Yes, he’d eventually kissed me back, but I couldn’t kick the gut feeling I’d screwed everything up. I’d changed things when they’d been running so smoothly the way they were.
The kicker was, I hadn’t even known I was going to kiss him until I did it. My brain decided to leave the chat, giving my instincts the reins, which was just unbelievable. My instincts could not be trusted.
Exhibit A, the baby who existed because my instincts had told me Liam would make a great co-parent.
Now I was sitting on the floor of my closet, looking at all my beautiful clothing, wondering how I was going to face Elliot again. I’d avoided him the whole day, taking Joey to hang out with Raymond and Davida and wandering around a park afterward.
But my stomach was rumbling. I needed to eat. I’d never been one of those girls who could skip a meal because I forgot, and that had compounded since having Joey.
Avoiding Elliot was stupid anyway. We had to work together tomorrow. It was better to get everything out in the open before then.
“What do you think, Joey-Girl? Are you ready to go hunt down dinner?” Like she understood me, she found her hand and started sucking on her fist. “Don’t even try to act like you’re hungry too. You’re not fooling me. I just fed you, you milk monster.”
A throat cleared, and I turned to find a very amused Elliot leaning one shoulder against the closet doorway. God, was he a sight, all languid and relaxed, his long legs crossed at the ankle, hands in the pockets of his black joggers. Why did he have to be so handsome? His catastrophically good looks mixed with his random yet increasingly more common bouts of tenderness would be my downfall.
“It’s not nice to call your daughter names, Catherine,” he deadpanned.
“Well, she’s a milk-a-holic. I’m not going to pussyfoot around the truth.”
Laughing under his breath, he entered my closet and offered me a hand. I accepted, and his long fingers engulfed mine, pulling me upright. Then he crouched down and swooped Joey into his arms.
“Come on, Jo. We need to feed your mother so she can keep you flush with your favorite substance.”
“Enabler,” I grumbled, following behind them. “Didn’t we talk about your terrible eavesdropping habit?”
“I thought we decided it wasn’t eavesdropping.”
“No such decision was made.”
He just laughed, carefully descending the stairs with my daughter secure in his arms.
Platters of sushi were laid out on the kitchen bar, and Joey’s bouncy seat was set up beside Elliot’s stool. He latched her in and turned on the music.
I blinked at him in surprise when he sat beside me and spread his napkin across his lap. He noticed me staring and turned to me with an eyebrow raised.
“Do you not want sushi?” he asked.
“You’re going to eat dinner with me?”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“No, of course not.”
In the weeks we’d lived here if Elliot was home in time for us to share dinner, he held Joey while I ate then we switched off. We hadn’t ever truly shared a meal except for the tacos in his car the day before.
He exhaled through his nose. “We’ll try it. She’s happy hanging out, and I would like to have dinner with you tonight.”
“Okay.” I leaned back to look at her. She wasn’t paying any attention to us, sucking on her fist and gazing at the toys dangling from the bar arching over her. “I would really like that.”
I was two pieces of sushi in when Elliot decided it was talking time.
“Have you avoided me all day because you’re embarrassed about what happened last night?”
I swallowed a mouthful of rice and tuna so fast I had to take a long drink of water to dislodge it from my throat.
“Obviously,” I uttered. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He scrubbed the scruff on his chin. “At least you’re honest.” Then he snagged me by the nape and tilted me into him so we were face to face, nose to nose. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about. If anyone does, it’s me. I wasn’t in my best form.”
“Your form was fine. I was the one who attacked you.”
He huffed, his hot breath feathering across my mouth. “You might believe I’m a cyborg, but I promise my normal response when a beautiful woman kisses me is not to stand there like my battery needs to be charged.”
“Do beautiful women usually kiss you out of the blue?”
“Not often enough for me to be prepared for it.”