Page 21 of Big Trouble

And this morning, he’s acting like nothing has changed between us. Yes, he’s even more flirty than he was last night, but why? And what does that mean?

I’m the one who climaxed. He didn’t. Shouldn’t he be grumpy or moody or something?

And also, why did no one ever tell me that man-induced orgasms are better than vibrator induced ones?

Why am I so inexperience? If I had just lost my virginity in college, I would know how to handle this! I should have been an engineering major! I bet female engineering majors get laid all the time! Pursuing a career I have zero interest in would be totally worth it if it meant avoiding all this post sex anxiety!

Abruptly, I stand up, my chair clattering loudly as I push it back with my legs. “I have to go,” I blurt.

Clementine just shoves another bite of pancake into her mouth. “Okay.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” both Brody and I say at the same time.

His gaze catches mine and his lips curve into a knowing smile. A taunting smile. An I-made-you-come-last-night smile.

My belly flip flops like a pancake and my heart flutters, when it hits me. I’ve been worried about the wrong person’s emotions.

I spent all of breakfast worried about what he was thinking about when I should have been worrying about myself. For the first time, I see clearly what I should have noticed before now. I adore this little girl, but I might just love her dad even more.

How can I not love a man who reads with his daughter every evening and who makes her pancakes? A man who loves his daughter so much he lets her keep a rambunctious dog, a grumpy-ass cat, and a dozen fat roosters? A man who walked away from a career as a football god so that he would raise his daughter?

Yep. This is it. The kiss of death for my entire career. Because I will never love another kid as much as I love Clementine and won’t ever be able to nanny for another family.

Damn it. I really should have been an engineering major. I bet they never have to deal with this shit!

I take a nervous step backwards. “I need to …”

What?

Go cry into my pillow?

Work on my resume?

Enroll in therapy?

Apply for engineering school?

“Take a shower,” I end up blurting. “Is that okay? Can you two…”

Once again I trail off, at a total loss for words.

Clementine flashes me a bright, but syrupy smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll watch over Daddy while you’re gone.”

Brody gives a huff of laughter and rubs his hand over her curls. “Yeah. We’ve got this.”

I’m most of the way out the door when he says, “Hey, Winnie.”

I turn around to see him looking at me with a smirk on those perfect full lips. “Yeah?”

“Don’t forget about tonight.”

My stomach drops. Tonight? What’s happening tonight?

Is that a innuendo? Or a come on or whatever?

I can feel the heat flooding my cheeks as I imagine all this things that we didn’t do last night that he seems to be implying will happen tonight.

“Wh-what’s tonight?”