Page 31 of Time Out

Still. He’d come all this way and even though I was desperate for sleep, we probably needed to talk.

“You can come in,” I croaked out through another yawn. “But no judging my place.”

“Never,” he assured me.

I pushed open the door and stepped in, immediately kicking off my heels. My arches screamed with the pleasure of being on flat ground again and a moan of my own slipped out as I lost the four inches of height.

“You were working?”

Davis shut the door behind him with a soft click, followed by the lock of the dead bolt.

“Belle got me a job at Julio’s Steakhouse.”

“Dang. That’s a nice place.”

“Money’s decent, hours aren’t horrible, and at least no one’s groping my ass or tits for a fresh drink.”

I tried to tease, the reminder of the night we met, but it fell flat as a stormy expression darkened Davis’s eyes.

Right. He hadn’t liked it that first night either.

“Relax, Cujo.” I chuckled and tossed my keys and purse onto the counter. “Need anything to drink? I have to get something in my stomach.”

“Please. Go ahead. I’m good.” He gestured to one of the two rickety barstools I’d recently found on the curb. “May I?”

“Sit at your own risk. They could break beneath your weight.”

He slid onto one, and as predicted, the old wood creaked as he settled himself. Both of us cringed and waited, but the snap of wood never came, so I relaxed and moved toward the teapot.

Ginger and lemon tea after work tended to help as long as I ate it with some crackers and cheese, so while the water heated, I grabbed a box of Triscuits and pre-sliced Havarti cheese from the fridge.

“So, I should apologize,” Davis said. “For the other day.”

“Pretty sure that’s my line.” I took a small bite of the cheese and chewed. “Belle told me I overreacted.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. We don’t know each other all that well, and after having some time to think, I can see how that was the wrong thing to say.”

“It’s fine.” It was. So he offered me money, I’d be a fool to say no if he offered again.

“Well, it bothers me to think for even a second you thought I was the kind of guy to throw money at a problem to make it go away, Maggie. My sister’s pregnant, due any second actually, and it’s not her first child. I know how expensive babies are and how much they require, at least from the sidelines. My mind went to making sure you were taken care of and everything you—we’ll—need. That’s all.”

He was an uncle. I could see him bouncing a nephew on his knee or tossing around the football. Being used as a human jungle gym. He had that youthfulness written all over him that would mean he could spend hours doing nothing but play.

And in nine months—he’d be able to play with his own child. Our child.

“Thank you. I appreciate that, and to be honest, I didn’t really have expectations of anything after telling you, so I shouldn’t have freaked out. It’s just… we met on a bad night for me when not a lot of things were going great, so I felt like that was all you saw, but I’ve come a long way since then, and I have plans for my life.”

I wasn’t some unemployed screwed up crappy bartender with no home. I was a girl who’d been on my own for three years and whenever life kicked me down, I came back fighting.

If I’d let Annabelle help me out with music, I’d probably be doing even better, but that was something I was determined to do on my own, at least getting my start.

“If it makes you feel better, I’m glad that your crappy night brought you into my life that night, and I’m still pretty happy about it today.”

Well… that was unexpected. “Yeah?”

He smiled, that same fun-loving and sexy as sin mixed in one smile that’d made my knees wobble back in October.

“Yeah, Maggie. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t serious about being involved in this baby’s life, but also, I’m wondering about the chances you’d give me to be involved in yours.”

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