Page 27 of Hiding From Laughter

Some people’s desires were bigger thantheir budgets.

“I can imagine he probably didn’t like thatanswer.” I was hoping Ashton had explained the gravity versus money problemwith more tact but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. “How is he still not happywith the plans?”

With the number of extra hours Ashton hadput in avoiding the whole diapers and tickling thing, he should’ve been aheadon every project imaginable.

His sigh and the way he finally managed tolook away from the new shelf by my chair said he agreed with me. “I have noidea. We’ve redone them three times. I’m at the point where I’m going to callhis wife and ask what the fuck is going on. They both said he’s the contact buthe can’t make logical decisions.”

Ashton’s client wasn’t the only one whocouldn’t handle logic, but that was okay because it was cute on him. “Maybedrop off paperwork when you just happen to know he might not be home.”

I shrugged in anoopskind of way ashe grinned.

“It’s not anignoring the contactthing if it’s an accident.” Looking brighter and clearly having forgotten thediapers for the moment, his smile turned devilish. “And I have to make smalltalk or I’ll be rude. If she does something like invite me in for coffee I’llhave to talk to her. It’ll seem fishy if I don’t.”

His office was weird enough that I couldsee it going sideways with some kind of strange cheating scandal popping up, soI nodded. “Agreed. You don’t want to be accused of hiding anything.”

Head cocking, he frowned. “Something likethat happened a few years ago. So you’re right.”

Yep, they were all very normal looking buteveryone who got hired was interesting in some way…even if they didn’t know itwhen they first started there.

“Then it’s only polite to be open andfriendly.” Hopefully that wouldn’t lead to any problems we hadn’t thought of.“Does that mean you’re probably going to be late tomorrow night?”

It wasn’t an intentionally leading questionbut he frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “I apologized about that.”

Well, kind of.

“I’m not sure mumbling that you were a dickand then sucking onmydick is actually an apology, but that wasn’t whatI meant.” Clearly it was still on his mind, though. “I was thinking aboutdinner. I wanted to grill those steaks we got, so I need to time them right.”

And since we didn’t have any plans for theweekend, I’d been going to make a ridiculously sized pitcher of somethingalcoholic and fruity.

That took the winds out of his disgruntledsails. His arms came down as he deflated and looked like a scolded puppy. “Oh,I’m sorry.”

He’d said that entirely too often lately.

“Thank you.” Heading over, I scooped him upin my arms and tucked him in a baby carry against my chest as I took him overto my chair. “But I think getting to the bottom of your feelings will be betterthan you having to constantly apologize.”

He’d gotten very good at it lately, butblow jobs couldn’t magically fix everything no matter what interesting logiche’d found in a book. Because no matter what that author had written, apologiesdidn’t always start on someone’s knees.

“This is much better.” Settling him againstme, I shifted him so he was curled into my chest and didn’t even try to put himin a more grown-up position. “Now, no more worrying about me being frustratedwith you for overworking and no more feeling guilty. I understood what you weredoing, and if I’d been upset, I’d have talked to you about it sooner.”

He’d needed time to stew in his worries todistill them a bit.

I thought it was a crazy process butrushing him had never helped situations like that. He was worrying about itentirely too much, though. So as I rubbed his back, I kissed his head and triedto decide how to fix it. “When I got to the point where I knew something neededto change, I bought the diapers. If you’d upset me, I promise I’d have toldyou.”

As it was, I’d just been bored and hadgotten entirely too caught up on my paperwork. His sigh said he wasn’t happywith that answer, though. I wasn’t sure what else I needed to say, but hedidn’t make me read his mind that time.

He did, however, sigh and pout. “But I wasmean to you.”

With anyone else I’d have said we needed toagree on disagreeing, but Ashton wasn’t like anyone else I’d ever met. “I thinkyou were mean to yourself more.”

He’d stressed himself out more than he’dbeen mean to me, but he didn’t see it that way. Maybe I could help him withthat, though. “You stressed out my baby. You gave him too much soda and notenough sleep. You even worked too much and hid from me.”

No one spent that much time in the bathroomwithout there being serious issues.

That’d actually worried me until I’dlistened at the door and heard the sounds of his favorite app game. The brathad probably gone up several levels as he’d tried to avoid having conversationsabout what he was curious about.

And once we got through our current roughpatch, we were going to update our contract to give me more control over shitlike that.

I’d seriously underestimated how badly hetook care of himself when he worried and how well he reacted to having a Daddyin his life.

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