Page 52 of Dancing in the Rain

“Problem? We’re almost home.”

She shook her head. “No. Well, yeah. It’s my boss. Again.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s such a dick.”

“Ugh.”

“I can usually handle him, but right now his abrasive lack of empathy seems so fucking stupid in light of what I’m going through.”

“Language,” he murmured.

She shot him a startled look then smiled. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m pretty fond of the F word.”

“So am I,” she admitted. “I’m trying not to make it one of Chloe’s favorites.”

“So what’s your dickhead boss bugging you about?”

“He’s on me to get back to New York so we can reschedule a meeting I was supposed to have with a client last week. I’ve talked to them and I could bring him up to speed on the issues, but he’s just being unreasonable. He’s annoyed because I’m not jumping when he calls. He’s a control freak.”

“What if you flew back for a day to have the meeting?”

She rubbed her forehead. “I guess I could do that. I just hate leaving. Sara can’t do much anymore and Chloe’s not even twelve yet.”

“I guess it would be weird if I stepped in?” He pulled up to the curb in front of Sara’s home.

She turned to him. “Like…what? You’d come and get Chloe up in the morning and make her lunch and get her on the bus to school, spend the day with Sara and make them dinner? Maybe throw in a load of laundry?”

She was clearly being sarcastic. He frowned. “Yeah,” he said shortly. “I can do that.”

“Can you do it without a six-pack of beer?”

Heat flashed in his chest. “What the fuck does that mean?”

She closed her eyes and dropped her chin. “I’m sorry. That was bitchy.”

“Yeah, it was. I know you don’t think much of me, but hell.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

“What would be involved with staying with Sara all day?” Because he wasn’t going to be up for doing anything that was very personal…and he had no clue what was involved in her care.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “You just found out you have a daughter, and it’s understandable that you want to see her and get to know her, but our family problems don’t need to become your problems. As you’ve pointed out, you have enough of your own.”

He gazed at her, eyes narrowed. “Okay, yeah, I’m a selfish bastard who’s been wallowing in self-pity. That doesn’t mean I can’t care about other people. Chloe is my family. That means you’re my family.”

“I’m not your family.” She glowered at him. “We are not related in any way.”

“True.” And he was grateful to her for pointing that out because it made the lust that had heated his groin when looking at her mouth not so creepy. Even so, he couldn’t act on it. “Fine. We’re not family. But we’ve all been dumped into this mess together. We can at least be friends. And friends help each other out.”

She stared at him and once again he couldn’t help but notice her mouth…It was perfect…smooth and rosy, a full bottom lip and sweetly curved upper lip.

Her eyes flickered.

Then her lips firmed. “Right,” she said briskly. “Friends.”

Chapter 11

Peyton settled onto one of the benches facing the window of the dance studio where Chloe was currently waiting for class to start. Drew sat next to her and handed her a cardboard cup of tea he’d just picked up from the Starbucks across the street.

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