“What do you mean?” I ask, my smile widening.
“It’s just that you … well, to be honest, you come off as a prude half the time. But every once in a while, you throw in one ofthosecomments in your sexy-doctor voice,” she says, lowering her tone, “and I’m not sure what to think about you.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “And just how much time have you spent thinking about my sexy-doctor voice, Blondie?”
Her lips part in shock, and her eyelashes flutter. I can’t tell whether she’s guilty or embarrassed, but I’ve obviously hit a nerve. “Don’t make me answer that,” Daisy pleads quietly, and a wave of heat surges through me, just as Charley begins to whine.
I clear my throat and bounce the fussy baby over my knee a few times. What the heck am I even doing right now? That felt dangerously close to legit flirting, and the absolute last thing I should be doing is flirting with my wife. Because she’s also my much younger, very naive, overly romantic, extremely vulnerable, practically untouched best friend’s baby sister, as well as my roommate.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper after a moment, but my apology is drowned out by cheers when the football team busts through a huge banner and stampedes onto the field.
“What?” she asks, squinting.
“I said I’m sorry,” I reply a little louder.
Daisy shakes her head. “You’rewhat?”
“I’m sorry for making you think I’m so sexy!” I yell, just as the crowd quiets down and stands for the National Anthem.
A handful of heads turn to gape at me, and I cringe. “Sorry for that, too,” I add. Daisy covers her mouth, but a snort and a giggle still escape from behind her hand.
“Landry Nicholas! Give. Me.That!” Loren shrieks, snatching Charley from my lap. But she’s barely disguising her own amusement.
I scowl in return. “What, I’m not allowed to say ‘sexy’ in front of your offspring? As if their parents haven’t said worse.”
She scoffs. “You should have heard the offer I just made to their daddy in exchange for getting them both to sleep after this game,” she declares, making me groan. “But you’re not allowed to use my babies to pick up women, especially since you’re already a pediatrician. Charley’s too cute, so it creates an unfair advantage, and Daisy deserves a level playing field.”
“But … I’m not …” I shake my head. “Nothing’s going on between Daisy and me. That’s why I apologized for accidentally flirting with her.”
I realize I’ve said too much, because my sister’s smirk stretches across her face like an evil villain formulating a master plan. I half expect her to cackle, and—dammit, there she goes.
“Oh, dearest brother, there is noaccidental flirting,” she corrects me. “Only involuntary seduction.”
“No,” I reply forcefully. “None of that. There will be absolutelyzeroseduction happening here.”
Loren purses her lips and glances at Daisy, and my eyes dart over reflexively to find my wife tucking her hair behind her ear and staring back at me with her eyes wide, her cheeks rosy, and her lips pouty.
Whoa, hold on—why do her lips look so pouty? Better yet, why am I looking at her lips in the first place? And why do I keep calling hermy wifeinside my head?
I swallow hard and force my gaze away, but I need something better to distract me before I do something stupid, like allow myself to be attracted to Daisy. And if I so much as think about her mouth again, I’m totally done for.
Her mouth …
Hand-foot-mouth disease … oral candidiasis … erythema infectiosum …
There. Nothing sexy about childhood viruses and infections.
“Landry?”
“Huh?” I straighten.
“I’m just teasing,” Loren says, adjusting Charley in her arms. “Loosen up, all right?”
I roll my shoulders back. “Who says I’m uptight?”
“That constipated look on your face, for one.” I roll my eyes, and she mumbles, “Unless that’s just sexual frustration,” under her breath.
“Enough, Lo,” I growl.
