Page 39 of Taming the Boss

He clung to her arm with one hand and his fuzzy unicorn throw with the other, peering around her to look at me as if he wasn’t sure what I was still doing there.

I wasn’t sure, either.

Or no, he was looking at our clasped hands. Maybe he didn’t want to share Maddie with his boring old dad.

Surprising me, she shifted my hold on her hand until she was grasping my arm just as Owen had done with her. I didn’t mind that either, especially since the altered position made her curve her body into mine. Her curves were modest, but somehow just perfect.

Just like the rest of her.

She snuggled into me as she continued talking about this Bubble thing, occasionally glancing up at me as we walked as if she was making sure I was still following the conversation.

Little did she know I was riveted. Not by the cartoon, but by listening to her talk, occasionally pausing to giggle over the antics of some character or another. And to swipe her tongue over her lips in a casual way that affected me not casually at all.

I just liked hearing her talk, just as my son seemed to.

“So, you’ll watch with us when we go home?”

“Huh?”

“Watch with us, silly.” She poked my belly as I’d seen her do with my son and my inconvenient erection picked that time to rear against my trousers. Her gaze dipped momentarily and then her playful grin turned wicked. “Maybe Owen will share his new throw with us. What do you think?” She shifted to look at my son while my mind whirled with salacious images that weren’t appropriate for children.

Surely she hadn’t meant what it had seemed like. She hadn’t been suggesting we could cozy up beneath his new fuzzy blanket and…not watch the cartoon at all.

I pondered that possibility for a moment or two until I noticed Owen had a new preoccupation—the old-fashioned claw toy machine outside of Food Lion.

Which we were now stopped in front of. Dammit.

No more strolling about together while Maddie put strangely arousing pictures in my head that had absolutely nothing to do with cartoon guppies of all things.

And I hadn’t ever answered her.

“I’ll watch with you,” I said suddenly while she hoisted him up on her hip again.

“I want that one.” Owen jabbed his finger at the machine.

“I’ll watch with you,” I repeated while he continued to point and take up all her attention.

Inwardly, I smothered a sigh. Moment gone.

Maddie continued to discuss with Owen which was the best toy in the machine and then once he’d settled on a large blue fish with purple spots—sea life was apparently the theme of the day—she set him down on the sidewalk, much to his consternation.

I know the feeling, buddy.

“I’m sorry, pal, but I need my hands free to try to grab the fish. Though I kind of suck at this, but what the heck, we’ll give it a go, right? Now let’s see if I have ones. Actually, let me use my change first.” She fumbled out her wallet and dug through it, finally scrounging through her change purse to come up with two quarters.

I didn’t know how far that would get her, but she dropped them in the machine and then rolled her shoulders as if she was a boxer limbering up for a fight. “Okay. Don’t have much money to play with so let’s see if the magic is with me today.”

After a large ding accompanied by a series of flashing lights, she started manipulating the joystick-looking thing on the machine to try to get the claw to move toward the large fish my son was jumping and pointing to, as if somehow she’d missed the one he wanted. She caught her tongue between her teeth and gave it her best effort, seeming to almost break a sweat from her efforts.

She did not get the fish. Owen looked crestfallen.

“Let me try.”

She slid me a sidelong look. “Are you good at this?”

“I’ve never tried.”

Her big blue eyes popped wide. “Never? Not even when you were a kid?” Then she firmly tucked her tongue in her cheek. “You were a kid once, right? Back in the Stone Age?”

---