Page 48 of The Secret

My thighs clenched involuntarily from both his teasing and his comment that he could picture me… That he could think about me in any situation beyond caring for his daughter.

Christ, I had it bad.

I shook my head. “Nope, never dated a sports guy. Payton did though, only for sophomore year, but we did go to games. That was football though, not this.” I pointed to the screen where an aggressive pile-on was taking place.

“Who did you date then? Chess club? A guy from the English course? Pre-med?” His lips quivered as he held back his laugh.

“I don’t know what impression I’ve given you, but no, I never dated anyone from chess club. They’re bigger geeks than the mathletes, which clearly you were.”

He laughed again, a deep rumble rising up as he held it in for Bell.

“No, I dated a philosophy major, but he liked to overanalyze everything. I had a boyfriend for a while who was pre-law, but that’s it.”

“You didn’t miss out. Columbia boys are all pussies anyway. You want a real man, Harvard is where it’s at,” he winked.

It was like a nuclear reactor was heating up in my core, ready to explode any minute. I was getting so warm, even though I was easily the length of five grown men away from him, I expected to break a sweat any minute. “Thanks for the advice.”

He looked down at Bell, fast asleep on his chest and stood up. “I’m going to try putting her down again.”

I schooled my expression so he couldn’t see how quickly my heart had sunk, because I didn’t want him to go. “Okay. The medicine will have helped, so she’ll probably go down.”

He stood up carefully and walked out. I got up and went back into the kitchen, clearing away all her things and sorting out what I needed for her week ahead. Murray returned five minutes later, heading straight for the fridge door.

“She went down, didn’t wake up at all.”

I picked up my phone and switched on the baby monitor app. “That’s good. You can go and join the guys if you want, I can stay here with her. I’ll call you if there’s anything to worry about, but I think the Tylenol will have sorted her out.”

He closed the fridge, two bottles of beer in his hand, then opened the freezer and took out a tub of ice cream, placing it all on the counter, then went back for another three tubs, all different flavors.

“No, I’m not leaving you or Bell. Thank you though, and I’m sorry I ruined your day off, but I’ll make it up to you with ice cream, and I’ve ordered pizza.” He twisted the cap off a beer and handed it to me.

“Thank you.” I swigged it. “I’m honestly happy staying though, you don’t need to. You can go and enjoy your evening. This is my job.”

I wasn’t sure why I was trying so hard to make him leave, except for the fact that when I was in his presence it was impossible to concentrate on anything else but him. Especially with the memory of this morning still fresh in my mind.

“No.” While his tone said he wasn’t budging, his eyes twinkled in amusement. “Come on, or I won’t show you what I bought you.”

He turned, heading back into the den with the ice cream while I stayed glued to the spot, not entirely sure I’d heard him correctly. He’d bought me a present? It was difficult to decipher my thoughts while my belly was flickering around like a Wi-Fi router on the fritz.

“Kit?” he called, and I hurried after him, finding him back in his spot on the couch, his feet up on the giant ottoman, where a canvas bag with Brown’s - a wildly popular, independent New York bookstore – printed on it, lay.

“What’s that?” I pointed to it. “You’ve been in a bookstore? No, that can’t be right.”

He smirked. “Enough of your cheek young lady, or I won’t show you what I bought you.”

He clocked the surprise on my face. “Well, for Bells, but also for you. Go on, open it.”

I sat down next to him, picking up the bag as I did, pulling out a hard back book – A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Babies.

His face had lit up with excitement. “I got it this week. There was a Romeo and Juliet one, but I thought that was a bit tragic. This one is about love, I mean, they’re all about love, but this one is the good kind of love.”

I raised my eyebrow in question and tried to hold back my smile at how proud of himself he sounded.

“You know, without someone dying a gruesome death at the end.” Another big cheer went up from the screen, which was still showing the rugby, and he turned to see what happened.

“Thank you.” I ran my palms over the smooth, hard cover before opening it up. The pages were bright and colorful, images of fairies and Puck and Tatiana filling the pages. “She’ll love it. It’s my favorite too.”

“Oh yeah? I did good then?” He handed me a tub of raspberry ripple ice cream with a spoon sticking out.

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