Page 29 of Rebound

“I can’t ask Jeannie to pay for—”

“Not Jeannie. Me,” he says.

I sit there frozen before I start to cough. He pats my back, and I move away from him.

“What did you just say?” I stand and go to the other side of the room to get as far away from him as possible because there’s no way I heard what I thought I did.

“I said I will pay for Gaga’s rehab, and when she’s released, if you want her to go to this home, I’ll pay for that too. If you’d rather she stay here, I can arrange to have—”

I hold up a hand and he stops talking. “Why on earth would you do that for me? We don’t even like each other.”

“I like you,” he says. He stands too and walks over to me.

I’m frozen, and with each step he takes, I feel my heart beating against my ribs. “No. I can’t accept that.” I shake my head at him. “Thank you, but that’s too much.”

“Listen, come and sit back down.” He offers me his hand, and without thinking about it, I put mine in his. I never noticed how soft and supple his skin is. His hand is warm too. It’s nice.

We walk back to the couch, and this time, when we sit, he moves much too close to me. His cologne hits, and I remember how good he smelled yesterday.

“I can’t take charity,” I tell him.

“It’s not charity. There’s something I will need back from you.” For the first time since I’ve known him, he seems a little nervous. Some color creeps up his face. I gasp and start to stand, but he puts a hand on my lap, keeping me in place.

I never noticed how strong he was before.

Unable to stand, I put a hand to my chest to try and calm my rapidly beating heart.

“I knew it. I knew you wanted to sleep with me. I told you the day would never come when I would go to bed with you. God,” I say, putting a hand on my forehead and pushing my bangs out of the way. “You really have gone through all the women in this city, and now you’re sniffing around me. I bet you’ve screwed everyone in the state.”

He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’m sick of you calling me a whore and throwing my past in my face. Why are you so damn judgmental? I had sex. So what? Everyone I slept with was willing.” I open my mouth to argue, but he talks first. “I’m not trying to sleep with you. I mean, I would like to, but that’s not what I’m getting at here.” I throw a pillow at him in horror, and he laughs at me. “What I’m asking for is a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“That still sounds sexual to me,” I say, my voice rising.

“Shh.” He puts one of his long fingers to his lips. I clear my throat and look away.

“Look, Gaga will need a lot of help, and you want her to have the best care. I can make sure she gets it.” I stare into his face and wait to hear more. He’s right about that, so I don’t bother arguing with him. “And I need help with Jasmine.” My eyebrows shoot to my forehead. Of course, that’s what he needs. He’s crazy about his daughter, and that might be his only redeeming quality. That and his cooking, but I won’t tell him that. It makes sense that he would need help with her, especially when basketball season resumes and he’s gone so much.

I’m not sure if I buy his explanation about the nanny, but if it’s true, I can understand his reluctance to hire another one.

“Oh,” I say, taking a breath of relief. “You want me to help you find a suitable nanny? I can do that. And I know I can find someone better than the one you hired. I can ask Vickie—”

He holds his hand up. “I can ask Vickie myself. That’s not what I need from you.”

“You want me and my mom to watch her for you when you’re working? She’s really attached to you, so I don’t know—” I stop talking and look around. I don’t know how that would work out. We don’t have the space to give her her own room, and I don’t know how she would react to so much change. Besides, there’s still the issue of who is going to watch her when we’re at work. “You’ll have to put her in daycare, and then maybe—”

“Will you let me finish? Sheesh,” he says. “I’m not looking for you to be a babysitter.”

“Then I don’t know what you want.” I stand abruptly, unwilling to think further about what he’s saying. There’s no way he’s asking what I think he’s asking. No way.

I go to the kitchen and pretend to wipe the already clean table. I’m not there longer than a minute before he walks behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders. Only his hands touch me, but I can feel the heat of his body, and I wonder why I never noticed how warm he is.

He slowly spins me around to face him. When I can’t or won’t meet his eyes, one of his large hands grasps my chin and forces me to look up.

“I think you do know,” he whispers.

I break the stare and shake my head. “Look, I will help when I can, but whatever I can do won’t be worth you paying tens of thousands of dollars a month for Gaga’s care.”

“It will be if you marry me.” All the air leaves the room when he says those words. I look into his face to see if he’s serious. What I see in his eyes makes me shake my head.

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