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Gabe had never been good at small talk, so he got right to the point. “I’ll be honest. I’ve always had a hard time passing Ruby off to a babysitter. I don’t do well with handing over control like that with anything, but especially not with her.”
The last time he thoughtlessly surrendered control the worst had happened, and there was no way in hell he’d ever let it happen again. But out of sheer necessity there was no way he could get around his childcare issue any longer. Whether he liked the idea or not, he needed to trust other people to care for Ruby when he couldn’t.
Up until now, he’d only trusted three people with his daughter: his father, his sister, and Sean. Because, first of all, they knew his past and had been with him every step of the way. They knew his trauma, his fears, his triggers. They knew how to deal with him and Ruby accordingly.
Second, they were all family. Sean might not be a blood brother, but he was as close as one could get without sharing DNA. Gabe’s dad, for all his own pain and faults, had come to bat countless times after Carrie died. Regardless of what had passed between them before the accident, Gabe had let it go when his dad had shown up at the hospital and sat with him for the three long days they had been there. As for his sister, Lori, she’d taken over the mother role the day their mom had died. She’d mothered him to within an inch of his life, and when Carrie had passed, she swooped in on him and Ruby like a fierce mama bear determined to make sure they had everything they’d needed.
Apart from those three people, and on occasion out of desperation, Ivy, he’d never really let anyone fully into their lives. Which made it hard to secure a reliable, trustworthy caregiver for his child. It was hard to expect trust and reliance when you weren’t willing to give it yourself. And he hadn’t been willing. Still wasn’t. But he knew he had to change that, otherwise he’d keep running into the same problem of rotating through one babysitter after another without any continuity—or security—for Ruby.
When Hope had offered to help, his first thought washell no. But the more time he spent with Hope, the more he suspected she might be a good fit for Ruby. She was calm, but joyful. She had a sense of fun and energy—even if she couldn’t run worth shit. She was tenacious, something he absolutely had not expected from her. She was determined to work hard, for whatever reason, because God knew the daughter of Walter Morgan didn’t need to lift a finger unless she wanted to. And mostly, she was optimistic. Her cup was half full, she saw the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and Ruby could use a lot more of that in her life.
He had judged Hope harshly; he knew that now even if he wasn’t quite ready to admit he was totally wrong about her. However, he conceded that she was so much more than he’d originally thought, and he was willing to give her a chance with his daughter, mostly because the guilt of forcing a six-year-old to spend her evenings locked inside his office was killing him.
“You’re right,” he said, as she sat beside him silently. “Ruby can’t spend every evening sleeping on the couch in my office. So…” He met her gaze.
Her deep-brown eyes stared back at him hopefully.
“You’re hired.”
A smile broke out over her face so wide and genuine he couldn’t help but smile back. “Don’t get too excited,” he warned, when she let out a little squeal of glee. “Ruby is six, she has a ton of energy, and she’s nearly impossible to tire out. She’ll go all day if you let her.”
“No problem,” Hope said confidently. “I’m a pro at coming up with creative ways to entertain kids. It’ll be great! I’ll come over tonight before you go down to work, and I’ll make dinner. Is there anything she doesn’t like to eat?” Before he could answer she went on. “Then I thought we could do some finger painting. You can make the cutest little birds out of thumbprints. But then again if the weather holds, it might be nice to get some fresh air. If you have a car, I could borrow it and drive her out to—”
“No driving.” The words came out immediately, harshly, before he could stop them.
“Oh, but I’m a good driver. Never had an acc—”
“I said, no driving.” Gabe bit out with cold finality.
Hope’s smile froze in place, then confusion crept across her features.
Guilt tugged at him. She had no idea what had happened in his past, and here he was behaving like a massive jerk because she’d offered to do something lovely for his daughter. He took a breath and tried again.
“No one drives with Ruby expect me.” He attempted to sound casual this time, less crazy, but he knew it was too late. She’d caught him off guard, and he forgot himself. “It’s non-negotiable. You can take her anywhere you can go by walking, the bus, or street car, but no driving.”
“Understood,” she said quietly, then busied herself by picking up her donut and taking a bite. She paused midchew, then closed her eyes and moaned. The sound shot southbound through his body.
“Oh. My. God,” she whimpered, licking glaze from her lips.
Relieved that the tension had broken and to have an excuse to change topics, Gabe smiled at her and took a huge bite of his own donut. “Good, right? They’re the best in the city.”
“So good,” Hope said. “Better than s—” She stopped abruptly, blushing.
She looked so cute and embarrassed Gabe laughed. “Uh-uh, nothing is better than that.” He dipped his head so he could catch her eye. “And if it isn’t, then you haven’t been doing it right, princess.”
Her cheeks bloomed into an even deeper shade of pink, and she choked a bit on herbetter-than-sexdonut. Remembering how his body nearly exploded simply from the prospect of kissing her, Gabe couldn’t help thinking what it would be like to have her under him, naked and writhing, moaning his name as he showed her exactly how much better than donuts sex with him could be.
Taking a deep gulp of coffee, he shook the thought from his head, reminding himself he was in no place to be thinking those things about her. He had nothing to offer a woman like Hope Morgan, except a job. Which brought him to his next thought—he needed to broach the topic of the almost-kiss.
“Hope, look, what happened in the bar last night—”
“Don’t worry about that.” She said, shaking her head and licking sugar crumbs off the top of her lip. His eyes dropped to her tongue and followed the movement. Fuck, she was mesmerizing. “We were caught up in the moment. It was a long day, lots happened, high emotions all around. Obviously, it was a mistake.”
Shooting his gaze back to hers, he narrowed his eyes. The wordmistakedidn’t sit right with him. He had wanted to kiss her. He still wanted to kiss her. And he was pretty sure she wanted to as well, but she was about to work for him, and he couldn’t muddy the waters with their mutual lust.
“I was going to say that I really wanted to kiss you last night.” More than he’d wanted to kiss anyone in a long time. “But given our new arrangement I think it’s best if we just keep this about Ruby.” It was the right thing to do. And he really needed to do the right thing here. For both Ruby and Hope.
“Absolutely. Ruby is the priority,” she agreed, nodding excessively. “There will be absolutely no more talk about kissing.” As if to prove that the matter was closed, she started to nervously sweep crumbs up on their table with her napkin.
