AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Conscious of Harper watching me, I turned and locked gazes with her and immediately noted she didn’t look like her usual sunny self.
“Maybe Daddy needs a nap before we go out, Layla. You need to be patient,” she replied to my daughter in a clipped tone. I thought I heard tension in her tone and when she continued to regard me with suspicion, I wondered if she thought my stop out was due to a hook up. Not that it was any of her business, but it felt important to me to put her straight on that.
“Sorry I wasn’t home when you got up, Baby. I got stuck at Uncle Max’s place and ended up staying at Uncle Derek’s.
“Oh I see,” she mumbled then flashed me another persuasive smile. “But we’re still going to get my puppy, yes?” I nodded. “Absolutely, but I need a short time to clean and smarten myself up to meet it.” Tousling her hair, I bent and kissed her forehead. I glanced at Harper who sat quietly studying me.
Excusing myself I went upstairs, stripped, showered and got dressed again before making my way back to the kitchen. Matty was preparing food and had a pile of vegetables waiting to be chopped. Harper was resting her head on one elbow on the countertop and the conversation between the two women stopped when I entered their view.
Matty looked up and there was something in her look that made me think she had been speaking out of turn.
“Something wrong, Matty?” My housekeeper’s eyes ticked toward Harper as she slipped off her stool and nodded toward the kitchen door.
“I’m going to get Layla’s coat, if you’re ready?” she advised me and made her way out of the room.
Matty looked pleased for the diversion, but I wasn’t fazed. If they had been talking about me, then I wanted to know why. If I was to hazard a guess, my money was on them gossiping that I’d hooked up with some woman.
“If you were gossiping about me being with someone last night, you can forget it. And you don’t do that around my daughter.”
“None of my business, Cole, and even if you spent the night naked with a harem of nymphs it would still be nothing to do with me. It’s beyond my pay grade to worry about your social life. Anyway, I may be an old woman, but if I may be so bold, a few nights away from your grief may be exactly what is needed.”
If anyone else had uttered those words I’d have taken offense, but I knew Matty worried about me, and what the future would do to me if I continued to close off the rest of the world. The glare I gave her in response said everything words couldn’t. I knew her response was voiced out of love, but in this case, there was nothing to defend.
It was love at first sight for Layla with a scrappy chocolate colored, eight-week-old Labrador. Immediately she stamped her mark on him by naming him Spot after a favorite canine character book series she was obsessed with. I snickered at the irony of the poor dog’s name, and my heart swelled to bursting point at the wide beaming smile she had when I told her we’d take him home.
Harper was almost as enamored with the puppy as my daughter, and I didn’t miss the pleasure she drew when I gave in to Layla’s over-the-top pleas for me to give in to her choice. It also made my heart clench when I heard Layla’s serious tone as she instructed Harper how to care for the little dog.
Layla was no stranger to pets. She’d had a Shetland pony since the age of two and had progressed to a bigger pony a few months before. Stuart had taught her right from the start, if she wanted to ride, she had to learn to muck out and take care of her animals. I glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled when I noted her hand resting protectively over the small pet carrier and I was in no doubt she would.
Seeing the proud look on her face in the rearview mirror, my eyes switched to Harper’s—who caught sight of mine—and she flashed me a smile before nodding at how firmly Layla had anchored the seat belt around the pet transporter cage on the way back from the breeder’s.
Organizing Spot’s bed and bowls, food and water, Layla then carried her tiny dog carefully in her arms and gave him a tour of the house. She barely put him down to have dinner; then she tired the poor puppy out by playing little games.
If she picked Spot up off the floor once, she did it a hundred times, and by the time Harper had bathed and put Layla down for the night, I was almost certain I’d heard the poor puppy groan in relief that she’d gone to bed.
The house was sedate and calm by the time Harper and I sat down to dinner together, but the vibe was different from the easygoing one we usually had. I had always enjoyed our friendship, but now I had to remind myself not to overstep.
I wondered if I’d imagined the chemistry I’d felt since I’d been home. The old single and carefree Cole wouldn’t have hesitated if he’d thought it was there, but this was Harper, my daughter’s caregiver, and no matter what my dick thought, this ass knew not to shit where it ate.
Between us we drank a couple of bottles of wine. It was more than I intended and, if I’m honest, I drank way more than her and became fixated on her smile. It gave me knots in my stomach and sparks of electricity twitched in my dick. Seeing Harper so comfortable around me gave me a warm glow I didn’t want to have.
“Aren’t you freezing?” Standing up, she wrapped her arms around her body before dropping to her hands and knees and stalked her way over to the fire on all fours. Her ass looked fabulous in her tight black jeans and my gaze focused solely on it.
Padding around, she settled in front of the fire and lay on her side, her elbow on the floor and her head in her hand.
“Not really,” I replied.
“So…” she asked, as she lay drawing my attention to the shape of her body accentuated by the glowing light behind her. The dip from her ribs drew my attention to her tiny waist and the raised curve of her hip.
“So?” I mirrored in a gruffer tone. My throat was dry as I basked in her beauty. I’d watched Harper turn from a barely-twenties gorgeous girl to a stunning mid-twenties woman. Everything about her screamed effortlessly sexy and, as I sat there, I wondered why she chose to keep doing what she did. Men would go nuts for her if she put herself out there. Hell, if I… I cut the thought dead.
“Did… you have fun last night?” There was both inquisitiveness and hesitancy in her tone.
“Fun?” I narrowed my eyes looking more intensely at her, wondering what she considered ‘fun’.
She blushed at my challenge. “Yeah, did you have a good time?”
I sniggered. “I think your idea of having fun and mine would be very different,” I replied, before the implication of my statement was thought through.
