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“Parenting is complicated. So are feelings.”
I nodded my agreement. “Exactly and I’ve already been left by one man who thought he knew what he wanted, what he needed—me—only to learn it was something else altogether. I’m happy you’re willing to allow me to stay in Lila’s life, but that’s all I’m willing to risk right now.”
“I understand.” His lips said the words but Chris didn’t move his hands from my shoulders or take his gaze off mine.
“Good.” Eventually we could find our way to a strictly platonic relationship. A friendship, at least once I stopped looking at those lips and remembering just how delicious they tasted. Or just how thoroughly they had kissed me.
“But I reserve the right to try and change your mind.” His smile was half arrogant and half charming, and one hundred percent trouble.
“No, you don’t.”
“Agree to disagree,” he shrugged casually.
“Chris,” I groaned and he leaned in with a smile that could only be described as wicked.
“That’s exactly what I want to hear,” he said and then moved in for another kiss, this one so hot that I trembled with need when he pulled back. “Exactly,” he growled and then reached for another slice of pizza.
I groaned and dropped my head to the cool hard surface of my kitchen table.
Chris laughed.
Chris
It had been almost forty-eight hours since I had my lips and hands all over Tara and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Or about her. I’d expected more push back on the kiss but she melted into me, fitting up against me as if that was where she belonged. It was all just so…right.
I knew it and Tara knew it too, but she was right about one thing, I had been sending her mixed messages. It was unintentional but it was true, which meant I had to let her know that I was serious.
“Chris? They’re ready for you now.” Kendra flashed a friendly smile from her spot behind the reception desk. “Don’t look so afraid, they hardly bite.”
I pushed up off the plush chair with a groan. “Hardly isn’t the same as not biting at all, is it?”
“Well you’ve earned a nip or two, I’d say.” Her smile was playful and I relaxed a little. “Good luck. With them and Tara.”
“Thanks.” The long walk down the halls of Time for Love made me feel like I was walking the plank but that was only because I knew the self-satisfied smiles I would see when I told Sophie and Eva what I needed. I knew the unbearable ‘I told you so’s’ I’d have to listen to. Accept.
“Come on in,” Sophie called out without looking up as if she had a sixth sense that I was hovering in front of her door. “Eva is finishing up a call in the conference room but we can get started now. Or we can wait.”
I didn’t want to lose my nerve, which was a distinct possibility to I took a deep breath and stepped inside. “We can start. I need your help.”
Sophie sat a little taller in her seat and folded her hands neatly on top of the desk. “I’m not sure what help we can provide. We’ve done everything we can for you. And for Tara.”
“You have but some things have changed.” I dropped down in the uncomfortable but stylish chair across from Sophie and raked a hand through my hair. “I’ve changed.”
“From researching author to…?”
“To a man smitten with his match. His statistically high, off the charts, match.”
Her lips spread into a slow, satisfied grin. “Tara?”
“Who else?”
She shrugged. “You both were so adamant that you as a couple weren’t going to happen, it could be anyone else. Literally.” She arched a brow, daring me to deny her words. “And gossip says you didn’t visit her in the hospital.”
“A real dick move, by the way.” Eva’s voice sounded behind him and yeah, I’m not afraid to admit it startled me. Just a little. “But you’re here now. Why?”
“He wants our help,” Sophie said smugly. “To win Tara’s heart.”
I sat up taller with a frown. “Who said all that?”
“You did,” Sophie insisted. “Just now. You’re smitten and you want us to help you make her forget that you were, as Eva said, a dick.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” I grumbled.
“Really? Then how would you put it,” Eva asked as she pulled a chair beside Sophie and nodded for the other woman to vacate her chair, which Sophie did. Without argument.
“I was confused and maybe a little scared, which I already told her.”
Both women crossed their arms at the same time, sharing identical smirks. “And she wasn’t buying it,” Eva correctly guessed.
“No,” I admitted reluctantly. “Said she already had a man who wasn’t sure what he wanted and she didn’t want another.”
“Good point,” Sophie said proudly before flashing an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
