Page 27 of For Your Consideration

I walked over to Knight and Asher but Sophie spotted me first. She let out an excited squeal and started reaching toward me as Asher turned around. It was a good thing he had a strong hold on her because she looked about ready to topple over in her excitement to get to me.

As I reached them, I smiled and took her from him, covering her face in kisses as she giggled. It was the best sound in the world. As she leaned into me and started to babble, I looked over at Knight.

“Quinn seems like she could use a break. You might want to go rescue her.”

His eyes were already on her as he nodded seriously and took off. I felt bad—Damien was likely about to be cut off but people were less likely to approach her if Knight was with her versus me. Once he was gone, I realized that I was alone with Asher, which made me a little nervous.

Excited, but nervous.

“Thanks for watching her today.” I pressed a kiss on her head. “You didn’t have to.” When I looked over at him, he had a frown on his face but his eyes were looking above me. “Are you okay?”

“What the hell is going on today?” he muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest. I took a step closer to him, my eyes darting over his face.

“What do you mean?” My nerves spiked. I hadn’t thought anything was wrong.

But maybe it was about me? Had I left Sophie with him for too long?

“Women won’t leave me alone,” he grumbled, interrupting my spiral as he looked around the room.

I bit my lip, my shoulders relaxing as I watched his annoyed face. I’d seen it happen a few times this afternoon, a woman being brave and walking up to him. I’d looked away each time because I had no logical reason to be jealous, and yet I was. Since he had Soph, I kept an eye in case he wanted to go off or have a real conversation—that’s what I told myself anyways. But he always seemed to ignore them or brush them off. His focus never left Sophie.

“Of course they won’t,” I said, still holding in a laugh as Sophie patted my face. His eyes cut to me with an eyebrow raised. This was his confused face. It was only subtly different from his hurry-up-and-tell-me face, or his please-leave-me-alone face. “You seriously don’t know?”

“I don’t get approached.”

This time I did let out a laugh. Sophie joined in only as a reaction to me. But her giggle made me laugh a little harder, like it always did when she found something funny. Asher’s eyes bounced between me and my daughter, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth as I got myself back under control.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”

He didn’t look at all bothered, but the confusion was still there. “Explain.”

“I mean, normally you probably look too unapproachable for women to come up to you. You’re kind of intimidating.”

“No different today.”

I shot him a look but his eyebrow was still up. I shook my head with an amused eye roll. “Come on, Asher. With the tall, dark, and handsome thing you have going on, accompanied by the tattoos visible on your hands and muscular forearms when you have your sleeves rolled up like that, you look like a bad boy shoved into a suit. You probably get approached once in a while, normally when someone is feeling brave, but add all of that with my sweet baby on your hip, you’re bait. She softened you too much, made you seem more approachable.”

He tilted his head and looked at me for a moment. “You think I’m handsome?” He took a step closer to me.

“Of course that was all you heard,” I replied. “I think the more important—” Sophie’s cry cut me off. I looked down at her red face, the tears starting to come out as her bottom lip quivered.

Classic. She’d been fine moments ago.

“What’s wrong?” Asher asked sharply as he closed in on us. The small smile was gone from his face and his brow was furrowed. He was close enough that we were practically pressed against his chest, like he was trying to circle us, his eyes locked on Sophie.

“She’s fine.” I took a step to move around him, to give myself a little space. Because being that close to him cut off my ability to think. He had some sort of intoxicating smoky, woodsy scent. I’d noticed it that day in the office, then again in his car. The smell seemed to linger but I didn’t mind; it wasn’t overpowering.

“She’s crying,” he said in an accusatory voice like we both weren’t hearing her.

I kept walking with him close behind me. “She just needs her diaper changed.” I grabbed my bag from behind the table that Quinn had let me use to stow our stuff.

“Are you sure that’s it?” He was still following behind me as I let out a laugh.

“Yes, Asher, I’m sure. I promise she’s okay.” I made it to the hallway, happy to find a large single bathroom. I reached for the handle, but Asher’s hand was already there pushing it open for me. “Thanks, I’ll be right—”

“Do you want help?” he asked, looking down at me as I came to a pause in front of him.

“You don’t have to—”