Page 83 of Skate the Line

White teeth clamp onto her bottom lip. “Only if you promise not to get offended.”

“Offended bySesame Street?” I chuckle. “I think it’s a safe bet that I won’t be offended.”

She laughs nervously. “I may or may not have referred to you as Oscar, and Ellie didn’t know what I was talking about.”

“Excuse me?”Okay, fine. I am a little offended.

Sunny pouts, and unlike my earlierdate, hers is actually cute. “You promised you wouldn’t get offended.”

A sarcastic noise leaves me. “I don’t make promises, Sunshine.”

Her eyebrows come together. “Ever?”

I shake my head and get back on track. “You call me Oscar behind my back?” I ask, keeping my tone level. “Oscar the Grouch?”

“Only in my head,” she mutters.

“I’m not even grumpy with you,” I argue, looking away. “That’s unfair.”

“But youaregrumpy,” she says.

It’s probably because I need to get fucking laid.

“Sometimes.” I stare at Elmo on the screen. “A little less now that I’ve found a decent nanny to help with Ellie.”

It’s uncanny how opposite she and I are.

I call her Sunshine, and she calls me Oscar.Total fucking opposites.

“Decent?” she exclaims. “That’s it? Just adecentnanny?”

I turn toward her and grin. “You fishin’ for compliments?”

Her lips part, like she’s offended. “Uh, no. But I think I’m a little more than decent. I haven’t tried to sleep with you like the other nannies, and I never flirt. I don’t ditch Ellieever, and I’m practically available to you at all times when you need me.”

Available to you at all times when you need me.

Why did that statement wake my dick up?

A thick swallow moves down my throat. “You clean the house too.Fine. You’re more than decent.”

She makes a noise that pulls on my attention like a fucking puppet.

“I know,” she quips.

That cheeky grin of hers irritates me. It irritates me because it excites me.

I turn away when she swings her legs up onto the couch under the blanket. I know what lies beneath it.

Nothing.

“Oscar, you say…” I relax back onto the couch, shifting away from her. As if on cue, the green monster appears on the screen inside his metal trash can. “Oh look, it’s me.”

Sunny laughs quietly.

After a few minutes of watching Oscar, it switches to a different character.

“I do not act like that.” My voice is gruff.

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