I’d have to be careful about the innocent touches too. I should just point out that she had chocolate on her face; I shouldn’t remove it myself.

Fuck. Had I done this to her? Had I made the lines too blurry? I could admit I enjoyed having her close to me. I loved having her at my house. I even enjoyed taking her to the stores where she picked up all the various supplies she experimented with, and we’d go out for pizza afterward. Not to mention, how amazing she was with my daughter and how that made me want to keep Pipsqueak even closer. Because she was so fucking fantastic. The girl simply made my heart happy, and now I feared my reactions to her had possibly confused her. Perhaps it was why she’d developed this crush.

I was giving myself a headache running all these ifs and hows and whys in my head.

“Okay, lunch is ready, everyone!” Angel hollered.

Twenty

When Pipsqueak came over to my house a couple days later and said she had to talk to me, I almost freaked the fuck out. Palms sweaty, pulse spiking, mild nausea, and that rock the size of Mount Rainier digging its way deeper into the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t ready to lose her. She was already leaving Washington next month; if I had to hurt her now, she wouldn’t speak to me again before she left.

Then she started rambling about wanting to spend some quality time with her family before moving to California. One day with her mom, one day with her dad, one day with Willow, and so on.

I exhaled in relief and resumed my nightly routine of picking up after Grace, starting the dishwasher, and sorting laundry.

Pipsqueak followed me around the house and listed what she had so far.

For her day with James, she wanted them to take their bowrider out to watch whales. With her mother, Pipsqueak wanted to spend the day watching old movies and eat at their favorite restaurant. Evelina was getting her day with Pipsqueak too, and they’d already decided to go all out for a girls’ day. Spa, manicure, shopping, and whatnot.

“I have no idea what I wanna do with Darius,” she said. “I mean, there’s a dozen things I could choose, but he’s getting ready for another assignment, so he’s in a different mind space.”

I nodded with a dip of my chin and stowed away the last of the laundry in my bedroom.

“Is the mission simply to spend extra time with them?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“You could ease his worries of having you alone in a big city so far from home and let him train you a bit,” I suggested, heading down the stairs. “He’s been in charge of you and Willow learning self-defense and all that. Ask him to take you to the shooting range or the gym.”

“That’s perfect!” She jotted it down in her little notepad. “Now, Willow…”

Willow was easy. She struggled with insecurities over her limitations that kept her from living a stereotypically normal life, and it made her feel bad sometimes. That maybe she wasn’t the big sister Pipsqueak needed. Which was horseshit, of course, but I suggested to Elise she ask Willow for guidance and support. Willow was an expert at setting up structure and routines, so perhaps they could spend their day going over things Pipsqueak could do to make the transition to San Francisco easier.

We covered her day with Lias too, while I poured us some coffee and grabbed a box of chocolate truffles from the fridge. I was down to my last four pieces, so I kind of hoped Pipsqueak wouldn’t steal more than one. Tops. If possible, they were even more fantastic than her signature The Mister. These were a bitter, dark chocolate with a semisweet caramel filling, and she’d infused them with dark rum.

“Okay, so Ethan is next,” she said.

We took our seats on the couch in the living room, and I began dreading what my day with her would look like. Would that be the day she confessed her crush? Again, I wasn’t fucking ready. I wanted more of these moments with her. More late nights, more talks on the patio, more laughter in the kitchen, more…just more.

“Any ideas?” Pipsqueak prodded.

Right. Her day with Ethan.

I took a sip of my coffee before I set it down and tossed a truffle into my mouth.

“He’s trickier.” I chewed slowly, letting the chocolate and rum mix with the caramel. Growing up, Pipsqueak had received her education in movies and music from Ethan, though it’d been years since I’d heard of them having a movie night. “Is there any concert you can go to? If you don’t want to go to Seattle, there’s always Vancouver.” It was only forty-five minutes away.

“Ooh. I’ll look it up.” She made a couple notes on her pad. “That leaves Grace. I need a day with her too.”

Tags: Cara Dee Erotic
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