Page 25 of For Your Consideration

“I can grab Iris and she can hang with Sophie while I help you carry these down.” She didn’t bother to respond to my comment on the car. Because she knew I was right. I was surprised the thing was still running.

“No need. You get Soph down and transfer her car seat to my truck.”

She lifted Sophie in the carrier, which looked too heavy for her. I knew she would do this on her own all the time, but the idea of it happening when I was right here was maddening. But she didn’t seem like she was used to accepting help.

“You have a truck? How am I supposed to get the car seat—”

“It’s a four door; she’ll have plenty of room in the back if you can easily transfer the base of the seat. Truck bed has a cover so the boxes can go back there.”

I placed my hand on the carrier and took it from her carefully before Sutton could protest. I looked down at Sophie, who seemed so fragile tucked up in there with a blanket around her and something in her mouth. She was watching me but doing that slow-blinking thing.

“Aren’t you getting a box?” she asked as I stepped back out into the hall.

“I’ll come back.”

She opened her mouth but shut it again when I sent her a look. Instead she followed after me, closing the door without locking it, I assumed so I could get back in. She tilted her head, watching me as we rode the elevator. It didn’t look like it should be running but here we were. I raised an eyebrow in question when she didn’t say anything.

“You scowl and grunt a lot but I think you’re nicer than you seem.” She flushed as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

“Don’t let any of the guys hear you say that.”

She laughed as we stepped out of the building. My truck was parked right out front in the fire lane. I had made sure the thing had the best safety rating before bringing it with me today. If it hadn’t, I would have gotten a new one.

“Go grab the car seat and get it in.”

She scampered off quickly as I put Sophie on the ground and kneeled down in front of her as she blinked up at me. Noah would be thrilled to see me in dark jeans today, even if I was wearing a button-up.

I held my finger out toward Sophie and she grasped it in her strong little hand. The contrast of her porcelain skin against my dark tattoos was a good reminder that she was sweet and pure and nothing like me.

The thing in her mouth fell out as she started blabbering. I’d never been one to like kids. They were fine, but I didn’t really interact with them, especially as an adult. But Sophie was cute as shit. She had the same blonde hair and bright hazel eyes as her mother.

Sutton came back and I left her to get the seat sorted in the car so I could grab the boxes. I was going to wait and then lock her in the truck until I could come back but this area wasn’t terrible.

Didn’t mean I didn’t move quickly.

With two trips I had the car packed, her apartment locked, and we were on our way to the event.

9

Sutton

The car was quiet as we pulled away from the curb, and I folded my hands together in my lap. Looking around the truck, I noticed it was clean, like freakishly so. There was no dust on the dashboard, no gum wrappers in my cupholder. Thank God I hadn’t brought Sophie anything that would end up on the floor. I would hate to ruin his car.

“Can I play something?” I finally asked, the silence making me fidgety. And if I didn’t do something, I might try and fill the silence. But I didn’t want to drive him crazy with my talking either.

Who drives without music?

He glanced over at me skeptically from the driver’s seat, his brow quirked.

I held up my hand. “Never mind.” I glanced away and out the window. “But it’s a little crazy to drive in complete silence and it makes me question your mental stability,” I muttered as we pulled up to a stoplight.

After a moment of silence, he let out a snort and when I glanced over at him, he was holding out a cord I hadn’t noticed, all rolled up neatly and secured with a Velcro strap. When I hesitated, he moved it around. “It’s fine,” he assured me.

I suppressed my smile as I plugged in my phone while he hit a few buttons on the screen. I was glad he did that; my car wasn’t fancy enough to have any of this. I just had a receptor that went into the cigarette plug in the car and converted on a somewhat grainy radio station that would cut out over bumps—I wouldn’t know what to do with this system. And that would have been embarrassing.

The Taylor Swift song started through the speakers and I reached forward to turn up the volume—that I could figure out. As she started singing, so did I, watching Ash. The second the words came out of my mouth, terribly off key, he glanced over at me, horrified.

I laughed as I sang along to Taylor singing about lightning strikes. He kept glancing at me but then Sophie started clapping and giggling from the backseat. Which was exactly what I knew she would do. She loved music. If she was fussy I would always put something on since it calmed her down. And now we were moving her into her pop era since it was always playing in the car. Had to start her young.