“Goodnight.” Rafe offered Sloan a tight smile as he tapped his knuckles on the counter. He almost made it out of the kitchen before Sloan said his name. When he turned back around he knew immediately that something was up. He knew the subtle change when exhausted adults found themselves in the glorious silence of a child-free room, but the look in Sloan’s eyes was filled with something else. Something more.
Or maybe that was just what he wished. That whatever this shift between them was, it was more than just two adults stealing a moment to speak as adults. But Rafe had already fucked up and said what he’d been thinking. Even though he wanted to cross the room and spread her out on the counter, make her forget all about the long day she’d had, he knew that would never happen. His dreams of a making Sloan scream with pleasure were between him and his hand.
“Yeah?”
She started to move toward him, but stopped halfway down the island. She suddenly wouldn’t look him in the eye and was very interested in the edge of pristine granite. “Um, about that thing yesterday.”
“What thing?”
“What you said, about me—”
“Yeah. Uh...what about it?”
“I...have never had anyone thatI’mattracted to look after the girls.”
Rafe opened his mouth to respond and then closed it. That was the last thing he’d expected her to say. His brain scrambled to catch up. He had to have heard her wrong. “Just to be clear. You are saying that we are attracted to each other.”
Sloan hesitated for a long moment before slowly turning her head to the side and then nodding in an even slower motion. “Yes…”
“Okay, well—”
“But! I was thinking that that doesn’t mean we need to do anything hasty. Right?”
“Right?” Rafe was so fucking confused.
“I mean, this weekend was all fun and pool parties and car washes. You haven’t seen me after I’ve been at the hospital for twenty hours. I can be unpleasant. And what if I find out you’ve got one of those mud flap girls tattooed on you somewhere,” she said as she looked at his arm.
“I promise you I don’t.”
“Well, I think we can just let that mutual attraction be what it is. And then we just see.”
“We just see?”
“Yeah. Let’s see if we even actually like each other. As friends.”
“What changed your mind? You seemed...I don’t know. You didn’t seem like you were entertaining even the idea of us being friends. For good reason,” he tacked on. “Someone needs to think about the children. I just didn’t expect this. What changed?”
“I had a...I did some thinking. I may have phoned a friend. And I can see now that this is an unusual situation. I could pretend that we can just do our thing during the day and have no-strings-attached sex any time we found ourselves alone.” Okay, that really caught him off guard. It was a miracle he kept his cool. His dick, on the other hand, woke right the fuck up. He swallowed and blinked at the same time, forcing himself to follow Sloan’s line of thinking as she went on.
“But I’m just not that girl. Not that there’s anything wrong with being that girl,” she said waving her hands to clarify. “I just—I like things—I just need a little more time. To be ready. For...I’m not sure what.”
“That makes complete sense.”
“And we just met.”
“That’s true.”
“Oh my god, this is so backwards. I’m saying I trust you with my kids, but I don’t trust you with me.” Rafe laughed as Sloan blew out a breath and crossed her eyes at the same time.
“Well, we don’t need to make this a whole thing. We can just play it by ear. And maybe make each other a deal.”
“A deal?”
“Yeah. If you’re not feeling comfortable, you tell me and if I’m not feeling comfortable, I’ll tell you.”
“Yeah, okay. That sounds like a good deal.”
“And we don’t have to keep having awkward conversations about it.”
