He calls me as I’m driving away from dropping Ivy at the airport. Ainsley stayed home with Jack, and since I’m alone in the car, I pick up the call.
“Hi,” I answer.
“The standard greeting is hello,” he says.
“Did you call to tell me that?”
“No, I called because we’re starting work on the VIP lounge. It’s pretty far north on the Strip, and it’s already perfect for our needs. It has a basement beneath it that we can use for our literal underground casino.”
“Are you sure we should be talking about this over the phone?” I ask.
“I’m not bugged. Are you?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Great. We have a few minor tweaks to the inside, but the underground will take a bit longer. The lounge will be ready toopen in a few weeks, and we should have the underground ready to go within a month or two after if I can get the crews working day and night.”
“I’ll be in season,” I remind him.
“You managed to find time to socialize in season before when it wasn’t your old man asking for help,” he reminds me.
I realize he still doesn’t know about my kid, but with my big-mouthed sister on her way back home, I’m sure he’ll know soon enough.
“Right,” I say. “I need to go.” I end the call even though I didn’t really need to go. But I start training camp tomorrow. I have bigger things to focus on right now than my father guilting me into finding clients for his new VIP lounge. I’ll find a few and do what he says, of course. I stand to make a lot from this deal.
But right now, my focus is on getting back home to Ainsley and picking up where we left off before my sister showed up with her little surprise visit.
CHAPTER 25: Ainsley Bradley
Falling
I’m nervous.
The last time we were alone, he kissed me on an elevator. We haven’t been truly alone since that moment with the threat of an extra houseguest looming around the corner at any given moment.
Ivy’s on her way home now, though, and myhusbandwill be back any minute.
We still have a few hours before Jack goes to bed, and I have no idea what might happen between us after that.
Will he kiss me again? Will it lead to more? Will we have sex? Will I wake up in the morning and no longer be a virgin?
It’s weird that I stillamone. So many of my friends started having sex in high school, but maybe it was their horror stories that made me want to wait it out. I never had a real boyfriend in high school, and the few guys I dated in college weren’t worth it. And now it’s built up into this huge thing that it really doesn’t need to be.
So I’ve never had sex. Is it really that big of a deal?
And maybe I’m worried about all this for nothing. In my previous relationships, we experimented with hand jobs and fingering. I’ve given blow jobs, but I’ve never actually been on the receiving end of oral sex. See what I mean about the guys not being worth it?
Maybe we’ll start there.
Or maybe I’m delusional.
Either way, he’s leaving tomorrow, and he’s going to be gone for two weeks.
And then what?
We haven’t talked about it. We haven’t talked about much of anything in the last few days since Ivy’s been around.
When he finally walks through the front door, he closes it and leans on it for a few beats as he eyes me in the kitchen, where I’m creating my signature dish for him. It’s not as romantic as his steak and lobster dinner the night of our wedding, but I’m putting in an extreme amount of effort to make chicken tortilla soup. It’s an old family recipe that requires a lot of chopping, and I’ve had Jack in his highchair next to me watching my every move as we haveBlueyblaring from the family room television across from us.
