Only You (Sweet Torment 2)

I sat up, the action making Lyssa wake up too. She rubbed her eyes.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Time for Lyss to go home,” Leo said.

“Knock, knock,” a voice rang from the entryway. A woman with dark-brown hair and similar features to Lyssa’s walked in wearing pink scrubs. Must be Regan, Lyssa and Eli’s mom.

“Thank you both for watching the kids today,” she said, looking between Leo and me. “Come on, Lyss, time to go home, honey.”

“I wanna stay with Paige.”

Regan smiled at me. “Well, I’m sure you do sweetheart since you seem to have polished off an entire tray of sweets.”

Lyssa looked guilty then rubbed her stomach. “My tummy doesn’t feel good.”

“What did you have for lunch?” Regan asked.

Now it was my turn to look guilty. When Regan’s stare landed on me, I panicked.

“Tell me you fed her something other than sugar?” she asked.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to . . .”

Regan looked at me like I’d just spoken gibberish. Her eyes went wide and she faced Leo. “I thought you said your assistant was trustworthy.”

“She is,” he said, both of them talking like I wasn’t sitting right there feeling like the biggest ass on the planet.

“So between . . .” Regan glanced at the television, which was playing a raunchy cartoon that looked like it was meant for adults, then scowled at me. “Junk food and inappropriate television was considered a good day?”

“That wasn’t on earlier,” I tried defending, but Regan just looked pissed, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. I had no clue what I was doing. Something I’d tried telling Leo earlier.

“She did her best,” Leo said to Regan.

“We also read,” I added, standing, trying to gain some kind of composure. For some reason I wanted Leo’s sister to think I wasn’t a total lowlife who couldn’t handle babysitting. “And I made the Rice Krispies treats to stay in line with tradition.”

Regan and Leo both frowned and said, “Tradition?” in unison.

I nodded. “Yes, Lyssa said you always have treats when you read.”

Leo raised a brow at Lyssa who tried to make herself really small as a look of guilt raced over her face.

“Did you fib to Paige so she’d make you treats?”

Lyssa nodded. Oh crap. The five-year-old had tricked me. Great. Just great. Now I really looked like an incompetent moron. This, after realizing Lyssa was actually pretty good company. Not that her mother would ever let her near me again.

“I think you need to say sorry to Paige for not being honest,” Leo said.

“Sorry, Paige.”

I smiled. “It’s fine.” I leaned in a little and nudged her shoulder. “They were pretty good treats, right?”

She beamed a bright smile at me and nodded. Regan frowned. I gulped.

Leo just shook his head and scooped her up. “I’ll walk you guys out,” he said to his sister, and Regan all but raced out the door. “See you tomorrow, Red,” Leo said, and he walked out the door, carrying a spastically waving Lyssa with him.

I waved back, and the only shocking thing was that the smile on my face was genuine, but the fear in my stomach was daunting.

If I didn’t know before, I did now: I was way out of my league when it came to Leandro Savas.