Page 36 of More Than Friends

I swallow as I can’t help but let my gaze travel over him.

He’s shirtless.

In a pair of gray sweatpants.

It must be because I’m also short on sleep, but my head feels fuzzy at the sight. I rip my gaze from him and focus on Ava.

How can he look so good on so little sleep?

How did I not know he wore glasses?

I rock back and forth, watching carefully as Ava’s eyelids flutter open and shut.

“She hates me.” Jude’s deep voice breaks me from my thoughts of what seeing him shirtless in a pair of glasses is doing to me.

I look at him and make sure I keep my gaze locked on his instead of looking at his abs, which are on full display. “She doesn’t hate you.”

He lifts an eyebrow and cocks his head in my direction. I look down to find Ava fast asleep. Her little lips are parted, and drool has already started to pool.

I roll my eyes, understanding the point he’s trying to make but not agreeing with it. “She’s probably just so overtired that she finally couldn’t fight it anymore.”

“Mm-hmm.” He walks into his kitchen, and I try not to focus on the way the muscles of his back ripple with his movements.

I walk slowly with Ava and make sure I bounce with each movement. If it’s been a struggle to keep her asleep, I want to make sure I don’t do anything to mess up the fact that she’s finally sleeping.

“I’ve got terrible news for you,” Jude drawls. My eyes move to him, finding him leaning against his kitchen island. He props his elbows against the surface, his head falling forward in exhaustion.

“What’s the terrible news?”

Despite the lack of sleep, he manages a smile as he looks back up at me. “Clearly, you’re her favorite, which means you can never leave us. Not until I figure out how to calm her down on my own, at least.”

I shake my head. “I’m not her favorite. She’s just a baby and is in a new place with new people. In no time, I’m going to have to pry her away from you to get snuggles in because she’ll be so obsessed with you and not want to go to anyone else.”

He lets out a defeated groan. “I hope you’re right, Char. I don’t want to fail her. I want to be her comfort person, and it’s killing me that I couldn’t get her to stop crying tonight.”

I hate to see him look so sad and defeated. It’s not something I’m used to with Jude.

“It has nothing to do with you. I promise. Why don’t you go get some sleep, and I’ll watch her?”

His eyes scan my face. It takes everything in me to keep my gaze locked with his when he pushes himself off the counter and straightens his spine. “I didn’t call you to make you watch her for me. I can handle it.”

“I’m not offering because I don’t think you can handle it. I know you can, but you’re going to have to learn to accept help, Jude. You’ve had a long night, and I’m already here and wide-awake. Go get some sleep.”

Ava stirs in my arms. He focuses on her for a moment, keeping whatever he’s thinking to himself. Her eyes open, but her exhaustion eventually wins out, and after a few rocks back and forth, she falls asleep once again.

“I just don’t want you to think I’m using you. I only called for advice. Not free childcare.”

I roll my eyes at him. If I weren’t holding his daughter, I would push him in the direction of his room myself. But since I’m trying desperately to keep her asleep by rocking from onefoot to the other, I keep my hands to myself instead. “I’m about to stay in your house for the summer. I fully plan on helping with Ava when I can because Iwantto. Now, stop arguing and get to sleep.”

Jude lets out a deep, throaty laugh, and it does funny things to my body. “You’re kind of cute when you’re bossy.”

“Jude,” I warn. He can’t flirt with me when he’s shirtless, wearing glasses, and in a pair of gray sweatpants. That’s basically illegal and definitely against the rules.

He puts his hands up in surrender but begins to back up to his room. “If she becomes too much to handle, please wake me up.”

I nod. I’m not going to wake him up unless there’s an emergency, but he doesn’t need to know that. “Okay. Now, go get in bed.”

His eyebrows raise to his hairline. “Trying to get me into bed, Char?”