Page 49 of Risky Game

She mumbled the words in her quiet, playful tone.

“I just want to know what you’ve said, so I can help her understand.”

“Nothing. I can’t think of a thing. I guess, I don’t know. I figured when I got back, maybe I’d stay for a little bit so I wasn’t just showing up and whisking her away or anything. But I’ve always been planning on staying at a hotel. Not your place or anything.”

“So you have told her you’d be here.”

“Well, yeah, but not like that. I’m so sorry, Logan. I guess I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s fine.” I ran a hand through my hair. “That at least gives me something to say to Amelia when she brings it up again. There’s something else you should probably know.”

And I probably should have clarified what the conversation about kissing had been like with Ruby and talked to Amelia, but Vanessa had taken to calling Ruby before they went out for the evening, so I had no doubt it’d come up later.

“Um, she sort of…” God, this was embarrassing. “She sort of saw me kissing Ruby. On the cheek.” I quickly clarified, but now I was thinking of her cheeks. Of how it’d felt so normal.

“What? Logan, you’re not—”

“Nothing’s going on. It was a mistake. I was at the door, leaving for work. We were talking about the day, the gymnastics, and it happened. It felt like…”

Like I was kissing you. Like I was saying goodbye for the day to you…

“Oh…” Vanessa mumbled. “Well, that’s—”

“Embarrassing. And dumb, I know, for a thousand different reasons. But it sounds like she kept asking Ruby after I left why I was kissing her cheek, so I wanted you to know in case she brings it up.”

“Well, what’d Ruby say to her?”

“Something about how sometimes friends kiss on the cheek.”

“Well, there you go. No biggie.”

It didn’t feel like no biggie.

It felt like something huge.

It wasn’t Amelia’s reaction I kept thinking of when I thought about the kiss.

It was the fact I wanted to do it again. On purpose. And not only on the cheek.

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “No biggie at all.”

And shit. Vanessa knew me too well to not hear the doubt in my tone.

“Unless. Is it?”

“She’s the nanny, Vanessa. That’s all.”

“Okay, then. When I call later, want to stay on the line so we can work out the stuff with Amelia?”

“Absolutely. Just text me first.”

I could practically see her grin. “I always do. And, Logan?”

“Yes?”

“The nanny is really pretty, even if she’s a bit young.”

The call ended with her tinkling, teasing laugh I’d heard that first night all those years ago and couldn’t resist.

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