Page 53 of You Fall First

“On that note. Take this.” I push the pizza box at Jo, and as our hands touch, a zing of electricity ricochets up my forearms. Like when you shuffle around in socks on carpet and touch something metallic.

Jo leaps back like she’s touched a hot stove. “Ooh!”

I release a nervous chuckle. “Shock.”

She pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. “So I was thinking …” Her voice trails off, and curiosity pings inside me. I knew she had something on her mind.

“Thinking what?”

“That I should come over tomorrow to help with Dutton again. And I should keep helping until Paige gets here.” She gazes up at me. “That way you can work like normal, live as normally as possible, for the next couple of weeks.”

The ping of curiosity morphs into hope, but if Jo Michaels spends more time with us, I’m a little worried each day could turn into one long string of electric shocks.

Not just worried.

Pretty certain.

“Come on.” I chuck her on the shoulder, like I would with a buddy I’m teasing. “You must have better things to do.” Not a refusal of her offer. A hesitation.

“If by better you mean eating cereal and binge-watching Love Island …”

Her lips curve up, and I drop my gaze to Dutton. He’s leaning against my legs, one arm hooked around my knee. His eyes are hollow and droopy from a day of coping with his mother’s absence. From days of dealing with her being gone. Until Paige arrives, my focus should be on him. Not on the shockwaves caused by potential skin-to-skin contact with Dexter’s little sister.

Then again, I can’t exactly bring the kid to work with me every day.

“The thing is, I want to help,” she insists, putting extra pepper on the word want. “Until my training starts at Mockingbird, I’ll be home all day, every day, at my parents’ house. And I can’t start a new job between now and then. So, for now, I’m feeling … useless.”

There’s a tug at my ribs. “Useless is the last thing you are.”

“I don’t exactly have a purpose.”

Oh, man. When she frames it that way, I can’t refuse. I don’t want to refuse. But this is the kind of help people offer close friends, not acquaintances. And getting closer to Jo is a slippery slope. My best play is to position this as a strictly professional arrangement.

“So basically, you’re looking for a temporary job.” I scratch my beard. “As Dutton’s caretaker.”

“I hadn’t thought of it as work, but sure.”

“Then I’ll pay you.”

“No.” Her brows contract. “You don’t have to pay me, Noah.”

“Well, I can’t accept free labor.”

She screws up her face. “Labor?”

“If I hired someone off a babysitting app, they’d expect compensation for watching a four-year-old all day.”

“Of course, because they’d be a stranger.”

“And I’m not gonna take advantage of the fact that you and I know each other through your brother.” I shrug. “What do you think Dex would say if I told him you volunteered to hang around with Dutton for the next two weeks?”

A tiny smirk lifts her lips. “He’d probably argue that I should be paying you.”

“Well, that’s not gonna happen,” I insist.

“To be fair, helping you gives me an excuse to be out of my parents’ house every day.” She huffs a laugh. “That’s like a genuine Christmas bonus.”

“Then how about I leave you a couple hundred bucks every morning to cover whatever you do with Dutton during the day? Food. Activities. Band-Aids.”