poor defenseless animals.”He shuddered.“They’re twitchy and those beady eyes are just plain…creepy.”Her laughter did funny things to his pulse.“Spiders are creepy.Cockroaches are creepy.”“Well, I’m pretty damn sure creepy is in the eyes of the beholder, but, that aside, my point is that far from spoiling me, there were times I would say they barely tolerated a bratty baby brother hanging around.But now I can babysit and give free pet advice…they adore me.”“Are you closer to one more?”Doyle nodded.“Probably Abi.Her partner walked out when Harry was a baby, so I lived with her for a couple of years, pitched in where I could.”He could sense her growing tense again, and he wasn’t sure why.Surely a woman who had a brother she clearly loved could appreciate a man helping out his sister?Hell, he’d been counting on it for brownie points.“Favorite childhood memory,” she said.Doyle blinked.Topic closed.“Don’t you want to know more about how I went to work perpetually tired with puke stains on my shirt?”He kept his voice light, teasing, but hell…did he have to supply the questions as well?“No,” she said.Her voice sounded so tight he was worried her vocal cords were going to snap.“Favorite childhood memory,” she repeated, a thick edge of who-the-fuck-knew-what in her voice.It didn’t brook any argument, though.“Well, there are many, but probably the time I won first place in a school photography competition when I was eleven.”She glanced at him as if she hadn’t expected that answer.“What was the picture?”“A line of eight yellow Labrador puppies all standing on their hind legs looking over a low white picket fence.”“Oh my God,” she gasped, looking at him, her tenseness dissolving right in front of him.“That sounds very cute.”He grinned.“It is.” Nowhere near as cute as Sal with a smile reaching right to her eyes and sparkling in their pale blue depths.“You’ve still got it?”“Yeah, it’s on my wall in my old bedroom.And my mother keeps the ribbon pride of place in her china cabinet.”They were almost home now, the practice just across the street, as she asked, “So why didn’t you go on to become a photographer?”“I did think about it for a while.Took a couple of courses when I was a teenager, but when I realized most of my photography was usually some kind of animal or other, I knew it was always only going to be a hobby, and it was animals I was passionate about.”“Lucky me,” Sal quipped as her foot hit the path to the front door.Doyle was momentarily stunned at her teasing reply, lobbed back at him in a flash like they were two people enjoying each other’s company, bantering.Progress?“Hey, you should be more impressed
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