Page 37 of Guardian Daddy

“I didn’t think you would. I just . . . I’m not used to, uh, reading with someone. I’m not very good at interacting with other people. Except for Rhodes.”

“How about we don’t talk then? We can just sit and read.”

That she could do. “All right.”

“What are you reading?” he asked as she sat down.

She shot him a look. “I thought we weren’t talking.”

He grinned. “You’re right. My apologies. I’ll be quiet now.”

“I’m starting to wonder whether that’s actually possible for you.”

He started laughing. “Good one.”

“Good, what?” she asked as she settled on a lounger. There was a blanket on the end. She wondered where it had come from.

“Good joke.”

“I didn’t make a joke.”

Strangely, his grin just grew wider.

Men. She really didn’t understand them.

To her shock, he grabbed the blanket, then flicked it out and placed it over her.

Had he put this blanket out here? For her?

“I’ve noticed that you seem to feel the cold,” he explained. “Even in this weather.”

“Thank you,” she managed to get out. For some reason her throat felt swollen.

She hoped she wasn’t getting ill.

There was also a strange swooping sensation in her stomach. Like the time that Rhodes convinced her to ride the roller coaster at the fair with him. She’d been fourteen at the time, and as soon as she’d gotten off, she’d vomited all over his shoes.

But she didn’t think she wanted to vomit.

Deciding that she’d try to ignore the sensations filling her as well as the man next to her, Cate opened her latest book.

They’d been reading for half an hour when he stood. She’d taken a glimpse at his paperback. It was a science-fiction novel. Which she was confident wouldn’t be as interesting as her book. It was about a man who returned from the dead to find his wife with a new husband.

“I’m going to have a swim, then do a perimeter check,” he told her. “What do you want for dinner?”

“I’ve got a microwave meal I can heat up.”

“You’re not heating up a microwave meal,” he informed her in a strangely firm voice.

He seemed to use that tone of voice around her a lot. She had no idea why. Did he really have such a strong opinion about microwave meals?

“I can heat one up for you too,” she offered. That was the polite thing to do, right?

“No. No microwave dinners, they’re not good for you. I’ll make us dinner.”

“You cook?” She glanced up at him in surprise.

Wait. When had he taken his shirt off?

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