Supernova by C.L. Parker Page B

her one more time and kissed her forehead before she let her go. “You and Gabe take care of each other. And I want you both home for Christmas.”
    “Yes, Mother,” Kerrigan said with a mock sound of annoyance. She climbed the steps to the porch and watched her parents drive away before going back inside.
    The unmistakable smell of bacon frying in a skillet wafted through the air and enveloped her, and Kerrigan closed her eyes to breathe it in.
    Grammy.
    Without second guessing herself, she rushed to the back of the house and into the kitchen, expecting to see her grandmother at the old stove humming along as she expertly prepared a breakfast fit for a country king. What she found though, was not Grammy, but Dominic. He was standing at the stove with his back to her, wearing a pair of worn jeans that hung low on his hips and showcased those amazing back dimples. His feet were just as bare as his chest, and her mouth went dry.
    He turned when he heard her come in and bared his perfect, white smile. “Good morning.”
    Her gaze floated over his upper torso, admiring the tribal tattoo that twisted and turned in an intricate pattern over the smooth skin of his shoulder and neck. Her hand began to twitch with the urge to reach out and trace the pattern with her fingertips. His hair was wet and in total disarray. Judging by the shadow on his prominent jaw, he obviously hadn’t shaven in a few days, but the scruff made him look even more rugged and just all man .
    “How does your head feel?”
    Kerrigan’s jaw practically came unhinged and dropped to the floor with the question. There was no way he could know anything about her head hurting. Not unless he had actually been in her dream, but that wasn’t possible. Maybe her mother had mentioned it to him before she left.
    She was just about to ask him when the sizzling sound of the cooking bacon was dwarfed by a louder pop.
    Hot grease splattered onto Dominic’s bare stomach, causing him to jump back. “Dammit!”
    “Oh, God, come here.” Kerrigan went to him and grabbed his arm to pull him over to the sink.
    She snatched a bottle of mustard from the refrigerator and squirted a generous amount in her hand. His sun-kissed skin was already showing red welts across his abdomen where the grease had splattered, so it was easy for Kerrigan to determine where to apply the home remedy. Dominic flinched a little from the coldness, but then his muscles relaxed a bit under her touch.
    “Mustard?”
    Kerrigan shrugged. “It’s what Grammy used on me,” she said, focusing on the warm skin beneath her fingertips. “Although really, a kiss to the boo-boo always worked just as well,” she laughed.
    “You miss her,” Dominic said, noting the contradictory slump of her shoulders and the slight frown on her face.
    “Yeah, I do. We were pretty close.” Kerrigan’s fingers slowed as she continued to gently rub the mustard onto the burn.
    “So I gathered.”
    The taunting little trail to the Promised Land was distracting, but she managed to pull her fingers away before they decided on a pilgrimage to find the forbidden fruit. At least she wasn’t drooling like a complete imbecile. She hoped.
    “There, all done. Just let that sit there for a bit.” She turned the faucet on to rinse the mustard off her hands. “Did she talk about me much?”
    “Only constantly. She loved you more than anything.”
    The thought made Kerrigan’s heart feel all warm and fuzzy. If it were possible, she would have said it was even smiling. She had to reach around him to get the hand towel, to which he only offered a slight change in his position to accommodate her. In an attempt to avoid getting mustard all over her, she came face to face with his shoulder – and the mark that had eluded her the day before.
    She gasped when she realized where she had seen it before. It was nearly an exact replica of the circular birthmark on her right hip. It had always reminded Kerrigan of a starburst. As a child,