This was unexpected progress. But to make it stick, I needed to make it slow progress.
“You don’t have to walk me all the way inside. You have to be at the field later today.”
“I’m the manager. I don’t have to run any drills or stay in the batting cage. I direct.Manage.” He winked and took my hand.“I’ll walk you upstairs and go since you seem to be in such a rush to get rid of me.”
I craned my neck to him as I unlocked my door.
“That is not it.” I pushed the door open, stepping aside for him to come in and shut it behind us.
“You’re exhausted. I want you to go home and get some rest.”
“Which I will do when I get home.” Silas backed me against the inside of the door. “I like knowing you’re okay. Safe. Even putting you in a cab that morning bothered the hell out of me because I couldn’t even text you to check if you made it home.”
“But you could look up my author page and check later, right?”
He narrowed his eyes, boring them into mine as he shook his head.
“I want to take care of you. You don’t need it and you’ve done more than great on your own with your sister, but you deserve it.” He traced his knuckles along my jaw. “You’re beautiful in the morning.”
I chuckled as I grabbed on to his wrist.
“I have a head full of tangles and last night’s makeup shadowing my face. That does it for you?”
He ran his thumb along my bottom lip, his body almost flush to mine.
No harm in taking him upstairs for just a little while, right?
“Youdo it for me. Give me that mouth.”
My knees melted as I fell against him, looping my arms around his neck as he crushed his lips to mine, pressing me into the door as he slid his hand up my bare thigh.
“Rach?”
My eyes popped open as my body froze. That couldn’t be my sister’s voice. She wasn’t due home until two. I’d just spoken to her last night around ten, and she’d said, “See you after two.”
“What are you…what are you doing home?”
“Did you check your phone this morning? One of the parents had an emergency, so we had to leave first thing in the morning. Like, before sunrise.”
Taylor gaped at both of us, her eyes darting back and forth between Silas and me as Mrs. Ruiz tried, and failed, to hide her smile.
My kid had texted me that she was coming home early, and I was too busy having sex to check my phone. Too many orgasms had cost me valuable brain cells. I wasn’t there for my kid because I was too distracted by my boyfriend.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“I’m so sorry, Tay. I should have checked, and I didn’t.”
“She’s fine,” Mrs. Ruiz said, patting Taylor on the shoulder. “She’s only been here for fifteen minutes. She didn’t have her key, so she stayed with me for a bit. Stop thinking what I know you’re thinking.” She pinched her gray brows at me.
“So, um,” Taylor said, making a slow approach to where I was still backed against the door. “You and Mr. Jones…” She pointed her finger back and forth between us.
“Yes,” I said. While I’d planned on bringing him around a lot later, I wouldn’t lie about who he was to me. I didn’t say the words, but Taylor was a smart kid. And what she’d caught us doing was obvious for anyone to figure out.
“Listen, why don’t we go upstairs and talk? Yes, talk,” I said, my words too fast and squeaky as I pushed past Silas and Taylor and jetted upstairs.
I didn’t turn to the stomp of footsteps behind me as I unlocked the door and threw my big purse by the coat rack. Silas’s jersey was sticking out, and I gave thanks that at least I hadn’t worn it home as he’d suggested.
“Did you have fun?” I asked my sister as I sat on my couch. I found Silas’s gaze as he stuffed his hands into his pockets andleaned against the wall, jerking my head toward the cushion next to me to signal him to come sit down.
