There the word was again:friend.
Friend’s heads don’t get lost in the clouds when they decide to go to lunch together. That’s exactly what had happened to her when Teo invited her to meetElijah.
Great. Now she had to come up with another new word. One that said friends withbutterflies.
Teo’s brow furrowed. “How soon will they want you tostart?”
Cedar cut her vocabulary science experiment short. “I-I don’t know. I’ll find out sometime around the secondinterview.”
“You don’t sound excited.” Teo touched her arm again sending those soda bubbles over her skin and a marvelous shiver all the way to hertoes.
“I’m cautiously optimistic.” She’d been excited about the interview—as excited as she dared to get, anyway. Her hopes had been high for the Tiny Titans Camp, and therefore the fall had hurt pretty badly. Going through that again wasn’t on her to-do list, so she was keeping a healthyperspective.
Teo sank into his chair, looking like a giant balloon with a third of the air letout.
His obvious sadness tugged at her heart. She wanted the job, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to give up her time with Teo and Akoni. The idea was like a fist-sized rock in her chest. “It’s just an interview. I’m not even sure I’ll get thejob.”
“You’ll get it,” Elijah assured her but oblivious to Teo’s change in mood. He took the bill from Teo and slipped his credit card in the leatherfolder.
“Thanks,” Cedar mumbled, glad someone was confident forher.
She busied herself getting Akoni clean enough to lift out of his high chair. Eating was an experience he liked to use all five senses to enjoy. As she cleaned Akoni off, she could feel Teo’s eyes on her. She got the feeling he was holding back a flood of words with the same determination he used to hold back the opposing team’s defensive line. He’d probably ask her to stay on as a nanny, and she’d be sorely tempted to take him up on that offer. This job was a cushion between college and the real world. Technically, it was a job, and it paid well enough to be respectable. But it wasn’t the job she’d gone back to school toearn.
And what would she tell her parents. Her dad already thought she was a scatterbrain—that she’d taken after her mother just because they were both female. She’d set out to prove him wrong, though why she cared at this point in her life was hard to determine. Habit? Tradition? Some long-buried childhood need that remained unfulfilled? Without hours of psychotherapy she may neverknow.
If she stayed a nanny, a part of her would always wonder what life would have been like if she’d struck out on her own. That wonder could easily turn to resentment if things weren’t in harmony with Teo. Right now they gelled—having full conversations with their eyes and whatnot. What if that went away? What if Teo started dating again and he picked someone other than her to start with? A dragon of jealousy roared to life and breathed fire through her face. No way could she stay at home with Akoni while Teo wooed anotherwoman.
Elijah said goodbye, shaking hands all around—including Akoni’s, which she gave him huge props for doing after the yam incident. She lifted Akoni to free him from the seat, and his foot got caught in one of the straps. Cedar blew her hair off herforehead.
“Here.” Teo slid his hands under Akoni’s arms to take his weight so Cedar could free his foot. She managed to do so easily enough. While her hands were empty, she busied herself with gathering their things. For some reason, she rushed—tossing wipes and a sippy cup into the bag and repeatedly tucking her hair behind her ears. As long as she was busy, she didn’t have to look at Teo and think of him dating anotherwoman.
His sadness at her interview status was obvious. While she knew he valued her as a nanny, there was something else in his gaze that had caught her off guard. Something that made her wonder if he would miss her, just her and not her laundry monster game skills, when sheleft.
Teo’s warm hand came to rest on her side, pulling all thought and movement to a complete stop. “We’re not in a hurry,” hesaid.
She let out a nervous laugh, acutely aware that he was touching her hip. She liked that his touch was featherlight and lingering, that his strength poured into her. His dark brown eyes traced over her cheek and jaw and lips before capturing her gaze. Caught there, hanging in a state of clouded bliss, she muttered, “More.” She leaned closer, planning to brush her fingers across his temple and into his shorthair.
“More?” His hand kneaded her hip in the most delightfulway.
Cedar forgot to breathe as she tipped forward on her toes. Teo’s body was warm. Being this close, she was overwhelmed withhim. Her pulse pounded in her ears in a steady but quickthump,thump,thumpthumpthump. The sound blocking out all other noises. She breathed and Teo breathed, and she could hear his lungs inflate and feel the heat off his chest as it grew. He could kiss her right now. So easily. And, heaven help her, she’d lethim.
Akoni unleashed a banshee scream for attention, crashing through the haze of temptation that had surrounded her and Teo and causing Cedar to jump. “What was that?” She reached for the baby, still trying to shake off the sensations that had overtaken her brain when Teo touchedher.
Every head in the dining room turned theirdirection.
“There’s nothing wrong with him.” She lightly poked around Akoni’s collarbone, and he laughed. “Except that he’s an attentionhog.”
Teo dropped a fifty on the table for a tip. Whispered conversations happened all around them, and Cedar was suddenly aware that they were the still the center of attention—more so now that people recognized Teo. Teo was too large, too famous to stand around in the middle of a room and not have people notice. Thank goodness he hadn’t kissed her. Except, she was more disappointed than relieved, and that wastroubling.
A guy two tables over smiled wickedly at Cedar. He held up his phone to take a picture. She turned away quickly to shield Akoni from the camera with her body. She could only imagine what these people thought was going on at their table, especially after that long look she and Teo shared. If they were going to go out in public, she would have to be more aware of who was watchingthem.
Teo didn’t seem to mind the attention. He ignored the hubbub, taking his time weaving through the tables on their way out. Cedar wasn’t as calm. She clutched Akoni to her chest with shaking hands, feeling as though a pack of wolves nipped at her heals. Akoni didn’t protest and he didn’t scream again. He was happy now that he had one of them all to himself. She’d have to work on his ability to share. Not that she expected him to share her with Teo, that was presuming too much. One look did not a relationship make. And, who was she to believe Teo was interested in her the way she was interested in him. He’d touched her. But they’d spent so much time together, touching would be normal. Maybe not touching her hip. That was…personal.
They stepped into the sunshine, and she relaxed her hold on the baby, though her thoughts were wound just as tight as ever as she puzzled over Teo’sintentions.
Teo handed over her sunglasses from the diaper bag before putting on his own. “You were saying something?” he asked. It was only then that Cedar realized he was well aware of the attention he garnered and he handled itwell.
She tried to remember what she’d said before Akoni’s scream, but all she could think about was the way his hand had felt on her hip. “I didn’t …” The words caught in her throat as they crossed the warm parking lot to hisSUV.
