Page 84 of Rookie Move
A moment later Leo slipped into the bedroom again, wearing his boxers and nothing else except a grin. It was a fine sight, but it still made Georgia anxious. He closed the door behind him, then crawled onto the bed, pushing Georgia down into the mattress.
“He could have seen you!” she whispered.
“The man is sawing logs out there,” Leo said, nuzzling her ear. “I need to get going home, though, while the getting’s good.”
Except he didn’t go. Instead, he began to drop gentle kisses onto her cheekbone. One of his hands wandered under the covers, skimming up her knee, sliding onto her thigh... It was the stuff of fantasies. Waking up with Leo on a weekend morning.
With her father in the next room.
Sigh.
She gave him a little shove on the chest. “Behave,” she whispered.
He gave her a naughty smile. But then he got up and grabbed his jeans off the chair.
“Your shoes are under the couch,” Georgia whispered. “That end,” she said, pointing.
When he was finished dressing, Leo patted his pockets for his phone and keys. Then he kissed Georgia on the head. “I’ll call you later.”
She caught his scruffy face in two hands and held on just a moment longer. “Okay. Sorry about breakfast.”
“Next time.”
She stood up to watch him make his escape.
Leo slowly opened the bedroom door one more time. Her father’s snores were loud, with a nice big honk at the end of each one, just like in a cartoon. Leo tiptoed over to the end of the couch and bent down. He slowly drew outfirst one shoe and then the other. He hooked two fingers into the heels and slowly rose.
That’s when everything seemed to happen at once.
Her father’s snore gave an extra loud honk and then stopped—going absolutely silent. Leo froze midstep toward freedom. And Becca’s bedroom door snapped open. “Hi...” she said before breaking off, probably picking up on Leo’s awkward body language.
From the sofa, Georgia’s dad coughed and rustled the sheets. She couldn’t see him from where she stood, but it was the sound of a man waking up. She gestured frantically toward Leo and the door.
Leo had been a natural at sports all his life. He knew how to spot an opening, and how to take a shot before the opening slammed shut. So now he hustled toward the door.
“Morning, Becca!” Georgia said loudly and with false brightness. “Sleep okay? My dad is here.”
Leo was out the door by the time she got to the end of that sentence. But Georgia flinched at the sound of the apartment door opening and closing.
“Um, yeah,” Becca said, wide-eyed.
“Princess?” her father called. “You just come in?”
“Yup!” she said with too much enthusiasm. “Checked for the newspaper, but it wasn’t down there yet.”
He sat up. “What time is it?”
“Excellent question,” she said, her heart still pounding. “I’ll just find out.”
She escaped to her room with a pounding heart. And three minutes later she got a one line text from Leo.I’m home now, but I forgot something.
What???she replied, hoping her father wasn’t just about to discover Leo’s watch in the sofa cushions.
I didn’t get to say good-bye to the tatas, damn it. I miss them.
She practically slumped with relief.They miss you, too.
There were, in fact, quite a few of her body parts shewould have liked for him to have visited this morning. But you can’t have everything. Georgia got dressed slowly, then went to see how her father was doing.
