He wants me.
I like that. And I want him. I want himsobadly.
I adjust my nipples, which isn’t really a thing, but it’s the closest I can think of to make him feel not so alone in being visibly turned on.
He squeezes his eyes shut for a brief second, but a smile is playing on his lips.
“Am I ridiculous?” I ask.
“In all of the best ways.”
“Amanda, I’m unlocking this door,” Mom calls.
I slide off the desk and hastily put the secret compartment back together.
The lock clicks open behind me.
Dane turns to studiously examine the worker schedule, or possibly the requisite workplace signs, on the bulletin board next to the desk.
And Mom totally catches me in the drawer.
“What are you doing?” She’s looking at me like she was afraid of what she’d find when she walked in here.
“Trying to solve a mystery,” I answer honestly.
“What mystery?”
“Why our families don’t get along.”
She sighs. “Your father always told me the only people who knew the full story were dead and buried, and I’ve never gotten anything more from your grandmother. I can’t fix this for you two, but I promise I’ll be better myself. It ... wasn’t right of me to decide to hate people just because my husband asked me to.”
“Could be worse reasons,” Dane says.
“Dad wouldn’t have asked you to hate the Silvers if he didn’t have a good reason.” Loyalty is my default when it comes to my dad.
I miss him. He wasn’t perfect, but he was my dad, and I will always miss him.
But Mom shakes her head. “He never gave me a reason. Your father was a good man, but that’s a red flag. You two are correct. There’s no reason why our family shouldn’t get along with the Silvers. No reason why we can’t start fresh with a clean slate.”
“Grandma doesn’t agree,” I say.
“My grandparents aren’t there yet either,” Dane says.
He’s being as polite as a person can be while angling his body away so she can’t see the way his pants are still bulging in the crotch.
This man.
I need five minutes alone with him in a broom closet, stat.
“That might have to be their problem,” Mom says. “I’m on your side. But I can’t work miracles this fast.”
Dane nods to her. “Thank you. Your support all on its own is more than enough.”
I would very much like to go a full hour without my eyes welling up and my sinuses getting hot and my throat feeling froggy.
But today will apparently not be the day that that happens.
“It only extends as far as you don’t hurt my daughter,” Mom says.
