Color Me Pretty: A Father's Best Friend Romance

“Can’t you skip work today?” I sounded pitiful and went as far as debating on giving him a puppy dog look in hopes he’d stay.

He didn’t. “I’m meeting with someone in an hour and I need to get home to change.”

My shoulders dropped. “Dallas?” I had no reason to fish, but he hadn’t been forthcoming about the phone calls I knew he’d been exchanging with somebody. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, I just wanted to know what was going on because I didn’t like being kept out of things that usually had to do with me. If they didn’t, he’d tell me. Vent. Get angry. He never apologized for it and I never asked him to, even if his bad days were trying when someone at the office pissed him off.

“Not Dallas.” He bent down and pecked my lips, not lingering long. “I need to go. Would you like to get dinner tonight? I could get Abigail to make reservations somewhere.”

“Denny’s doesn’t need reservations.”

He chuckled. “If you want Denny’s, that’s where we’ll go. I can come over around seven if that works for you.”

I pushed off the blanket he’d put on me and stood, stretching my sore muscles from how I’d been sleeping. I couldn’t complain though. We?

?d fallen asleep watching television and Theo only had the corner of the couch. He had to have had a kink in his neck at the very least. “Seven works for me. Tomorrow I’m going out with Lawrence and Tiffany to celebrate finals being over.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to add that. It wasn’t like we had plans. “I know we don’t have anything scheduled, but I figured—”

“It’s good to know where you are,” he said with a shrug. “And I’m glad you and your friends are going out. I have something to go to tomorrow night anyway.”

Gnawing on the inside of my cheek, I watched him walk around the couch. “Is it Flamell?” He stopped walking and turned to face me within a second. “The person you’re meeting with today?”

He eyed me suspiciously. “How do you know Flamell?”

Squirming under his penetrating eyes, I admitted, “I don’t. But his name was always showing up on your screen when your phone rang. Or I assume it’s a guy.”

“You assume it’s a guy?”

Why did he look so angry all of a sudden? I hadn’t meant to strike a nerve or throw an accusation. “I didn’t mean anything bad by it, Theo. I’m saying that I’m not ruling out the possibility that Flamell could be a woman.” Although, I really, really hoped it wasn’t.

He took a large step toward me, eating up the distance between us. “And why would a woman be calling me?”

The best my stupid mind could come up with was, “Why would a man be calling you all hours of the night?” Turned out that was the wrong thing to say.

“Why would a woman be calling me, Della?” That time, his tone was hard. Offended. I wasn’t sure how to respond, only making the tendons in his neck strain. “I don’t even know why you’d think that. Flamell is somebody I’m working with on something important. That’s all.”

I sighed. “I didn’t think it was a woman, I…”

He waited, jaw ticking.

My cheeks were on fire. “I don’t know what to say, Theo. I swear I didn’t mean to upset you, but it isn’t like we’ve discussed this. For once, I’m using my brain by not assuming anything.”

Again. The wrong thing to say. If steam could physically blow out of people’s ears, it would definitely be coming out of Theo’s. “If I didn’t have somewhere to be, I’d tell you exactly what my thoughts are on what we haven’t ‘discussed’ before now.”

I blinked.

He took another step forward until there was barely any room between our bodies. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. How smart, kind, and beautiful you are on the inside and out. I really fucking wish…” Teeth grinding, he shook his head. “I don’t have time right now. Tonight.”

Tonight? “Theo, maybe we should—”

“Not now, Della.”

Was he kidding me? He was about to say something that would probably change everything, and he didn’t want to talk about it now? “What is so important you can’t stay here and discuss this now with me? What’s more important than finally talking about u—”

“It’s complicated, Della! Christ.” He swiped a palm through his hair. “Don’t act like I haven’t been here for you, haven’t been showing you what all of this is to me. If I had women calling, I wouldn’t be sleeping on your goddamn couch and waking up with a raging fucking boner and a knot in my shoulders the size of Texas.”

Flinching, I knew he was right. Sort of. It wasn’t like Theo ever had a lot of women calling him before. In fact, I didn’t know of any that really bothered him. I wasn’t naïve enough not to think that meant he didn’t have…company when he needed it. That was beyond the point. He was upset, so was I. Everything I was trying to say was making it worse.

“Fine.” My voice cracked as I stepped back, putting a sliver of space between us. “Fine. Okay. Go have your meeting with Flamell.”

He tipped his head back and sighed at the ceiling, swiping his palms down his face. “I know I can be an asshole, but I’m not trying to be. It’s not that I don’t want to clear the air between us, I need to handle this first.”