Page 14 of I Won't Be In On Monday

"I mean, back in the day, I was an avid collector.”

“Of porno DVDs?”

“No, silly.” I grin. “Just an avid collector of movies. I love watching movies, and yes, okay, I may have had a couple of pornos, but they are long gone. Big butts are all gone." I wonder if that was too much information. I can see her eyes widening as she processes the fact that I’m obviously an ass man. Though, I love boobs just as much.

"You trashed them, as well?" she asks in surprise.

“I did. I figure that I don’t want my seven-year-old looking at naked women in Rio getting pounded from behind by extremely hung men.”

She gasps at my language, and I grimace.

"Sorry. Was that inappropriate?"

"Kind of," she says while nodding strenuously. I’m not sure why I even said those words. Maybe I wasn curious to see how she’d react. Which is weird. I never discuss sex or anything close to sex with my assistants. I always make sure that my boss-assistant relationship is as professional as possible. "Is my macchiato ready yet?"

I head back towards the espresso machine, grab a cup, and press a button. "It'll be ready in about ten seconds," I say, looking back at her. "Hey, I just want to apologize if I made you uncomfortable talking aboutButtman Does Rio."

"Buttman Does Rio?" She giggles as she raises her eyebrows. The light in her eyes makes me relax, and I’m glad I haven’t upset her. "Really?"

"What can I say?" I shrug. "I'm a ass man."

"Okay," she says, looking anywhere but at me as her face goes bright red. "I can go and check out your daughter's bedroom if you want and make sure there are no big butts hiding out, though I think they might be hard to hide."

"Did I make you uncomfortable, Juniper?" I head towards her and stop in front of her so I can look into her eyes.

"I wouldn't say you made me super comfortable, but you didn't make me superuncomfortable." She shrugs and looks at the ceiling.

"I didn't ask if I made yousuperuncomfortable. I'm just wondering if I made you the slightest bit uncomfortable."

She looks back at me and shakes her head. "Nah, I'm okay." She offers me a small smile. "I mean, I do think it's weird that you want me here to help you, seeing as I don't have kids, but..." She shrugs. "I guess Iamyour assistant."

"And you're a woman who was a little girl once, and I figure you know what little girls want."

"I guess," she says. "Which way to the room?"

"Just go down the hall, and it will be the first door on the right," I say. "I'll join you in a second. I'll bring your macchiato to you."

"Thanks," she says, with a nod.

I watch as she heads down the hallway and opens the door to what will soon become Canyon's bedroom. I stare at the dark liquid as it enters her coffee cup and grab two sugar cubes fromthe little container on the counter. As I stand there, my heart starts to race as the enormity of the situation hits me yet again.

“What am I doing?” I groan to myself.

I feel weirded out by the fact that I have a daughter who's going to be living with me. Who's going to want to do things with me. Who's going to ask me questions. A daughter that I didn't even know existed until recently. I could walk past her in the street and wouldn't recognize her. A tinge of sadness washes through me at the thought. I grab the cup and saucer and head towards the bedroom.

"Macchiato delivery," I say, as I step into the room.

Juniper looks at me with wide eyes as she steps forward to take the cup. She takes a long gulp and lets out a deep sigh as she gazes around the room.

"What?" I say. "What's wrong?"

"This room is a hot mess," she says, shaking her head. "I thought you had me here because you wanted to decorate it and wanted me to help you figure out what to put in here. But nothing can fit in here. It's a mess."

"I mean, there are a couple of random things," I say, looking around at the boxes and other pieces of junk that have been stored here for years.

"Really? Remington, this is not going to take just a couple of hours to clear out. Where's all this stuff going?"

I wrinkle my nose. "I mean, I figured we could take most of it to the trash, and what I'm keeping, we'll just store it in the corner until I figure out where it's going."

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