Page 24 of Falling for the Single Daddy

“I don’t know…” I grin over at Callie. “You better ask the nanny.”

“Callie’s notthe nanny,” Emery says. “She’s my friend!”

Callie smiles tightly. “Sure you can.” When Emery’s out of earshot, Callie mutters, “Sorry.”

“Why would you say sorry?” I ask quietly.

Callie twists her hair around her finger. Again, she’s wearing another dress, which is clearly just her style, light and frilly. But still, there’s that ugly taunting in my mind, Wes playing with my head, telling me that everything Callie says and does is designed to reel me in. It might seem ridiculous if it wasn’t working so damn well.

“Callie?”

“I don’t want to overstep my boundaries,” she murmurs. “If you want, I can tell Emery that Iamthe nanny.”

“Is that what you want?” I counter. “To keep things professional—distant?”

She shrugs. “It’s the right thing, isn’t it? What if I’m not ar—”

“Are you planning on quitting?” I cut in.

“No,” she says. “I just thought, you know…”

“What?”

She tilts her head at me. It’s clear she’s referencing something, the kiss, maybe. I lean forward, look deeply into her eyes. “Nothing has happened that makes any of this necessary. You’re doing one hell of a job.”

“Thank you,” she says, still twisting her hair around her finger. There’s something so tempting and attractive about it. It makes me want to touch her hand and say,Hey, relax, it was just our first kiss. It’s no big deal. There are many more where that came from.

She doesn’t seem like she’s trying to entrap me, trick me, any of that crap.

After saying goodbye, I drive into the city. Wes calls me to ask if I want to meet for lunch. Toward the end of the call, he says, “Have you won the lottery?”

“What? No. Why?”

“You sound unusually upbeat.”

“Does that mean that normally I’m miserable?” I try to laugh, but I know I can’t lie to Wes. Never again.

“Has something happened?”

“You’re in the wrong line of work. We need to get you a badge.”

“Is that a yes?”

“What’s your obsession with this, Wes?”

“Withwhat?”

I grip the steering wheel tighter. “We both know you’re hinting at Callie. Don’t play games with me.”

“Is there something Callie-related that would mean you sound unusually upbeat, then?”

I want to lie to him. I even try to force myself to tell a lie, but it just won’t come out. I can’t make myself do it. “We kissed last night.”

“Jesus. Fucking. Christ, ” He sighs. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking, not really. It just seemed right.”

“So this is step one in her master plan.”

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