Page 57 of Sincerely, Mr. Braden

“The mess was my fault. I’m not built for gentle.”

“Lucky me.”

“I want to monopolize your time today. Think you can handle that?”

“You’re not leaving?” There’s no hiding my surprise.

He cocks his head. “Do you want me to leave?”

“No, of course not, but don’t you have to work? Finish the deal you were working on?”

“I will, as I can fit it in, and for the record, you have the day off.”

“That’s awfully nice of you, but my emails don’t stop because you give me time off. That takes some coordination and an out-of-office message.”

“Noted,” he says lightly, hugging me to him. “What do you say, sweetheart? Want to hang out with me?”

Grinning like a fool, I say, “I would love to spend the day with you, but I also need to take care of a few things and turn on an out-of-office message so your clients don’t get their feathers ruffled when I don’t respond right away. I can take care of all that after breakfast. But my father wore himself out last weekend, and his MS is flaring up. I need to spend some time with him, try to get him to rest, make him lunch, and I scheduled a walk with Barney, a dog from the shelter that really likes my dad. I think my dad really likes him, too, although he won’t admit it. I was going to take Barney to the park to wear him out, then bring him to my dad’s for a visit. I can probably reschedule Barney, but I need to see my father.”

His brows slant. “I don’t want you to reschedule anything. I’m sorry about your dad. What are his flare-ups like?”

“It depends on how bad they are. Sometimes it’s just a few days of being really tired and achy, but if he refuses to rest, he can end up in the hospital, and recovering can take a few weeks. Thankfully, he’s not that bad this time. Last night he was really tired, and I think he’s having trouble with numbness in his fingers, but he won’t admit it.”

“Then how do you know?”

“I noticed he had trouble holding on to his fork, and he asked me to change the channel when the remote was right beside him. My father is a control freak, so that’s always a tell.”

“Poor guy. That’s got to be hard to face. I’d like to come with you to the park with Barney and to meet your father, if that’s okay with you.”

“You want to meet my father?” I ask carefully, surprised that he does.

“Absolutely,” he says without hesitation. “I’m not just here for a booty call. I want to be with you, and I want to get to know about your life and more about your family. I want to meet the man who raised you, the sister who pushed you to come to the island, and my furry competition as your bedmate. Unless you’d rather I didn’t.”

My heart does a little happy dance, but my mind is slightly more hesitant. I have no idea how my father will react to me seeing a client. But I want to be with Seth, and if we’re going to do this, I want to do it right on all fronts. “I’m okay with it, but my father isn’t exactly a warm guy.”

“Then it’s a good thing I brought a jacket.”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I say, turning to flip the pancakes.

He slides his hand beneath my sweater, above my T-shirt. His hand is warm on my stomach. He kisses my neck, and his hand slides up, cupping my breast. I’m mid-flip when he nips at my earlobe, and the pancake slips off the side of the spatula, folding in half. He chuckles against my skin.

“You’re going to make me ruin breakfast.”

“Then I’ll buy you brunch on the way to get Barney. Problem solved.”

I glance over my shoulder at him. “You think you can charm your way out of everything, don’t you?”

“So far the data supports my theory.”

I turn around and bring up the thing I’ve been trying not to think about. “We should probably talk about work and figure that out before you meet my family.” I take a deep breath and say, “I resigned, remember?”

“Ah, yes, the letter that nearly broke me.”

My heart squeezes. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It lit a fire under my ass.” He kisses my forehead.

“I don’t want to make things complicated—”