“What’s the job?” he asks, voice softer and tinged with guilt.
“Babysitter.”
“Congrats. I’m sure you’ll enjoy that. You’re great with Linda’s kids.”
Linda’s kids are tyrants, but they love me.
“At least with this gig, I’ll get paid,” I say with a smile, tension bleeding out of me.
“We should celebrate.”
I perk up and meet his glittering hazel eyes. “Oh yeah, how?”
Filthy images of us on the couch together assault my brain. Warmth burns at my cheeks, but I’ve got a full face of pretty makeup on today, so he probably can’t tell.
“We can order pizza and watch—”
“Don’t say golf,” I interrupt with a groan.
Seriously, how much golf can one man consume in his lifetime? Apparently, limitless amounts.
“Nah,” he says with a wide grin that lights up his handsome face. “There’s a new horror movie on Netflix.”
Right now, if an outside were to look in through the truck windows, they might confuse us for an actual couple. At least, in my fantasy, that’s what I see. His smile for me is much different than the ones he gives everyone else.
It’s intense and filled with love.
Even if the love I feel emanating from him is more fatherly in nature, it’s there. I’m not imagining that part. It makes me feel safe and secure and cared for.
Problem is, it’s not enough.
I crave more facets of this love.
Deeper, sexual, feral need.
Would a man like Reid Foss ever reciprocate those feelings?
Probably not. He’s a good man to his very core.
Falling for his girlfriend’s daughter would be very, very bad.
Reid
Cole chuckles when I yawn so hard my eyes water.
“Long night, big man?”
A pang of regret jabs me in the chest. Staying up late watching horror movies was a bad idea for many reasons. For one, I knew I had to be up and ready to run at five this morning. But the main issue is with whom I spent that time with.
Just me and Emma on the couch.
One blanket.
Jumping at everything on the television.
She’d fallen asleep with her feet pushed against the side of my leg. When I’d heard the keys jangling outside the front door, signaling Amara’s return, I’d jolted off the couch like I’d been busted doing something truly wicked.
But it wasn’t bad, wasit?
