Damn it.
“You first,” I said.
“I was going to ask how your date was,” Ellie said.
I frowned. “Date?”
Her cheeks flushed, just slightly. “The other night. You said you had plans.”
Surprise flashed through me. “Oh. Right. Well, I went on a ‘date’ with my physiotherapist.”
“Really?” The word sounded a little strained. She must have been surprised I was going to physio. I still hadn’t told her about what had happened to me.
“That’s nice,” she said.
“Not really.” I maneuvered us around a gentle corner. “Debbie was giving me the gears.”
Ellie kept her eyes trained on the path ahead. “About suddenly discovering you’re a dad?”
“What?” I looked down at Ellie. “No, she jammed my knee into my armpit. It hurt like hell.”
Ellie looked up at me, alarmed. Then her expression dropped. “You had an actual physio appointment.”
She thought I’d been on a date-date. “Oh, shit. Yeah. Debbie’s sixty. And the only woman I let beat me up.”
Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “You said youwenton a date.”
I did word it weirdly. “Right. Sorry.” I adjusted my grip on the stroller. Quick. Make her laugh.
I cleared my throat. “Youcould probablykick my ass too, though. You look strong.”
Shit, I hope she didn’t think I was alluding to her weight in a weird way. I fucking loved the way she looked. “You look amazing,” I said. “And strong. That’s what I meant.”
Fuckme.
Ellie was giving me a strange look, but I think I saw the twitch of her smile. “You look like you could handle yourself.”
My chest relaxed. “I’m okay. I did Jiu-jitsu for a while.” Over a decade actually, but I didn’t want to sound like a martial arts bro or something. “I could teach you, if you want.”
Ellie made a face. “I was never very sporty. I did yoga for a while, but that’s about it.”
Between picturing teaching Ellie a sport that involved rolling around on the ground and Ellie in yoga gear, I was venturing back into a dangerousNot Just Friendsplace in my mind.
I cleared my throat. “So… you were asking me about how my ‘date’ went because that’s what friends talk about, right?”
“Yeah.” She chewed her lip but didn’t look at me. “I mean, I talk about that stuff with Kit and Sarah. All my Heartbreaker colleagues actually. We’re friends. And we talk about that stuff.”
That was a lot of words. She was trying so hard.
“We don’thaveto talk about our dating lives, do we?” I asked.
“Oh. No, we don’t.”
Then I wondered if she was trying to drop a hint. I wasn’t always the best at picking up on those. “Are you… seeing someone?”
The words were hard to get out.
I sensed her stiffen beside me. Maybe she thought I was trying to get her to change her mind about what we’d talked about.
