Page 25 of Risky Game

“They’re coming? Here!? But I just saw them!”

I had no doubt they were all hands on deck with helping Vanessa with Amelia, but they hadn’t said anything to me about seeing her recently.

“You did?”

“Yup.” She nodded. “Mommy went away and they stayed with me.”

“You mean today? On her flight to Italy?”

“No, Daddy silly. Last time!”

“Last time?” I shook my head. I hadn’t heard a single word about Vanessa going out of town and that bothered me. We’d agreed to total honesty about our lives, at least when it came to Amelia due to the distance. She had a right to live her life. I wouldn’t judge her for that. But not telling me she was leaving my daughter alone?

And my parents didn’t tell me, either?

I scratched a mental note to call them later and set Amelia on her feet.

“Come on. Let’s go see your room, find your swimsuit, and then we’ll order pizza so Daddy doesn’t have to cook. How does that sound?”

“Great!”

She tore her hand out of mine and raced toward the stairs. “Bet I can find my room faster than you can!”

God bless fathers with daughters who had unending energy. I only hoped that didn’t translate to sass and attitude in her teenage years.

Hours later, Amelia was finally worn out from the swimming and racing around the house. We’d eaten pizza and I managed to wrangle her into the bath. Her hair was dry, brushed, and she was settled in her pajamas. We’d unpacked her suitcases. Well, I did the unpacking. Amelia took the time to point to where she wanted everything to go while having a bounce party on her new bed. I’d tucked her in, read her countless books, and once she was finally asleep, I stayed sitting next to her on the bed.

I snuggled Amelia to me and buried my nose in her hair, inhaling the scent of her shampoo, grateful I didn’t have to keep seeing her only through a phone screen.

Everything in my little world was currently perfect, and I’d make sure it stayed that way.

Distractions of Ruby be damned.

Chapter 9

Ruby

“He carried me to bed, Gina. There’s no coming back from this.”

“Well, you better find a way to come back from it. You’re working for the guy.”

“Ugh. It’s so humiliating.” I still couldn’t get past it. Logan hadn’t just woken me up after I’d fallen asleep. He carried me to my bedroom in his house like I was a child. Maybe his child. Like I was so young to him he thought he had to take care of me. And on our first night together?

“Maybe he didn’t think anything of it.”

“Then what was with that finger brush?” I swore my skin still burned where he’d brushed my hair off my cheek. I wasn’t sleeping then, not really.

Gina laughed. “I don’t know what you want me to say, girl. If I tell you it’s no big deal, you insist it is, and if I tell you he wants you, you tell me I’m crazy.”

“I’m going crazy, that’s for sure.” I was in the bathroom at my brother’s house. Since I’d just come back for one night to give Logan and Amelia the day alone, I’d camped out in their guest room instead of the apartment. I had Gina on FaceTime, propped up on the bathroom vanity, and was fixing my hair before I had to get in my car and drive back to Logan’s.

I was a nervous wreck to meet Amelia and face Logan again, and Gina wasn’t helping.

She leaned toward her phone screen and applied mascara to her eyelashes. “You’re not crazy, you’re nervous.”

Ugh. She knew me so well. “And embarrassed.”

She scowled at me and laughed again. “All right. So you’re crazy, embarrassed, and nervous. Have you heard from him? Has he said this won’t work?”

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