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I gnaw at my thumb. “No. Only as a friend. She’s never ever seen me go on a date.” I rub my hands over my head and down the curls I spent an hour setting. “It’s important Ainsley knows that my life is complete with her in it and that I don’t need a man to feel validated.”
“Validation isn’t the same as loved.”
“Luke, you’re making me nervous. I feel like you’re going to say the wrong thing in front of her. Eric might say something insinuating that he and I are more than we are. I don’t know why I thought this would work. I shouldn’t be going out.” My hands rest on my stomach as I curl my brow. “Calling and canceling is definitely the thing to do.”
As I’m reaching over to get my phone, his hands rest on my shoulders and gives them a light squeeze. The heat of his hands warms my body instantly, and I stop in my tracks. As his forehead lowers, he penetrates me with his intense gaze, and I find myself being rendered speechless.
My heart, however, is about to barrel out of my chest.
“Breathe, Jillian,” he croons, and my lips part, letting out a tight breath.
I feel my chest lifting powerfully high with the deep gasps that follow and settle them into my solar plexus.
Luke’s eyes remain on mine.
“It’s going to be okay,” he says. “Ainsley and I are gonna make dinner, play a few games, and then curl up with Joe and watch a movie on the list of preferred strong-feminist-heroine films you wrote down for me—as well as the number to every doctor in a ten-mile radius, her eating habits even though I have the same allergy, her bedtime routine, quirks and interests, and asterisked points, including no cursing, which I already broke.”
My shoulders fall with his words, but I open my mouth to argue, to which he hushes me again.
“You look too pretty tonight to let it go to waste because of a man like me.”
“What kind of man are you?”
“The kind that, for a moment, was gonna let you stay home and call off your date because, while I have no right to, I am insanely jealous that a man is going to take you out tonight and it’s not me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I have no fucking clue.”
“Language, Luke.”
He glances over his shoulder at the little girl and tomcat, who are too busy rolling around on the floor to notice our conversation.
Luke turns back to me. “The rule isno cursing in front of Ainsley. When it comes to you, I want to say all the good words. Includingfuck. A lot.”
My eyes roll to the ceiling as I let out an exasperated sigh. Of all the men to procreate with, it had to be the one who draws me in like no other and makes me want to slap him at the same time. My body ignites when I’m next to him, and it’s unfair to my heart. I’d push him away and out of my life forever, but I have to make this work for Ainsley’s sake.
The doorbell rings, and I gasp. “I told him to call and I’d come out. He shouldn’t be at the door.”
Ainsley rushes past me and Luke and barrels tower the door. Joe gallops behind her and hops up onto the banister of the staircase.
“Hey, what did your mother say about opening the door to strangers?” he reprimands, and I stare at him in disbelief. He shrugs. “Told you I read the note.”
Shaking my head, I turn to Ainsley and usher her away from the door. “Only adults open the door.”
Her tiny lips pucker for a kiss, and then Luke picks her up, taking a step back from the door as I open it.
Eric Hollenford is on the front porch in a dark suit, pin-stripe shirt, no tie, and shiny brown loafers. His short hair is combed back, and he gives that smile I’m sure works on all his patients to put them at ease before a long surgery.
His eyes stay on my face and don’t do that long, pausing appraisal of my body the way Luke’s did. It sets me at ease.
“You look lovely.”
Eric’s words are followed by a snicker from behind me. A deep, gruff snicker from a man with a preschooler in his arms. The two look like twins as they giggle. I thought they were disappearing, not staying for an introduction.
I lower my brows at them and then turn back to Eric. “Sorry. Eric, this is Luke and my daughter, Ainsley.”
“You’re as cute as your mom said you were,” Eric says, smiling at Ainsley, to which she smiles back.
