Page 67 of Singled Out
The party had tuckered Danny right out. He fell asleep practically the second I put him in his crib.
Since I’d sweated like a pig during the volleyball game, I grabbed the monitor and headed for the shower. With my mind still on Harper, I turned the water to cold and stood under the spray long enough to shampoo and soap up.
As I was drying off, my phone dinged with a message. I walked to the counter where it was sitting and saw Harper’s name. The benefits of the cold shower wore off in a millisecond.
Is Danny in bed yet?
He is. He was nearly asleep on the short ride home.
Almost a minute passed before the three bubbles appeared. Like a dumb ass, I stood there and watched the screen instead of pulling on sweats. My blood was pounding through me by the time her next message came through.
Can I stop by? I have some questions.
My radar went off. Questions was damn close to We need to talk.
And yet my dick went hard anyway.
That’s fine.
With my heart rate elevated, I wrapped a towel around my waist and hurried to the other side of the house to make sure Danny was still asleep. He hadn’t moved. I watched out of habit to make sure his chest went up and down, then ducked out.
The next second, there was a light knock at the front door.
I checked out the peephole to make sure it was Harper. My dick went even harder at the sight of her. She was still in her bikini, with the skirt back on. Even now, I could see her perfectly in my mind’s eye in that two-piece swimsuit. It wasn’t particularly skimpy, was appropriate for an office beach party, but she was perfection in it.
For a moment, I considered pulling on pants.
Against my better judgment, I opened the door and let her in as I was.
“Hi,” she said, her gaze going to the tented towel, her brows going up. When she made eye contact, her pupils were enlarged.
“I just got out of the shower.”
Harper pressed her lips together and nodded, seeming to withdraw. She breezed past me and went toward the living room. By the time I locked the door and followed, she’d sat on the chair. Not the sectional.
I lowered myself to the edge of the middle cushion of the sectional, my jets good and cooled from her standoffishness. I kept my eyes locked on hers, doing my damnedest to ignore the rest of her body.
“What’s going on?” I asked, leaning forward, elbows on my knees.
“Why don’t you trust me with Danny?” she blurted.
I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came to me at first. I tilted my head, puzzling over the question. “I trust you. I wouldn’t have left him in your care during the game if I didn’t.”
“That’s not the impression you gave off.”
“What impression did I give off?”
“It was clear you didn’t want me to watch him. Your hesitation was embarrassing. I might not have a lot of practice with kids, but I’d never let anything hurt Danny.”
I stared at her, stunned. “I…” I closed my mouth, ran my hands over my face, realized I needed to level with her. “First, let’s get something straight. I trust you with my son.”
She narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe me.
“I’ve left him with you twice now. If I didn’t trust you, that never would’ve happened.”
“Then why did you act like that?”
I glanced out the window at the black night, my eyes drawn to her reflection. “I don’t want Danny to get attached to you, Harper,” I finally said on an exhalation. “He likes you. He seems to like you more than he likes most people. The fact that he went with you willingly tonight?” I shook my head. “He’s never done that with anyone outside my immediate family.”