Page 53 of The Au Pair Affair

Burgess:Nope. He’s one of the best.

Tallulah:Hmmm. HMMM.

All caps coming from anyone else was annoying.

Why was it funny and adorable coming from Tallulah?

Burgess:Was thinking, if you want to go on one of your Boston adventures today before Lissa gets home, I’m available to be a badass.

Tallulah:GASP.

Tallulah:I’m in class right now, but... I could go for an adventure in about an hour?

Burgess:Do you have something specific in mind?

Tallulah: . . .I might.

Burgess:Tell me where to meet you.

Tallulah:Amory Park?

Burgess:I’ll be there.

Burgess stopped outside of the coffee shop across from the park, making sure no one was looking before leaning close to the glass and fixing what the September wind had done to his hair, licking his fingers and smoothing down a section on top.Any other time, he might go a full day without checking his reflection or the state of his hair once, but he was about to meet Tallulah. In the park. In the middle of the afternoon.

Not a date.

He had to keep telling himself that.

No number of reminders made him any less tense, unfortunately. Whether or not this was a date, he was spending his free time with a beautiful woman. She was spending her free time with him. It might have been over a decade since he went on an actual date, but didn’t hanging out in the park together fit the criteria?

Based on the drivel he’d overheard from the Orgasm Donors, Tallulah’s generation didn’t like to put labels on anything romantic. They called each other partners, instead of boyfriend and girlfriend. They dated in groups. Just because two people were sleeping together didn’t make it exclusive. In other words, the kind of vagaries that would give him a brain bleed... if they concernedher.

He’d deal with it, though. For now.

She’d taken time out of her day to come meet him. Trusted him to come along as she explored his city. The unknowns were a fair trade-off for feeling his pulse pounding for something other than a hockey game. Yeah. Fine. He’d let it be vague. For now.

Burgess checked his watch. Fifteen minutes early.

Maybe he should call Sig. His teammate might be able to help him figure out how to handle the fact that the girl he wanted to sleep with was trying to prepare him for the dating scene.Otherwomen. Sig dated, right? They didn’t really discuss their love lives, but Sig always claimed to be busy these days when the young guys went out to clubs or parties.

His other option was Wells.

Yeah, he’d call Wells. The golfer had gone through some recent turmoil trying to lock down his caddie, which was probablythe same level of difficulty as trying to land his grad student au pair. Jesus Christ, was that really what he was trying to do?

He thought of her braiding Lissa’s hair.

Glaring at him over a peanut butter smoothie.

The way she’d blushed when he leaned in to kiss her.

The first night she’d lived in his place and he’d come home to find her bent over the kitchen table in a leather skirt.

Yup.

Land her. That was the game plan.

Burgess took out his phone, sighing as he tapped Wells’s name in his contacts. This was going to be insufferable, so he’d damn well better get some insight out of it.

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