Page 2 of Secret Love

She puts her hand on her hip in mock offense. “Awfully what?”

“Awfully proper,” I say, grinning.

“Don’t you know you can’t judge a book by its cover?” She laughs and my heart does that weird thing again.

She’s really pretty when she laughs. And when she doesn’t.

“So, what are you…banker by day and cinnamon roll assassin by night?”

She winks and starts walking away, looking back at me over her shoulder. “Something like that.”

“Do you have a name?” I call.

“Tru,” she calls back.

Tru.I like that.

I’m still smiling, enjoying those long legs and the way her hips are mesmerizing me with that sway, as she rounds the corner.

She peeks her head back down the aisle and I’m caught standing there drooling after her. Shit, that sex dream must have messed with me more than I realized.

“And you are?” she asks.

I blink, loving that she doesn’t have any idea who I am. That’s rare, especially in this town.

“I’m Henley.”

She lifts her hand in a wave. “Bye, Henley.”

I stand there for another minute until I remember that I’m in a hurry. I told the girls I wouldn’t be long at all, and here I am, dilly-dallying in the grocery aisle and lusting after a stranger.

Not a stranger…Tru.

When I get home, I catch myself whistling, pausing when I hear a racket upstairs.

“Girls. Everything okay? I’m back from the store. Come eat.”

Footsteps stampede down the stairs and through the hall, and when they reach the kitchen, all three girls start talking at once.

“Dad, Cassidy took so long in the bathroom, I almost wet my pants,” Gracie whines.

“Audrey was in there just as long,” Cassidy says, rolling her eyes.

“No, I wasn’t!” Audrey glares at Cassidy.

Damn. I know an argument’s been brewing for a while when Audrey snaps back. She recently turned nine and hates confrontation. I think Gracie came out of the womb ready to rumble. At six and with two older sisters, she’s already a skilled opponent. And my thirteen-year-old Cassidy, who used to initiate fun games with her little sisters with a sweet smile on her face, is now in the throes of teen hell.

“I don’t know why you all insist on using that one bathroom when we have five,” I mutter. “You each have your own bathroom.”

“It’s the pretty one, Daddy,” Gracie says.

“And the biggest,” Audrey adds.

“I want to move my bedroom just so it can bemybathroom,” Cassidy says. “Alone.”

“Daddy, could you braid my hair?” Gracie asks.

I glance down at her and she looks like she just crawled out of bed. Her light brown hair is sticking up everywhere.