Page 72 of RomeAntically Challenged
“Love you guys,” Annie said, finger poised to end the call.
“Maybe I’ll find you a nice husband at the wedding,” Maura said.
“What your mother means is, we love you,” Marty said, then ended the call for her. He must have heard Annie request the rest of the muffins and wanted to return the favor.
She looked up at Emmitt, who was leaning against the counter, casual as can be, brows raised in question. “Flapjack?”
“Before you say anything more, remember Sweet P,” Annie said. “Every kid gets an embarrassing nickname from their dad.”
“Mine was Dump Shit,” he said, and Annie was so stunned she jerked back.
“He”—she caught herself right before saying Les—“called you that?”
“And Sweet P is a great nickname,” he said, ignoring her question.
The front door blasted open, and Emmitt and Annie sprang apart moments before Paisley came bursting into the kitchen. Backpack on the floor, bag of glitter and fabric on the counter, she jumped into her dad’s arms.
“I passed out all the invites,” she squealed. “And guess what?”
“What?”
“Everyone is coming.” She gave him a big smack on the lips and then stepped out of his arms and skipped to the fridge. “Everyone! Even Kristan. She drove me home today. Don’t worry. Daddy already knows her and she’s driven me home from school before, and she’s going to help me plan the most ‘epic sleepover’”—she did dancing quotes with her fingers—“Kristan’s words not mine. In fact, that’s what she wants to refer to it as. She thinks it will help distract everyone from your ‘No Boys policy,’” she said, not stopping to take a breath. “Oh, and I promised I’d talk to you about possibly removing the—”
“No boys. That was the deal.”
“That’s what I told her, but you know Kristan.” She stopped and tilted her head sideways. “Wait, you do know who Kristan is, don’t you?”
“Nope, but you seem excited. That’s enough for me,” he said, and it was Annie’s turn to be amused.
“She’s a junior who has her own car. Her own car!” Paisley’s hands were in constant motion, grabbing a soda, a snack, putting her water bottle in the sink, bouncing around the kitchen like a pinball. Annie needed a nap just watching her. “It’s super old, like a 2009 Nissan or something. Her grandma gave it to her, but who cares, she says we can go shopping for all the party stuff next week.” And for the first time since she came home, she paused. “Is that okay?”
“Ah, yeah,” he said. Paisley might never know just how much her simple question had affected Emmitt, but Annie could see the emotion in his eyes. “I can give you some cash.”
“That’s okay. Daddy gave me his credit card, and—” She turned. “Oh my God, I totally forgot to tell you, Sam told me what you did today.”
Oh boy.Annie glanced at Emmitt, wondering what he could have done to possibly top threatening the kid. Only instead of yelling, Paisley began squealing.
“I assume he talked to you about being on the decoration committee?” Emmitt was speaking to Paisley, but hisye of little faithtone was all for Annie.
“Yes! He joined! I’ll tell you about it at dinner, I have homework to do, plus I have to Snap Kristan.” Paisley slung her backpack over her shoulder; grabbed her soda; and, with a bag of chips between her teeth, said, “Hi, Annie. Bye, Annie.”
Annie waited until she heard the bedroom door shut before she said, “A sleepover?”
He shrugged. “This morning at drop-off, one of the moms warned me of a rumor going around about a party at the Cliffs the weekend after the dance. It’s a three-day weekend, and it’s a ‘go all-out’ party. I know what those parties are like, so I figured that if I offered to have a party here, P and her friends will have a legit reason to be no-shows.”
Annie rested against the counter next to him, their hips an inch apart. “That was very proactive of you. Your right eye didn’t even start twitching when she brought up Gray paying for it.”
“I get to be the hero and he picks up the tab?” He shrugged. “Fine with me. I’m more interested in you noticing I wasn’t twitching.” They were still a friendly distance apart, but his tone ate up any space between them. “Does that mean you were gazing into my eyes, Anh?”
She loved it when he said her name like that. “You have pretty eyes.” Eyes that were fixed on her mouth as if she was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen. They were filled with promises of what was to come. “And they didn’t burn with the flames of hell when she brought up Sam. You really asked him to be on the decorating committee?”
“Sam was already on the committee. I just convinced Gray that if they are properly supervised, it’ll be okay for them to hang out.”
She hip-checked him, but it wasn’t playful like it had been the other night at the bar. Oh, there was a playful element to it, but there was also a whole lot of heat sparking between them. “Wow, I’m very impressed.”
“Before you go getting all sweet on me, you should know that I moved the decoration committee meetings to Gray’s house. So he’ll get to play the enforcer and I get to be the hero. Even if for just a minute.”
Chapter 18
