Page 61 of Vanishing Legacy
“Or you could quit.”
“Yeah, okay.” She slid her hands around his neck. “I’ll do that.”
Alana kissed him then.
He pulled her closer and kissed her back. His fingers in her hair, he massaged her head. If there had been any doubt before, any room for wondering, it had evaporated. He was completely hers.
Cash wasn’t sure how long they kissed before they parted with one last soft kiss to her temple. Alana’s eyes shone with a myriad of emotions. His thumb traced the curves of her face as he looked into her eyes. “Wow, I think I could do that forever.”
Alana leaned closer, her breath warm against his cheek. “Well, maybe that could be arranged.” Her lips feathered his ear.
“Is that right?”
“Mm-hmm.”
He leaned to kiss Alana again, but a small voice interrupted him. “Daddy? I thirsty.”
He stared at Alana, wide-eyed. “You think she saw us?”
“We both saw you,” Rocco said. “And you were kissing! Does this mean you’re getting married?”
SIXTEEN
FRIDAY, 6:30 A.M.
Okay, so kissing Cash? Not her smartest move. Kissing Cash with the kids asleep a few feet away? That ranked right up there with hanging from the hot air balloon. Now she’d gotten herself in to a real mess.
Yep. Spaghetti all over the place.
Still, as Alana packed extra supplies for Rocco’s insulin pump, she listened for sounds of him stirring in his room. How was she going to explain why kissing Cash didn’t mean they were getting married, or even dating, without sending the message that it meant nothing? The last thing she wanted was to raise a son to believe physical intimacy should be expressed outside the bounds of marriage.
She zipped Rocco’s backpack and looked up. Her sleepy son staggered out of his room.
“Morning, bud.”
He waved with one hand and rubbed his eye with the other. “What time are we leaving?”
“Soon as you eat.” She nodded to the plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and strawberries waiting on the breakfast table. “I packed some extra supplies and snacks in your backpack for the robotics competition. Noelle will pick you up from Cash’s house and bring you back when it’s over.”
“Cool.” He sat and snagged a piece of bacon. “Is Jonah going with us?”
Noelle and Jonah took Rocco on nights when Alana worked late. Noelle insisted there wasn’t anything romantic between them, but sometimes Alana thought Rocco was their idea of a chaperone. “I’m not sure, but won’t your friend Ivy be there?”
“Yeah, but she’s not really my friend. She’s in high school now.”
Alana paused. “Wait, aren’t you about the same age?”
“Mom, she’s really smart,” he said, as if that explained everything. “So, was last night kinda like your first date with Cash?”
Alana looked up from Rocco’s phone, where she’d been thumbing through his monitoring app. Oh, he was going there already? Okay, then. “We need to talk about what you saw last night. I do like Cash a lot, and if things were different, we’d probably date each other. But it’s dangerous to have feelings for a client. It’s my job to keep him and Penny safe, not go on dates. The last thing I want to do is jeopardize their lives because I’m too wrapped up in my feelings.”
“No way. You’re like, the best bodyguard ever. You can do both.”
He wasn’t getting it. She put a hand on his shoulder. “No, I can’t. Not at the same time. It’s unprofessional.”
He pushed his eggs around the plate with his fork. “Yeah, but I like spending time with you and Cash and Penny. I like feeling like we’re all in this together. I don’t want to go back to…to just us.”
“I know what you mean. This last week has been pretty great.” She pulled out a chair and sat beside Rocco, forearms on the table. “Can we make a deal?”