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No.
She wouldn’t be foolish a second time. This time she would save herself a lot of heartache by just not letting anything happen between her and Dominic.
Busying herself with adjusting Joshua on her arm, she said, “I’ve gotta go.” She headed for the door. “If I don’t get him to my mom soon so I can get dressed for work, I’ll be late.”
“Not going to let me kiss you goodbye?”
The unexpected offer of another kiss stopped her where she stood. But another kiss was wrong for so many reasons even the thought was ridiculous. So ridiculous that maybe his question was intended to be silly. Foolish. Just fun. Just flirting. Not real.
She took a breath, tipped her head sideways and smiled. “No.”
He laughed. “Right. At least let me kiss Joshua.”
He stepped over, placed one hand on Joshua’s back and balanced the other on Audra’s shoulder. Leaning in, he pressed a soft kiss to Joshua’s round, pink cheek, and Joshua squealed with delight.
Over the baby’s head, Dominic caught her gaze. The odd sensation she’d had when she’d returned from her shower spun a web around her again. The sense of warmth and comfort. The cozy, honest feeling of being a family. Of belonging together.
But instead of being heartened, another terrible realization struck her. Neither she nor Dominic was Joshua’s natural parent, but the three of them were bonding. Not just Dominic and Joshua. Not just her and Dominic. But the three of them. Almost like family. She knew Dominic felt it, too, when his eyes narrowed and he pulled away. That was only going to make it harder for all of them when she left.
Yet another reason to keep her distance. If she didn’t watch what happened between them in the time she spent at Dominic’s home, they would form a family of sorts and then Joshua would lose another “mom and dad.”
But how would she avoid the man she was living with, the man she ate dinner with, the man who needed the boost of confidence she gave him when he was with the baby?
She wouldn’t. So maybe the real solution was to make him see just how wrong they were for each other so that he became as cautious around her as she intended to be around him.
That night when Dominic came home, Audra was waiting at the door with Joshua. “Good evening.”
He shrugged out of his top coat. “Good evening.”
“Wanna take him?”
Though he was tired, Dominic had to admit it was nice to see the fresh face of his happy nephew. He smiled slightly. The kid wouldn’t be in a good mood every night, so this might be the only chance he got to do the right thing when it was easy. Besides, he was leaving in a few hours. He would be gone even before it was time to put Joshua to bed.
“Sure.”
He took the baby, and Audra led him into the dining room. “I had Joyce make fettuccine Alfredo for you tonight.”
“You know my favorite food?”
She laughed. “I asked.”
Her laughter broke the stupor of his exhaustion like a ray of sun dissipating fog. He walked to his seat at the head of the table. “You know this stuff is a heart attack on a plate.”
She leaned toward him and whispered, “One night won’t hurt.”
“Luckily, I have a treadmill in my office.”
She laughed again but Dominic saw the high chair beside his place at the table and froze. The last time he’d tried to put Joshua in the high chair he’d made a mess of things.
Before he could say anything, Audra reached over and took the baby from his arms. “I know you probably want to let him sit on your lap, but he’d have his fingers in your food at some point and I think that could get a little messy.”
Dominic breathed an internal sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“Hey, it’s my job to make your life easier.”
He chuckled. Funny how she hadn’t noticed that before. Or had she? When he really thought about it, she’d been the one to do all the baby duty, except if he volunteered. When she pressed him, it was only to get him to spend time with his nephew.
He took a breath. Audra seated herself and said, “How was your day?”
“Exhausting.”
“Are you ready for your trip out of town?”
“Barely.”
She laughed. “We’re not going to have much of a conversation, if you don’t say more than one-word answers.”
If she hadn’t laughed when she’d said it, Dominic might have felt pressured. Instead he relaxed. “You’re right.”
“Two words!”
This time he laughed. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I like hearing about your life.”
“Right.”
“I’m serious. You come from an entirely different kind of world than I do. Your approach to everything is different. Even our thought processes don’t work the same. What’s commonplace to you would probably be interesting to me.”
