Page 32 of Guardian Daddy

“We still need to spend some more time together. I was serious about that.”

“Uh, no, we don’t. Really. If there is an issue, I assure you that I will do as you say. I don’t have time to spend with you. I have work to do.”

“You need to relax and have fun as well. You can’t work all the time.”

She could try.

Also, he was very bossy.

“What do you like to do for fun?” he asked.

Curl up in her closet with Lady, a sexy book, and her blankie. Maybe her pacifier if she needed some extra comfort.

But she wasn’t going to tell him that.

“I read.”

There. Surely that would shut him up. She had a hobby. And it wasn’t something that he could insist on doing with her.

“I like to read. We can read together. Later this afternoon, after your brother leaves, we’ll sit by the pool and read.”

Sit by the pool and read?

No. She didn’t think so.

“I don’t read by the pool.”

Didn’t he realize the damage that sunbathing could do? Or the risks of melanoma from being exposed to the sun?

“It will help you relax and get some fresh air. You rarely go outside. You need some Vitamin D or you’re going to get ill.”

“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern. But I don’t need any Vitamin D or to spend time with you.”

“I’ll meet you by the pool at four-thirty,” he countered as if he hadn’t even heard her. “Don’t be late or I’ll have to come looking for you.”

No way that was happening. She was not spending time with him. And he couldn’t make her.

At least, that’s what she told herself.

9

Knocking on her office door startled her. Cate put down the report she’d been reading and glanced at the time. It was only four and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Honestly, she’d been on edge all day ever since encountering Ethan in the kitchen this morning.

He’d defended her.

He’d been worried about her cutting her feet.

He’d lifted her onto the counter.

Those sorts of things just didn’t happen in her world. Every man she knew would have fallen over their own feet trying to please Samantha. Especially when she was wearing a bikini.

Ethan hadn’t even really glanced at her.

Oh. Maybe he wasn’t into women. Shoot. She was an idiot. Why hadn’t she thought of that?

Well, that was embarrassing. Had she been getting hot and bothered over a man who was gay?

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