the dog.
“Be mindful of the designer china dish there, Buck,” he said with a smirk.
Laughing at the events of the afternoon, Ronnie began dinner preparations. After finishing
up, he made sure Addie would be okay alone and then headed out to take Buck back to
Rusty’s house, trying not to think about when he might see Addie’s beautiful mother
again.
Chapter Three
Twelve days. That was exactly how long Ronnie had been working for her, and he was
like some sort of miracle gift from God.
He had dinner waiting for Kayla every weeknight. Rather than doing the few items she
could think to write down on a piece of paper, he just came in and took over running
the household. As for her idea of wanting an older, grandfatherly type…
She truly appreciated the fact that Ronnie was closer to her own age and in
very
good shape. Keeping herself from ogling him whenever he was around was nearly impossible.
The man was the best-looking thing she’d seen in quite some time.
He’d caught her staring at him a couple of times and had only smiled as though he
knew what she was thinking. She would have been embarrassed if not for the fact that
she’d caught him eyeing her a couple of times in return. He didn’t appear to care
if she caught him looking, and his gorgeous smile was even bigger when she caught
him than when he caught her.
In spite of his gorgeous smiles, he was a serious man, mostly quiet and often all
business. He had wasted no time whipping her house into shape and keeping it that
way.
She and Addie had been taking a little more care to keep things picked up and organized
as well, and their efforts were making a huge difference. Addie was more relaxed,
and so was Kayla. Addie was appreciating being able to go to practices and hang out
with her friends without worrying about whether she would end up having to get a ride
home. Having the house clean and dinner taken care of actually allowed Kayla time
to talk with Addie and find out about her daughter’s day at school…almost like when
her mother had lived with them.
Last weekend, when Kayla had finally made it home, she’d been pleasantly surprised
to learn Ronnie had already done the laundry—until it dawned on her that meant he’d
washed her personal items as well. When she’d figured that out, he’d grinned and then
winked
at her!
Over the past week, they’d gotten into a routine. She was pretty sure that Addie was
well on her way to completely adoring Ronnie. Kayla was just grateful for his help,
though she could only imagine what Ronnie thought of her parenting and housekeeping
skills. He made organizing their lives look easy, while it had been difficult for
her to keep up even before all the overtime hours for this new ad campaign.
Sighing, she picked up her cell phone, selected him from her contacts list and hit
Call. Tonight was the first football game of the season and she’d realized there was
no way for her to make it on time if she still planned to stop at the nursing home
for a visit.
“I hate to ask,” she said when he answered, “but is there any way you could drop Addie
off at the football field tonight?”
When he didn’t respond right away she added, “I will be there to pick her up. In fact,
I should be there by halftime. I promise. I’m just running late and I wanted to stop
by and visit my mom to see if she needs anything.”
“Say please,” he said, his voice low and husky.
Was he
flirting
with her, or just teasing? It was a little unexpected coming from the normally quiet
man, so she paused a moment before saying, “Please, Ronnie.”
“Yeah, like that,” he said.
She could swear she felt his words. They made her breath catch. A flush of heat spread
across her cheeks.
Just breathe…
A suddenly heavy sexual tension stretched across the connection. Finally he said,
“I will get her to the game on time and make sure she’s fed beforehand. I will
Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy