Page 19 of Summer with the Single Dad

They were in the middle of the road now, stopped, and he was holding her, gazing down with amused interest and a cute smirk on his full lips.

“I …” She pulled out her earbuds and let them drape over her shoulders, since she preferred the ones with a cord that wrapped around the back of her neck. “You just startled me.”

“I did? But you turned around and saw me. You knew I was coming up behind you. How could I startle you?”

“I …” Heat filled her cheeks, and when she realized he still had her by an elbow and they were basically chest-to-chest, her entire body caught fire. She quickly stepped away from him, probably too far, which was a different kind of awkward now, and prompted him to quirk a brow at her. “I didn’t know it was you. The fog … I just knew it was a runner and hoped you weren’t a serial killer.”

His smirk curled into a full-fledged grin, followed by a bark of a laugh that absolutely should not have made her nipples pebble, but it did. “A serial killer?”

She shrugged. “They’re usually the last person you expect.”

“We haven’t had any serial killers on the island—Oh wait, never mind. I guess the chick who tried to kill Brooke was technically a serial killer. But she’s dead so, all good.”

Justine’s mouth dropped open, and she just stared at him.

“Uh … anyway, didn’t mean to spook you by sneaking up on you or telling you about the serial killer. Who, I’ll emphasize again, is dead.” He jerked his chin in the direction they were both running. “Shall we keep going? Do you want to finish running together, or should I leave you to it?”

“I …”

Run with him. He’s hot. He’s funny. He’s smart and kind. And he runs. Tad didn’t run. Tad ridiculed you for running. Said it was pointless and that you should participate in a real sport, like tennis or golf. RUN. WITH. HIM.

She nodded. “Sure, we can run together.”

If it was even possible, his smile grew bigger and some of the fog lifted, making the morning just a fraction brighter. It had to be a coincidence, though.

He’d removed his earbuds too. The same style as hers that draped over the back of his neck and connected via magnets across his chest. She didn’t put hers back in because she didn’t want to be rude, and they set off at a steady lope.

“So, do you run every morning?” he asked, smiling down at her.

“I do, yeah. Do you?”

“I take Sundays off. But otherwise, yeah, every morning I’m out here at five before the girls are up. My brother, Jagger, comes and sleeps on the couch, so the kids aren’t home alone. I know they’re probably fine, and they stay home alone when we’re all at work. But it just feels different when they’re sleeping.”

God, he was a good dad.

And of course, that just made him all the more appealing. All the sexier.

Crap.

All she did was smile, because what she wanted to do was fling herself into his arms and tell him how sexy he was and that she had the oddest desire to lick the bead of sweat off his upper lip.

“Do you run marathons or anything?” he asked as they continued to jog side-by-side. Even their strides were in tandem now.

She shook her head. “I just run to clear my mind. For health. It’s good for the cardiovascular system.”

“You’ve mentioned the heart a few times now. Do you have heart disease in your family or something?”

She blinked at him, which meant she wasn’t staring straight ahead and caused her to veer right and they bumped shoulders.

“Sorry, that was maybe a bit too personal.” He shifted away from her. “I didn’t mean—”

“I was a surgeon. A cardiothoracic surgeon.”

“Was?”

“Yes. Was.” She made sure he knew she was shutting that conversation down before it even had a chance to grow wings.

“Ah, okay then. So … what kind of hobbies do you have?”

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