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“I don’t care if I get wet… why can’t she do it herself?
“But a two-year old can walk and talk and do stuff, right?
“Okay, yes, I understand.”
He hung up and looked frustrated. “Bruce says it’s normal for parents to take small children with them in the shower and I can do that, but that would mean for me to get naked in the shower with you and that’snothappening. So I’m afraid we are back to the bath.”
I don’t know what possessed me to say it. Maybe it was his hurtful comment from earlier about not being into Goth girls or his comment from earlier today about the hair on his arms standing up at the thought of me giving him a bath. “What are you afraid of?” I asked provocatively.
He arched a brow. “What amIafraid of?”
“Yes. You said you were used to showering with people, so why not me?”
“Because you’re a girl.”
“So?”
He swallowed hard. “That would be awkward, not to mention wrong.”
“Wrong how?”
“You’re my niece, Cia.”
“Right now I’m your daughter and you’re my father and I’m two years old,” I pointed out, intentionally putting him under pressure.
He shifted his balance from one foot to the other. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”
“But you already offered to let me see you naked.”
“I know, but that was different.”
“Why?”
“Because you wouldn’t be naked at the same time.”
“And what’s the difference?”
He gave me an “are-you-serious?“ laugh and said, “Only a girl would ask such a question.”
“I’m sorry for being so stupid, but explain it to me.”
“I’m a dude and being in a shower with a naked girl could potentially make my body… react.”
“But you don’t think of me that way. You already told me.”
“Of course not, but I’m only human and I just returned from a year in Afghanistan.”
“Meaning what? You haven’t had sex in a year?”
He puffed out air and nodded.
“But if you had just banged Therese, you could do it?” I asked and felt that little knife-twist in my heart.
“Why would you drag her into this?”
“You like her.” It came out as an accusation.
Gabriel looked back as if he could see through the cabin wall and all the way inside the main house where we had left her. “Therese is a nice woman.”
