AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyes sparkled. “Oh. And are you dating anyone?”
“Oh my gosh, Mom. CJ, you don’t have to answer that.”
I turned my head, surprised to find Kevin leaning over my shoulder, completely red-faced. He was so close, all it would take was a puckering of my lips to kiss him…or lick him. Either would work for me. He glared at his mom, but I focused on him as I said, “I don’t mind. No, Lorraine. I’m currently very, very single. I haven’t met anyone I was interested in since the end of last year.”
Kevin’s gaze jumped to me, and somehow, his cheeks got impossibly redder. When Lorraine said, “What happened there?”
I tore my eyes from his and looked back to her.
“Bad timing, I think. But I’m working on that.” I heard his quick intake of breath. Not wanting to push my luck, I continued, “It was so nice chatting with you. I’m going to go check on Lexi. I’ll let you speak with your son.”
I shoved my phone into his hands, then slid out of my seat and went in to play with his daughter. He beat a path for the stairs, whisper-yelling at his mother all the way up. When he came back down, he’d changed from his work clothes and handed me my phone. Neither of us mentioned the call, but I stopped worrying that I’d damaged our newfound friendship when he asked what movie we wanted to watch during dinner between furtive glances in my direction. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Kevin did think about more than Lexi. I’d find out eventually because I was in this for the long game.
CHAPTER TEN
Kevin
Lexi’s giggles met me as I opened the door from the garage into the kitchen. My favorite melody in the world was quickly followed by what had become my second favorite sound, CJ’s husky chuckle. When I’d hired the man, I’d been so sure this wouldn’t work out, but I’d ended up with so much more than I could've ever hoped for or imagined. Not only did Lexi have an amazing caretaker, but he’d become my friend.
And that was okay. True, I was his boss, but George was mine, and it worked out fine. Okay, yes, this was a little different since I was CJ's employer, and George and I both technically worked for Dawson, but potato, potahto. What mattered was I hadn't crossed any lines with my daughter’s manny in the physical sense.
Not that I didn't want to. Not that I didn't think about it all of the time. Nope. I didn't continually shove thoughts of our incredible few hours together down. No, what mattered was my little girl and how much she adored the man who I'd hired to care for her. Yeah, that was it, and I'd deny anything else.
“I'm gonna catch you, Lexi.”
“No,” she screeched, rounding the corner quickly with one of her little toy trucks in her hand. She finally realized I was home and squealed, “Daddy.” She crawled in my direction as quickly as her little body would take her.
As I dropped to a crouch in front of her, CJ rounded the corner. “Vroom. Vroom. I'm coming for you.”
“Help me, Daddy. Da big tuck wants to eat my car.”
“What?” I asked, laughing.
Lexi came to a complete stop and lifted the toy vehicle in her hand up toward my face. “Cars, Daddy. So many cars.”
“Oh, that's a nice car, Lex-Lex. Where did you get that?” My eyes flicked past my daughter toward the big man crawling around on his knees with her big car carrier truck. For the first time, I noticed that it was full of Matchbox cars. He grinned sheepishly.
“Day CJ’s cars, Daddy. From when he was little like me.”
My gaze bounced back to him. “What?”
He sat back on his butt, knees in the air, and leaned his hairy forearms across them. I gulped. Damn, how was every part of this man’s body so sexy to me?
“I knew my mom had saved these from when I was a kid. They were like my favorite things in the whole world. When I was over there for family dinner on Sunday, I asked her if they were in the attic. She said yes, and I planned to go up and search for them, but I'd promised my nephews I'd play cards with them. My dad sent me a text yesterday that my mom had sent him up searching for them, and he found them. That's where I went last night after dinner. I ran to my parents’ house.”
My thoughts all jumbled together. He’d purposefully brought these for my daughter to play with? He’d gone to his parents’ house? I hated to admit it, but I’d been gutted when he left last night instead of staying for our new dinner, dessert, and movie time ritual. Luckily, he'd been back in just over an hour, and it had embarrassed me how relieved I'd been. Not that he hadn't had enough time for a quick hook-up, but it couldn't have been a real date or anything with how fast he’d returned home. Not that this was his home, but he’d stopped spending the night out on the weekends, and he had a room here, so… For fuck’s sake. If my confusion over my own response last night hadn’t messed with my head enough, now here he was telling me that he'd run to his parents’ to pick up something for my little girl.
“Daddy, come see. Dere's so many.”
I ran my hand over my little girl’s silky curls. “Well, I’d better come see then.”
She bobbed her head up and down. “Yeah, Daddy. It’s da best.”
When I stood up, she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the playroom. In the middle of the room was a large bin filled with multiple carrying cases of all types of little toy cars.
Helplessly, I turned to CJ. “You brought all of these for her to play with?”
The larger man shrugged his shoulders and held out his hands. “Don't worry. I already found a place for the bin. It won't get in the way.”
