Fine, so maybe she was stacking the deck in Seth’s favor a little, but the man was making an effort, so why shouldn’t her kids do the same?

“Are we good?” She looked from one child to the other.

“Yup,” they said in unison.

But there was no mistaking the tiny glimmer of mischief in her daughter’s eyes.

Uh-oh.

With a sigh, she got to her feet. “All right, let’s get you two dressed. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”

Seth’s palms were unusually damp as he waited in Miranda’s living room for the kids to come home. He’d let himself in with the spare key she’d given him last night at the club, and it felt weird being in Miranda’s apartment when she wasn’t there.

He couldn’t believe he’d agreed to watch her kids this evening.

Agreed?

Right. Try offered.

And Miranda was actually trusting him with her kids. The woman had a lot more faith in him than he had in himself.

The irony didn’t escape him—he was a Navy SEAL, for f**k’s sake. He could carry out a hazardous black-ops mission in his sleep, infiltrate a terrorist cell’s lair without batting an eye, throw himself in the line of fire without hesitation. He’d saved lives before, many, many lives. His government specifically entrusted him with the task of saving lives.

And yet he was terrified that he wouldn’t be able to protect a pair of six-year-olds.

He gulped when he heard the front door open. Footsteps thudded, a female voice wafting from the hall. A moment later, a petite blonde with pale gray eyes entered the living room, holding hands with a frowning Sophie.

“You must be Seth,” the woman said. Her eyes gleamed appreciatively. “I’m Ginny, one of the instructors at the school. Miranda says you’re babysitting tonight.”

“Yep.” He rose from the couch and walked over to shake her hand. “Nice to meet you, Ginny. Hey, Sophie.”

The little girl stared at him in surprise. He suddenly realized this was the first time he’d ever addressed her by name.

“Hi,” she said suspiciously.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then.” Ginny smiled again. “Oh, and Miranda wanted me to remind you that she left money for pizza in the jar next to the fridge.”

Seth resisted a snort. They’d argued over the phone this morning about how he wasn’t going to let her pay for dinner, and as far as he was concerned, he’d won the argument already.

“I’ll walk you out,” he told Ginny.

They headed for the door, the blonde tossing out a light “have fun” before she left.

When Seth returned to the living room, Sophie was standing exactly where he’d left her. She had a little pink duffel bag slung over one shoulder, and she wore red cotton shorts, a black T-shirt with yellow stars on it and black ballet flats. Her dark hair was up in a ponytail, brown eyes flickering with mistrust.

“So.” He cleared his throat. “What do you want to do until your brother gets home?”

“I dunno.” Her lack of enthusiasm was hardly promising.

Smothering a sigh, he took her duffel bag and set it aside. “Come on, I’m sure there’s something you want to do. We can watch a movie or go out in the backyard or draw a picture—pick anything you want.”

“Anything?”

He could’ve sworn he saw a devilish gleam in her eyes.

“Anything,” he echoed.

“Fine. I wanna play with my dolls and make their hair pretty so they can dance at the recital.”

God help him.

From the little smirk she gave him, he knew Sophie expected him to recoil in horror. Maybe revert back to the Seth she’d called mean and tell her to get lost.

When he didn’t answer right away, she crossed her skinny arms over her chest and said, “I knew you wouldn’t wanna.” She scowled. “You wouldna be good at it anyway.”

Seth raised a defiant brow, then squatted down so they were at eye level. “Sophie, I’m a United States Navy SEAL. Know what that means?”

She shifted uneasily, then shook her head.

“It means I can do whatever I set my mind on, and if you think I can’t give your dolls some awesome hairstyles, then I’m ready to prove you wrong.”

She giggled, then clapped a hand over her mouth as if she couldn’t believe she’d dropped her guard around him.

“So you ready to do this, or what?” he challenged.

As Sophie dashed off to get her dolls, Seth gave a brisk nod, declaring himself the winner of round one. In fact, he planned on winning every damn round tonight, if only to prove to Miranda that he had what it took to be her boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Christ, he couldn’t believe he even wanted to be someone’s boyfriend.

Well, not just anyone’s boyfriend. Miranda’s.

He was falling for the woman.

He was actually f**king falling for her, and wasn’t that another dose of irony right there. He’d always believed love was a choice, that you had to be open to it in order to feel it, but his feelings for Miranda had crept up on him. One day he was thinking about how much he wanted to f**k her, the next he was fantasizing about holding her hand and making her laugh and seeing her hazel eyes light up with joy.

She was the strongest woman he’d ever met, not to mention stubborn, resilient, compassionate, generous. He’d never been in a serious relationship before, but he wasn’t averse to the idea either, and if there was anyone he could picture himself with for the long haul, it was Miranda. And if she could penetrate the shield he always threw up, then why couldn’t her kids? All he had to do was lower his guard and give himself a chance to care about those children.