Page 27 of One Bride for Three Single Dads

“Why can’t I have it?”

He takes half a breath, inflating his T-shirt slightly. It’s not his work uniform, but the kind of shirt he wears around the house to be polite. When he isn’t totally shirtless. I can almost see through it.

Pretty hot.

“Jolene, I don’t think you know what you’re saying,” he says slowly. “I mean… It doesn’t sound like you have any experience with this, right? We were really looking for somebody who was, you know…”

“I’m not a virgin, Harrison,” I sniff.

His cheeks go bright red.

Oh my God. Bright red!

That just triggers some part of my brain that makes me want to mess with him. He’s never serious, always slipping through the conversation like a wisp of smoke. Always in control. Never letting anybody get the upper hand.

And I just made him blush!

“Okay, that’s not what I’m saying,” he mutters uncomfortably. “It’s… Well, did you read it?”

“You saw me read it,” I counter.

“We are looking for something really specific,” he continues.

“Like what?” I shrug. “Somebody who cooks? Somebody who takes care of the kids? Somebody who is easy to get along with? No drama? Haven’t I already done all of that?”

He scrubs the back of his neck with his hand. “Yeah, I guess…”

“So if I already did everything…”

“You haven’t doneeverything,” he counters.

“Like what? Like fucking?” I ask with my eyebrows raised, pleased to see it makes him wince shyly. “You want me to audition or something?”

“I wonder if Ambrose is still asleep.”

“Don’t you try to avoid this conversation, Harrison!” I demand, walking right up to him with my finger pointed at the middle of his chest. “Tell me what it is that you think I haven’t done.”

He won’t meet my eyes for a second. He literally looks around the room like maybe Ambrose or Boone are going to show up and rescue him.

No dice, buddy. You are stuck with me.

“Harrison? Tell me.”

He takes a half step back, so I take a half step forward. There is nowhere else he can go. He’s going to have to finish this conversation, and I hope he knows that.

“Harrison?”

“Jesus! Fine!” he scoffs. “You are really a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“Whatever. So they tell me,” I shrug with one shoulder.

“We are looking for, you know, a package. Like I said.”

“And like I said,” I remind him, “you didn’t say a package of what.”

He pulls a face. “Like not just sex. Like a girlfriend. Like talking and going out and stuff. Like… I don’t know. A package.”

My eyebrows go up all on their own. “Like a girlfriend?”

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