Page 54 of Ms Perfectly Fine
Her phone buzzed. Nina was in the car.
“I’m not avoiding anything. We’ll talk later,” she promised, rising on her tiptoes to kiss him. It wasn’t like her to make public displays of affection, but after he’d thought she’d run away this morning, she thought he deserved some reassurance. She thought the floor would melt out from under her feet as his hand brushed her cheek.
They were interrupted when Francis returned and cleared his throat. She pulled away from Elijah’s grasp.
“Nice to meet you, Autumn, but I have to steal him away for a meeting,” Francis said with a grin.
Elijah didn’t move from her side. Autumn flushed, embarrassed to be kissing him in the middle of the lobby. He had the power to make her do things she would never dream of doing with anyone else.
“I’ll see you at home,” he called across the busy lobby as she made her hurried escape. She knew he enjoyed watching her squirm and being the one to make her do it. She turned her back, not letting him see the reaction he was so desperate for.
Chapter Nineteen
Autumn
ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, a crash distracted Autumn from her reading, and she slid open the conservatory door to hear a series of cries or giggles. Putting down her book on the kitchen counter, she knocked on Elijah’s door. He must have come home recently.
“Is everything okay?” she called out.
When he didn’t respond, she opened the door to find a toddler in navy dungarees playing with Brinkley’s tail and crying when Brinkley wouldn’t let him grab it. Autumn crossed her arms over her chest as Elijah tried to distract the toddler, who was determined to torment the poor dog. She bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.
“Do I even want to know where you got a toddler? First a dog, and now this. Should I be expecting a wife to arrive next?” she asked, noting his untucked shirt and what looked like baby powder in his hair. Seeing him so dishevelled made her day.
“Do you get paid for every sarcastic remark you make?” Elijah said, attempting to pick up the toddler, who cried the further he was taken from Brinkley. The dog had the patience of a saint.
“No, but I’ll certainly look into it,” Autumn shouted over the child’s screams. “Are you going to tell me where you got the kid? I don’t feel like being an accessory to kidnapping.”
“Todd is Francis’s son. Francis had to fix some last-minute details for our game, and Aiden is busy with a case. I said I would look after him,” Elijah explained.
“Why would you agree to mind a toddler when you clearly have no idea what you’re doing?” Autumn wasn’t the most maternal person. She could barely look after herself—the thought of childminding terrified her.
“He’s my godson, and because I’m a good person and they had no one else.” Elijah tried to soothe Todd by rocking him, but it only made him worse. The crying was beginning to grate on Autumn’s ears.
“Just put him down,” she pleaded.
Elijah rose from the carpet with Todd in his arms. She backed up as he approached her, reaching the wall. “What are you doing?”
“See if you can do a better job,” Elijah said, handing Todd to her and then crossing his arms so she couldn’t hand him back.
“I don’t know what to do.” She panicked as Todd wriggled in her arms, afraid she would drop him. “Please take him back.”
“No. Use those maternal instincts since you’re judgingmyskills.”
Autumn held Todd out in front of her, and he finally stopped crying, too busy frowning at the stranger who held him. His giant blue eyes stared at her, pale eyebrows scrunched together.
“Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m maternal. I can’t even keep plants alive, remember?” She held Todd like he was a bomb—which, strangely, he seemed to enjoy.
“He’s stopped crying,” Elijah pointed out, beaming. Todd’s blue eyes stared at her wide in wonder.
“Because he’s trying to figure out who I am and why I’m holding him.” She awkwardly rested him against her hip. Her back twinged, but she had to ignore it. Todd pulled at the thin gold chain around her neck. “Or he’s trying to strangle me.”
“Toddlers don’t think that much. If anyone in this house was going to strangle you, it would be me.” He winked.
“I didn’t know you were so kinky,” she teased.
“Not in front of the kid,” he protested.
“Does he talk?” Autumn asked, as Todd squirmed up her and pulled the pen securing her hair in place.
