Page 17 of Worth the Vow

Interrupting him, I blurt out, “I asked them to switch Greyson to another class, and they agreed. Once Greyson’s parents are notified, he’ll be moved. Her hair was pulled at recess, so now an extra aide watches the kids when they’re outside. Greyson rides a bus, so they aren’t in the same space before, or after, school. It sounded like he’ll also be working with the school psychologist to address why pulling Aspen’s hair is unacceptable.”

Dominic looks momentarily chagrined. I know he was about to tell me off, that I’m not her mother, and I should have referred the school back to him. But I also know he’s been incredibly busy at work, and it was an issue I could handle.

“Dinner is almost ready. Everyone go wash your hands, please,” Dominic says as he clears his throat. Once the children run back upstairs, he turns to me. “Katharine, I —”

“Oh, wow, I completely forgot, I said I’d cover for Kristie at the bar tonight. I have to go. Have a good night!” I frantically grab my phone and wallet, which were both sitting near the door, and quickly run out to my car. When I see Dominic follow me out, I start the car, throw it in reverse, and peel out of his driveway. I don’t know what he was going to say, but I don’t want to hear any of it.

I know I’m not their mother. But I love these kids, and I’d do anything for them. Whenever Dominic and I argue, I’m always wondering if he’ll cross that imaginary barrier and remind me of where I actually stand in their lives. Clearly I have some abandonment issues, because my biggest fear is Dominic finding someone, and dropping me at the bus stop on the edge of town. What I can’t comprehend is whether my actual fear is based on being abandoned by the kids, or Dominic potentially falling in love.

“Why are you here on a weeknight?” Kristie asks when I slink into the bar.

“Needed a valid reason to escape,” I mumble.

“Single dad problems?” she muses. Kristie was born and raised in Eternity Springs, so she knows the Santo family. A few years older than Dominic, she’s married to her high school sweetheart, Casey, and together, they run this bar. I stopped in here one night because I found the name so humorous. Eternity’s Elixirs. I love a good alliteration.

My mind isn’t completely wrapped up in thinking about the argument with Dominic. The pain in my stomach has been consistent since I left his house, and my experience with PCOS says it’s a cyst. What sucks the most about it is all the crazy side effects no one really tells you about PCOS. It impacted my body even more, causing hellacious acne, irregular periods, weight gain, and excessive body hair in my teens. Because really, as if being a teenager isn’t hard enough, I had to do it with weird patches of fur where I shouldn’t have any. Okay, it wasn’t fur. But it felt like that to me. I had to go on birth control when I had barely even kissed a guy, and rumors ran rampant around school that I was a whore.

Teenagers are so lovely.

Honestly, I didn’t have time to date, much less sleep around. I was too busy taking care of my mom.

I sigh as I nod. “Got into a big argument and we didn’t realize his kids were listening.”

“What was the argument about?” she asks.

As I’m about to tell her, I have an odd feeling of protectiveness. Regardless of how I feel about Dominic, I don’t want others getting mad at him too. Furthermore, I’d feel incredibly guilty if other people had a poor opinion of him based on my gossiping. I’m also aware that I accidentally goaded Dominic into giving me his opinion on women, and I don’t feel as if it’s something other people should know.

“It doesn’t matter. I just needed to get out of there for a bit,” I tell her. “Is Casey working the grill tonight? I’m starving. I ran out right at dinner.”

“He is. You want your usual?” Kristie asks with a smirk.

Nodding, I grab my purse to give her my debit card. She smacks it away, adding, “my treat tonight, babe.”

“Oh, no. I want to pay.”

“Well, I want a million bucks. We don’t always get what we want,” she says with a broad wink as she heads back to the kitchen to give my order to her husband.

We don’t always get what we want.

Yeah, because I want Dominic.

Woah. Where the hell did that thought come from?

I do not want my boss. I do not want my boss.

A momentary thought of him smiling at me like he does at his kids, and I realize something incredibly important.

Maybe I do want my boss, and that means I’m in big trouble.

I hang at the bar until around closing, then make my way back to Dominic’s house. I love his house. It’s so picturesque and cute. Very suburban family, with a railed-in covered porch on the front, white shutters bordering every window, and a wooden fence surrounding the backyard. Noticing all the lights are off, I sigh in relief. I feared Dominic might wait up for me after I tucked my tail and ran out of here.

Carefully tiptoeing into the house, I’m almost to the basement door when I remember I left my phone charger next to the couch where I was sitting when Dominic and I began arguing. I know my way around the house in the dark, but I trip over something and land half on the couch, catching myself on the back cushions as my knees hit the floor. But the couch seems to be warm, and moving.

“Shit,” I mutter.

“Katharine,” Dominic whispers, his arms clamping around me, and I still. He sighs, obviously asleep, and I relax in relief. I’ve never been this close to him. This close I can smell his cologne, mostly gone after a long day, but with an element that must be Dominic himself adding to the woodsy muskiness of the scent. I’ll admit, I snuck into his bedroom once to find the cologne and smell it straight from the bottle. I wanted to know what I was smelling in the air after he’d leave for work. Cedarwood, vetiver, and bergamot. But smelling it on him is a high unlike anything else. I find myself carefully lowering my head so I can sniff his neck.

Good God. I have to stop myself from extending my tongue to taste him. This is so not appropriate employer-employee behavior. As I’m attempting to remove myself from his lap, Dominic slides a hand up into my hair and winds the strands around his fingers. Tingles skitter up and down my spine, and when he pulls, I can’t stop the moan that releases from deep in my chest.

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