Page 77 of Bad Professor

Tilly walks me to the door. I can hear the girls arguing about the bathroom and it makes me smile.

I never expected anything about teenage girls to make me smile—unless, of course, I was a teenage boy.

“That went so well.” Tilly is almost hopping with excitement. I can think of a few other things I could do to get her so excited.

Stand down, I instruct myself. Not with the girls here.

“So well,” she adds with a mischievous gleam in her eye. “That it makes me want to drag you into my bedroom for a moment to show you how much I appreciate you being so good with them this weekend.”

No standing down after that. “Well, if you do that, I’d want to show you how much I appreciate you letting me meet them,” I tell her, unable to resist pulling her close.

“We could show each other,” she offers.

“That would take much longer than a moment.” I kiss her forehead, before checking down the hall to make sure no one is watching. Then I really kiss her.

And Tilly goes along with it. Quite the change from Friday night.

Still, I pull back. “I love you,” I tell her in a low voice. “And I think it would be very easy to love your daughters.”

The look in Tilly’s eyes puffs my chest like I’ve run a marathon up a mountain.

“I think I fell in love with you all over again,” she whispers, blinking against the sudden wetness.

“Ok.” I squeeze her waist. “I’ll have to show you how much I appreciate that as well. Tomorrow?”

She nods. “Can’t wait.”

“For me to show you things?”

She slaps gently at my chest. “For you.”

With another kiss, she pushes me out the door.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.

42

Tilly

The next night, I wait impatiently for Dexter to come over. The girls are safe at Carlos’s, and after such a good weekend with them, I should want more time with them.

And I do. But right now, I want time with Dexter just a little more.

My smile widens when I finally hear the key in the lock. Dexter is early. I gave him a key a few weeks ago, feeling that it had been such a big step.

It had been, but his winning over the girls so quickly was even bigger. And now tonight…

But when I go to greet Dexter at the door, wearing only a thin robe with nothing underneath, it’s not Dexter who has let himself in.

“Carlos! What are you doing here?” I demand, tightening my robe around my waist.

My ex-husband’s mouth is tight, eyes cold. “I need to talk to you.”

The frisson of fear is automatic. “The girls?”

Carlos frowns. “They’re fine.”

I clutch my chest. “Don’t scare me like that. What’s going on? And since when do you have a key to my apartment?”

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