Page 5 of Playing With Forever

That sound never got old. And I’d miss it when she was gone to live the life she carved out for herself.

“Do you want a burger, or are you going to stand here and give your old man a hard time?”

“Can’t I have both?”

My girl could have anything she wanted, but I’d rather go out and get a really fucking great burger.

“You can do whatever you want. But I’m going to change. Be ready in thirty, or the bus is leaving without you.”

I left Lindy to finish washing her hands and went to my bedroom. The first thing that caught my attention was my unmade bed; the second was the faint scent of Josie’s perfume; the third was the black lace bra that was tangled in my dark blue sheets. It was something I hadn’t seen this morning, or I would’ve hidden it in the off chance Lindy wandered into my room. I did that right then, which further pissed me off, and the smell of Josie on my sheets and lingering in my room was already more than enough to irritate me.

The bra served as a gratuitous reminder that Josie had hightailed her fine ass out of my bed and my house in the middle of the night, and I hadn’t forgotten that shit for one second. Neither had I forgotten the way she felt or tasted.

The woman was a class act. In public, she was reserved and polished.

In private, with very little coaxing, she let loose and went wild. I hadn’t been left with claw marks since I was in my twenties. Now I was sporting Josie marks, not only on my back but my chest, and she’d left a hickey.

At the very least, I wanted to nail down a date with her before I took her back to her car. Though I’d been aiming for that after I’d woken her up with an orgasm.

Both I’d been looking forward to.

Neither did I get.

Now I was pissed.

I shoved her bra in my drawer, along with all thoughts of the woman, and headed for the shower.

“DO YOU KNOW HER?” Lindy quietly asked from across the booth.

“Know who?”

“The woman in the white blouse.”

I scanned the small restaurant and found who Lindy had asked about.

Yeah, oh yeah, I knew her.

“Yep,” I told Lindy but didn’t take my eyes off Josie’s panicked expression.

“Who is she?”

“She runs the Hope Center.”

“Seriously?” Lindy asked, no longer whispering, with a fair amount of excitement interjected. “She should sit with us.”

That would be a fuck no. I hadn’t introduced my daughter to single woman I’d taken to bed or dated since her mother had left. Not that I was dating Josie, but I’d had the woman, and that made her off-limits to Lindy.

“No.”

“What? Why? There’s a line to be seated, and we haven’t ordered yet.”

Without waiting for me to come up with a plausible lie, my daughter raised her hand and waved to Josie.

I was busy fighting back a groan of irritation, but still, I didn’t miss Josie’s startled response. Her wave in return was much less enthusiastic than my daughter’s.

“Lindy,” I scowled when she started motioning Josie to our table.

“Stop being weird, Dad.”