Page 76 of The Single Dad Project

One song flowed into two, and with each passing minute, more of the tension seeped from her body. He sheltered her against his chest, and she willingly took the comfort he silently offered.

“You good?” he murmured near her ear.

Flo nodded, the gesture instinctive—concealing how she felt. Concealing the truth.

Adam stopped moving and slid his hand between her and his chest, pinching her chin and tilting her head back. She couldn’t avoid that bright gaze, and...she didn’t want to. Maybe because in this moment, with his arms around her, she felt safe. Like nothing could touch her as long as she stood in the shadow of his big frame.

“Now,” he said in that same low voice, “let’s try that again with you looking me in the eyes. You good?”

She nodded once more. “No.”

He dipped his own chin in acknowledgment and released her. Returning his hand to her nape, he said, “When or if you’re ready, I’m here.”

If.He was granting her a choice, and who knew that could feel so precious, so sweet? Especially when it seemed like others in her life, regardless of their intention and motivation, wanted to take that from her.

“Noah’s here,” she admitted.

His gaze flicked across the dance floor.

“He was one of the three people you were just talking to?”

“Yes.” She inhaled a deep breath, held it for several seconds, and when she loosed it, her eyes briefly closed. “Earlier, my sister and sister-in-law had warned me he’d come with my parents, but... I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I still wasn’t prepared to face him, speak with him since the last time. I’ve been kind of avoiding the inn for that reason. He wants to talk to me, spend time with me—and I can tell my parents want the same thing—but I’m just not ready. And I don’t know when or if I will be.”

Adam didn’t immediately reply, but his hold on her neck firmed, his thumb stroking her skin. No doubt he meant the soothing caress to calm her. And it did... But it also stirred the embers of desire she was coming to discover only Adam could stoke.

“Why not? What are you scared of, Flo?”

“I’m not—” The lie stuck in her throat, and she sank her teeth into her bottom lip as if trapping it inside. She glanced away from him, from those golden eyes. “Shit,” she whispered. “I really don’t like you right now.”

“I can take that, queen. I can take anything you say.” His long fingers squeezed her nape, and obeying his unspoken command, she returned her regard to him. “What are you scared of?”

“I—” She stared up at him, the words lodged in her throat. But like a lock had been wrenched open, they tumbled out of her. “He left me.”

She knew that didn’t make much sense, that she hadn’t really answered his question, but for her, those three words explained so much. That was where her story began.

“You’re wrong,” Adam said, a flinty note in his tone startling her.

Then she blinked in surprise, because it hit her that she must’ve spoken her thoughts aloud.

“Your story began long before Noah walked away. He didn’t determine who you were, who you would be. You arrived here with purpose and destiny, with the potential to be the gifted, brilliant woman you are. And just as he didn’t write that on the slate of who you are, he couldn’t do anything to erase it. I don’t ever want to hear you say that again, queen.”

Okay.

Okay.

“Flo?” he asked, his hand pressing harder into her back.

“Yes,” she breathed, and because astonishment still tripped through her at his impassioned admonishment, that hint of angeron her behalf, she said again, louder, “Yes.”

“Good.” He curved his hand back around her neck, tunneling his fingers into her locs.

He cradled her head in his big palm, and she could just imagine how they appeared to everyone around them. Intimate. Like lovers. Part of her wanted to shy away from the eyes she could practically feel. She hated being the center of attention; it was why she preferred being behind the camera and not in front of it.

But another part... God help her, but that part preened under that same regard. Was delighted Adam didn’t seem to care if others suspected they were more than coworkers. That she was more important to him than just being his daughter’s nanny.

That part didn’t care that tomorrow they would be the newest item on the Rose Bend gossip grapevine.

And it was this same side that would lead her down a path that only held heartbreak and disappointment.

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