Page 40 of The Good Guy on My Porch

CHAPTER EIGHT

Oscar

I hadn’t seen Dilly in several days. Partly because I’d been busy with work and classes at the university, but mostly because I’d been avoiding her. I felt like an idiot for going all caveman about a phone call with her grandmother. It was a clear sign that I needed to take a step back.

I sighed and lifted my hand to knock on Dilly’s door. I heard Buddy’s nails skitter across the hard wood floor and then the door opened. Dilly was in a tank-top and sweat pants, her hair pulled up in a messy bun, not a speck of make-up on her face. Her tank was tight and molded to her slight curves in a way that had me focusing on her face so hard that my teeth ground together.

Even frowning she was so beautiful it took my breath, but she wasn’t just frowning, she was full-on scowling at me. “Hi,” I said, suddenly nervous. “The play’s in a couple hours, but I thought you might like to go to dinner first?”

Her scowl deepened. “So you can add me to your harem?”

Harem? Was this an inside joke I’d missed? “My harem’s full at the moment,” I said, because she couldn’t possibly be serious. “I just thought you might be—”

The door slammed in my face so hard I touched my nose just to make sure it was still there. Wow. Guess that was the wrong thing to say.

I turned and looked out at the mountains, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong, but I could come up with nothing. So, I spun back around and knocked again.

This time Dilly’s expression was anger, pure rage so fierce I thought her eyes might tint red. “Look,” she said. “I get that I might be old-fashioned, but I think a man should only date one woman at a time. Especially when one of his women is pregnant.” Her anger faded just a bit and she shook her head. “You’re going to have a child, Oscar. How could you…?”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. As far as I know, I’m not pregnant.”

Her anger flared again. “How can you joke about this? I thought you were a good guy and then I find out…” She shook her head, and tears sprang to her eyes. “I guess if Molly and that blond woman are okay with the arrangement…I want to be tolerant and…But I just can’t…”

“Molly? What does Molly have to do with any of this?”

She narrowed her eyes. “She’s having your child, Oscar. You’re going to be a father and you’re bringing another woman home for sex? It’s just…It’s not right.” She stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips. “I’m sure it works fine for all of you, but I just can’t…I can’t be okay with it. I know what it’s like to grow up without a dad around and I just don’t see—”

“Dilly.” I bit back a smile as I finally understood what was going on. She kept talking over me, so I held up my hands. “Dilly. Please. Just come next door with me. I want you to meet someone.”

“There’s another one?” she asked, throwing up her hands. “Oscar, really I—”

“Please. It will take two minutes and then I’ll never darken your doorstep again if that’s what you want. I’ll move out if you ask me to.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’d never ask—”

“Well, I’d do it,” I said, all amusement fading. “I’d do anything to make you happy.”

Her breath caught and she froze, before steel replaced her vulnerable expression. “Do not say things like that to me, Oscar. Not when you’re in an open relationship with two…” She frowned. “Or is it three women, now?”

“Just come with me.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I thought I knew you, Oscar, but now I see I didn’t know you at all. You could be planning to lock me in your basement. I never did see that blond woman leaving.”

And now I was biting back a smile again. “Fine. You stay there and wait one minute. I’ll be right back.”

“Fine. But I’ve got pepper spray, and I’m not afraid to use it.”

I hurried into my half of the duplex, managing not to laugh until I was inside and the door was closed behind me.

“What’s wrong with you?” Molly asked from her seat on the couch. She’d told me that morning that she’d decided to keep the baby and was going home to Daniel on Monday. She would have already left, but Lara’s shouting had interrupted her sleep and she didn’t want to make the drive when she was so tired. “I thought you were finally making a play for the neighbor.”

That sobered me. “What?”

“It’s clear you’re still crazy about her,” she said. “Plus, I’m not deaf. I heard Lara shouting about you having a thing for someone else.” Thank goodness there was a brick wall separating the two halves of the duplex, or Dilly might have heard that, too.

“Well, she’s my neighbor and she’s got a boyfriend and she thinks I’m a gigolo.”

“What?” she asked, her eyes going wide.

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