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I glance at Zoey, her face pale as she stops in the middle of the living room like she doesn’t know how to handle this situation.
So I take the lead. “Hailee, adults don’t really do sleepovers—”
“But what if Daddy comes back and he’s angry?” she questions. Her face is sad and droopy, and a tear is teetering on the edge of her eyelid.
Fuck.
I can’t tell if Hailee is playing us, but if she is, she’s doing a damn good job.
Craning my neck to the side, I glance back at Zoey and shrug. “I can take the sofa.”
She begins to walk back to us, carrying the cupcakes. “Are you sure?”
Nodding, I sink into the soft cushions. “Yeah, I want to spend the morning with you guys. Let’s have pancakes for breakfast. Then we can do something tomorrow? Just the three of us.”
Zoey smiles as Hailee bounces on her toes. “Yay! I have some ideas. I will make a plan for us,” Hailee says, then takes off running like all is forgotten.
“Hailee, your cupcake?” Zoey calls out, but Hailee is gone, off to plan our adventure tomorrow.
Zoey finally sits beside me, and I relax my shoulders. We need to talk about what happened outside. “So?”
She weakly smiles. “So… I got carried away. I shouldn’t have kissed you like that—”
“What are you talking about? Yeah, you should have. It was fucking amazing, Zoe—”
“Blake, the fact we work together and Nash doesn’t want our work interfered with is an issue for me. I got swept up in the intensity of the moment. It won’t happen again. We need to keep this as strictly an arrangement between us.”
My stomach flips, and my chest squeezes at the thought. “Zoey, no. We’re good together. I adore Hailee. We can make this wor—”
“Blake, stop! Ican’tlose my job. I have to think about providing for Hailee. That’s my number one priority. I’ve got to make sure she’s taken care of. I can’t think about whatIwant or whatIdesire.”
Well, fuck! I can’t deny her that.
“Then we stick to the arrangement… for Hailee.”
She inhales sharply, but nods. “For Hailee.”
As much as I hate it, I understand one hundred percent.
Smiling, I stare into her eyes. “It was one hell of a first kiss, though.”
Her smile lights up the room as her eyes drop to her lap in embarrassment. “Yeah… it was amazing. It just can’t happen again.”
“I hear you… but I’m going to need at least two cupcakes to compensate.”
Zoey chuckles and slides over the cupcake box. “That Icanhelp you with.”
It’s going to be a long-ass night, knowing she will be asleep in the room down the hall, and I can’t slip inside and finish what we started.
But Zoey has put this whole thing into perspective and has really driven it home.
We may want each other.
We may have an intense connection.
But the most important factor is always going to be Hailee.
And neither one of us wants to compromise that.
