Page 99 of RomeAntically Challenged
“All but three,” Emmitt said. “Most of them have kids who are friends of Paisley’s, which makes sleeping with them a bad dad move.”
“I told you not to start up with Annie, and you clearly didn’t listen there,” Gray snapped.
“She doesn’t have kids, therefore not a bad dad move,” Emmitt clarified. “And you said Annie was strictly hands-off. You never said anything about her hands on me.”
“Always looking for the loophole,” Gray said. “Annie’s been through—”
Emmitt held a hand in front of Gray’s face. “I know exactly what she’s been through. She’s told me everything, and we’re both on the same page.”
Gray batted at Emmitt until he lowered his arm. “What page is that?”
“A page that’s between me and Anh.”
“Anh,” Gray said. “She prefers for everyone to call her Annie.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not everyone,” Emmitt said. “And I know exactly what she prefers, so why don’t you shut the hell up?”
“What’s crawled up your ass?” Levi asked.
“Nothing.”
Levi chuckled, and then a slow grin spread across his face. “Holy crap. You’ve got a smoking hot roommate sleeping in your bed, and you’ve been sleeping on the couch this whole time.”
Actually, it was the recliner. Not that he’d admit that to these boneheads, because the truth of it was, now that he knew what it felt like to sleep with her in his arms, sleeping with a wall between them was driving him nuts.
“She’s setting the pace.”
Levi laughed. “That sounds like the title of some chick flick.” Gray rested his elbows on his knees and turned his head to Emmitt. “I take everything I said back. Annie’s not the one in trouble, you are! And, man, I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
Neither could Emmitt.
Annie had said she needed a couple of days to think things through. And even though, by his calculations, a couple of days meant two, day six was coming to a close and he still hadn’t resorted to sweet-talking her into going faster than she needed.
Oh, he’d been sweet, and they’d talked—nearly every night and about nearly everything. And on the nights they didn’t talk, they snuggled up and watched movies. She favored rom-coms, and that was all right with him. Rom-coms led to kissing—okay, they kissed every night, rom-com or not—but he’d never pushed her for more.
Odd thing was, he didn’t feel like anything was missing. Did he want to sleep with her again? Yes. Did he want to do more than just sleep? Hell, yes.
But he wasn’t willing to do anything to screw up this relationship blossoming between them, and the fact that he used the wordblossomingsaid just how far gone he was.
Annie was more than just a lover. She was a friend. If he played his cards right, she could be a whole lot more.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said, and the guys laughed.
“I haven’t received your file from China,” Gray began, and Emmitt swore. “Until you come back in so I can give you a complete evaluation, my recommendation is to avoid all forms of work and strenuous activity.”
“Ohhhhh.” Levi knocked knuckles with Gray, right in front of Emmitt’s face. “You’ve been put on a sex hiatus by the good doctor here.”
Emmitt was about to knock the smirks off their faces when the slow song ended and something more upbeat began to play. The partners separated, the dads took their designated seats—as far away from their kids as possible—and it became a big mosh pit of girls dancing.
“About time,” Gray said.
“I slipped the DJ twenty bucks to play something that didn’t sound like foreplay,” Levi admitted.
Emmitt thought he saw Paisley looking his way. “Is she—?”
“Yup,” Levi said, shifting to the edge of the bench, his back straight and his body language set toYou want to dance?
“Hey, Dads,” Paisley said, swishing up to them. “Anyone want to dance?”
