“Let her sleep, bud. She’ll get up when she’s ready.” Holt’s heavier footsteps approached. “Let’s go finish the pancakes. I bet she’ll be hungry.”
They both walked away, leaving me to try to figure out the most unawkward way out. I got up, pulled on my clothes from the night before, and took one last whiff of Holt’s t-shirt before folding it and setting his clothes back on the freshly made bed. I’d strip it and wash the sheets when I came back on Monday. That way it would be ready for the next woman who stayed over to avoid a storm.
My stomach knotted at the thought. Rumor had it Holt hadn’t shown interest in anyone since his ex left a few years ago. I hadn’t gotten the whole story, and I wasn’t about to ask. It wasn’t my place. I was just the summer nanny, and summer would be coming to a close too soon. Lane would be back at school in mid-August, and I needed to find something permanent by then.
I pushed all thoughts of Holt out of my head and pulled the bedroom door open. Forcing a calm smile that didn’t give any indication of the nervous pit opening in the bottom of my stomach, I walked into the living room and made a beeline for the front door.
“Calla!” Lane ran up and threw his arms around my waist. “We made dinosaur pancakes. Will you sit by me?”
Holt didn’t look up, but I could see the hint of a smile from all the way across the house. “I made plenty. Can’t send you home on an empty stomach. Or without coffee.”
It was the promise of coffee that did it. I leaned over to return Lane’s hug, then picked him up to head toward the kitchen. “Yes to coffee, please.”
Holt handed me a steaming mug. “Sleep okay?”
His gaze met mine for a moment. I’d set Lane down on the counter, but I almost dropped the mug when Holt smiled at me. The easy grin hit me with a rush of heat low in my belly. The man was attractive when he was frowning, but when he smiled… it was like watching the sun peek out from behind a storm cloud. That sounded cheesy as hell, but it was true.
My mind went blank as he looked at me like he was waiting for something. He’d asked me a question. I couldn’t remember what it was. I stalled by taking a sip of coffee. Coffee so hot that it burned my tongue, but I swallowed it while I racked my brain.
“Calla?”
“Mmm. Everything’s great.” I nodded, overemphasizing my point. Evidently, he was satisfied with my answer since he turned his attention back to the griddle.
“Come sit by me.” Lane hopped off the counter and dragged me toward the table. “After breakfast, can we make a fort?”
“We’ll see. I need to get home so I can change, though.” I sank onto the chair next to him while Holt piled a platter high with dinosaur-shaped pancakes then set it down in the middle of the table.
“Here’s a T-Rex for you.” He slid a pancake onto Lane’s plate, then picked another one off the stack and gave it to me. “And a brontosaurus for you.”
“Thanks. This smells so good.” And it tasted even better than it smelled. Holt might not say a lot, but the man sure could make melt-in-my-mouth pancakes.
He sat down at the head of the table, his knee bumping against mine when he scooted his chair toward the table. We’d eaten together before, but this felt different. Sharing breakfast together after sleeping under the same roof was too intimate. Especially when I could still smell his scent on my skin from sleeping in his shirt.
Lane didn’t notice anything unusual. He was in a great mood for someone who’d woken up screaming and had to be eased back to sleep. But Holt seemed to recognize the undercurrent between us. His fingers brushed mine as he handed me the syrup. My cheeks heated, and when I glanced over at him to say “thank you,” he didn’t look away. Something had definitely shifted, and I wasn’t sure how to shift it back. I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
After we’d put a big dent in the stack of pancakes, Holt got up to start on the dishes. I cleared the table while Lane went in search of blankets for the fort he wanted to build.
“I should probably get going.” Part of me wanted to run while I still could, to put some distance between us so my head could catch up with my heart before it got carried away.
Holt reached out to take the stack of plates from me. His hand covered mine, and there was no way it could have been an accident. “Stay. Lane will be crushed if you leave before we make a fort.”
We stood there, eyes locked, the air between us charged. My heart raced while I tried to come up with an excuse, but my mind went blank.
“Please, Calla?” His attention shifted to my lips. Shivers raced up and down my spine and goosebumps popped on my arms.
“Ready?” Lane poked his head around the corner, disrupting the moment. “Calla, will you help me?”
I jerked my hands away and followed him. “I’ll stay until it’s done. Then I need to get home and shower.”
“She can take a shower here, right Dad?” Lane called out.
Sleeping in the spare room was much different than getting naked in the shower of the man I couldn’t get out of my head. “That’s okay. I promised my grandma I’d help her in the garden today. Let’s get this fort done. Are we going for small and cozy, or do you want it to stretch over the whole room?”
“Small. I want a reading nook like you said you had when you were little.” He held out a thick handmade quilt. The stitchwork was beautiful.
“Are you sure we should use this? It looks like someone spent a lot of time making it.”
Holt joined us. “My mom did that one. Let’s get a different blanket for the fort, bud.”
