Page 40 of The Baby-whisperer and the Brute
The only difference today was that my protective sun-shirt was form-fitting. It had to be if I was going to swim in it. Nothing worse than some floppy thing floating around me and chafing my skin.
Wait... did shelikethe way I looked in it?
I guessed the spandex blend left little to the imagination—the cut of my chest, abdominal muscles, and arms would be pretty obvious through the thin, clingy material.
The idea that Angelina would notice it pleased me, sending spirals of heat through my midsection and lower. I stepped closer to the counter to hide the growing bulge in the front of my swim trunks.
I wanted to seeherfigure as well. The red wrap dress at the shop had been such a contrast to her usual drab, shapeless clothing, and it had looked so good on her I’d almost had to gather up my tongue like a dropped roll of bathroom tissue.
I’d never seen her in a swimsuit—but I desperately wanted to.
“Aren’t you gonna change?” I asked. “The girls want you to go to the pool with us.”
Angelina gave me an overly bright smile. “I know. I’m going. I’m fine like this. Anyway, I don’t have a suit. We didn’t use the pool at our house—it was never filled.”
And now I was confused. “What do you wear when you take the girls swimming?”
She gestured to her clothing.
“This. I just sit on the edge and dangle my feet in while they play in the shallow end. Don’t worry, it’s safe. I never take my eyes off them, and I’m ready to jump in at a moment’s notice. They’re always begging to go in the deep end, but I told them they’d have to wait until Daddy was with them. Today, you are.”
She smiled.
“Yeah, and I’m gonna need your help to supervise both of them in the pool at the same time,” I said. “I’d like for you to go up and put on a suit as well. Please.”
“I told you—I don’t have one.”
I smiled, feeling rather pleased with myself. “That’s not exactly true. I picked one up for you at the shop. The sales lady told me it was the right size.”
Angelina’s eyes rounded. “You did? You shouldn’t have done that. I told you, you don’t need to buy anything for me.”
“Sorry,” I said, knowing I didn’t sound the least bit regretful. “But you do need a suit to swim with Skyla and Claire. So really, I did it for them. We’ll just wait for you here while you change.”
“Hurry Angelina,” Skyla pleaded.
“Hurry,” her littleme-tooClaire echoed.
Sighing and shaking her head, Angelina headed for the stairs. “I hope it wasn’t an expensive one.”
I chuckled. There wasn’t an item in that store thatwasn’texpensive, which was exactly why I’d chosen it.
Hopefully the saleswoman had removed all the prices as I’d asked her to because when Angelina got to her room, she’d find a hell of a lot more than just the pretty swimsuit waiting for her.
She would discover my surprise.
I’d instructed Julian to deliver all her new clothing to her suite.Herclothing—not my mother’s.
I was looking forward to seeing her wear each and every garment—especially that red dress, maybe with a pair of strappy high-heeled sandals.
Speaking of that, I’d need to get her shoe size and pick some up. I’d already started trying to manufacture an occasion appropriate for it.
More than that, I was looking forward to seeing the look on Angelina’s face when she told me how excited she was about her new wardrobe.
Within minutes she returned to the kitchen, still wearing the same clothing she’d had on before. She did not look excited.
The complete opposite in fact. She wore an angry scowl.
“Whyare all your mom’s new clothes in my room?”
