"Here, trade me," I told him, holding up Julian as Skylar began to complain. "She's gotta be hungry too."
He readily complied, setting my daughter in my free arm. After we switched off, and I tucked Skylar under my nursing blanket, Pick narrowed his eyes at a happy, babbling Julian.
"Oh, don't you smile at me with that milky grin, you lucky shit. There's no need to rub in it. I know where that mouth's been."
"Pick!" I rolled my eyes.
He sent me an innocent glance. "What? He's clearly rubbing it in."
"You are such a guy."
"Hell, yeah, I'm a guy. What'd you expect me to be?"
His smile was slow and seductive, which reminded me I'd just seen his taut naked tushy. I didn't know how I was going to handle livi
ng with him for another week and half. Keeping my hands off him while I slept next to him every night was already a challenge, but now that I'd seen what the goods looked like under his clothes, the challenge had just ramped itself up into mission impossible.
"I'm going to make myself a bowl of cereal. You want one?" he asked.
Tickled he thought to ask and was willing to serve me, I smiled. Oh, yeah. Reese had been right. This one was a keeper.
If only he was available to keep.
I shook my head. "No, thanks. I'll grab a banana later."
His eyebrows shot up. "Banana? We have bananas?"
Before I was even able to answer, he was gone, shooting from the room like a rocket. Seconds later, I heard, "Holy shit!"
He pounded back down the hall until he reappeared with a pile of food loaded down on Julian's lap as he carried the poor boy like a human bowl. "Eva, there's . . . there's food freaking everywhere. And fruit. I love fruit."
I laughed, glad I had remembered that detail when I'd gone shopping. "I know. I bought it, remember? With your money?"
"But." He strode to the bed with his loot and let the heap tumble off Julian's lap and onto the mattress beside me. "There's apples, and oranges, and what the fuck is this?" He took a bite before moaning. "I don't care. It tastes amazing."
"Didn't you see everything I bought last night—or the night before—when you were in the kitchen, eating supper . . . and breakfast?"
"No." He shook his head as he settled next to me on the bed, placing Julian between us. Then he started a picnic with the food, letting Julian gnaw briefly on his nectarine before he stole it back. "I was too busy eating, and staring at you, and running off to my next job in between getting hit on by your cousin to notice much else."
"Oh, she was not hitting on you."
"Whatever." He shrugged. "You know, you keep treating me this good, I may never let you leave."
I couldn't say what I was really feeling, which was, who said I wanted to leave? But I definitely thought it. I think we were going to have to worry about me suffering more from attachment issues than Julian would.
Chapter 20
PICK
So the week progressed. And then a couple more days. I lived on a daily high where no one could bring me down, no matter what they did or said. I'd always been good at rolling with the flow and taking things in stride, but now I actually smiled through it all. Life was just amazing.
I didn't care if I woke up every morning with a raging hard-on that not even yanking off in the shower could calm. I woke up next to her. The smell of lilacs on my sheets, her hand resting next to my pillow only inches from my face, accidently spooning with her on some nights. Yeah, I had no complaints.
"So, how're things working out with Eva?" Mason asked one night, just before we opened the club, where I'd actually arrived on time to work . . . for the eighth stretch in a row.
He must've realized I was thinking about Tink, because his knowing smirk made me scowl.
"Oh, it's just . . . you know . . . awful." I gave an exaggerated roll of my eyes. "Supper's waiting on me every night when I get home from the garage. My apartment's spotless. The laundry's always folded and put away. My kid's happier and healthier than he's ever been, and this drop-dead gorgeous woman parades around in front of me nonstop, wearing ass-hugging yoga pants. It just, yeah, totally sucks."