Page 45 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

I don’t know if I’m seeing things, but I’d swear on my original copy of Frogger that Maeve just got a twinkle in her eye.

“I mean, it will be tight,” she says. “And I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep?—”

“That’s all I need to hear!” Kat says with a relieved breath, just as her phone starts to ring. She takes a look at it, only to let out a frustrated sight. “Tight we can work with. Also there’s no budget, despite what this guy says. Now, if you could excuse me, I have to take this.”

Kat leaves the room before Maeve can say anything else.

“Apologies for her,” I say. “She’s a lot.”

“No need.” Maeve makes it a point to look down at her notebook, writing something down. Though I have to wonder if she’s just avoiding my glance.

“Do you have any questions for me?”

My question does the trick of getting her eyes slowly meeting mine again. The second I see her beautiful blues I feel my body heating. Fuck me…I know I wanted Kat to leave, but I didn’t realize her presence was keeping me from wanting to throw Maeve up on this desk and kiss the hell out of her. If this is how my body is going to react when we’re alone together, I have a feeling I have a lot of cold showers ahead of me.

“Was she serious about no budget?” Maeve asks. “Because I can get it done in that time, but I do need to tell you it’s not going to be cheap if you’re going all out to impress.”

“She is,” I say, though I don’t like it. “I meant what I said—this is all yours, Maeve Banks. Make it your masterpiece.”

She looks at me again, a curiosity in her eyes. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You really don’t care what I do?”

I shake my head. “I don’t. Though I do have one more request.”

“I figured I wasn’t that easy. What is it? Gray walls? Black leather couches?”

“Absolutely not,” I say, taking a step closer to her. I know I should stay back, but I’m alone with the woman I can’t get outof my system, and I might be biding my time, but I also need to steal the moments when I can. “Actually the opposite.”

“The opposite?”

“That’s right: Nothing cliché. You know I hate being cliché.”

And there it is. The smile. The reddened cheeks. The Maeve I know.

“I think I can manage that.”

“I know you can. Now dazzle me, Maeve Banks. Show me what you got.”

guide to love rule #14

A man who is good with children is instantly hotter.

Those are just the rules.

14

maeve

“I told you Maeve,I don’t care about the color of towels. Just pick what you like.”

I let out a frustrated groan, because how can I keep having the same conversation with a person over and over? And I say this as a mom of a six-year-old who was once a very inquisitive three-year-old.

“For the hundredth time today, Logan, and like for every other thing we have picked out, it doesn’t matter to me. I like both, hence why I picked them. That’s why the final decision comes to you. You know, the man who will be using the bathroom every day.”

He gives the two samples a quick glance before turning his attention back to his computer, where it looks like he’s playing a video game. Because of course he is.

“Black or white? Isn’t that a little cliché?”

I shoot him a look. I know what he’s doing with that word. But I’m not falling for it.

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