AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cleared my throat, rolled my shoulders back and gave myself a stern look in the mirror before heading back outside to rejoin the party. There was nothing going on here with Sly. And there never would be.
Katie and the other kids were dancing out on the parquet floor in the center of the room, and she gave me a happy grin as I walked by. At least one of us was having a great time.
“Champagne?” A server paused at my side with a tray full of crystal flutes full of sparkling golden champagne.
“Thank you.” I took one, and took a long sip, and then my eyes found Sly. He was standing with his back to me, talking with Beck and some other men I didn’t recognize. I moved to the table where my name was placed before a plate in a beautiful gold script, and sat down. My eyes were drawn back across the room to that wide muscular back, the dark hair in lush sexy waves on his head. He wore it longer than he had in high school. It had a kind of unkempt perfection that I liked, as if it was just waiting for someone to run her hands through it. I could imagine Sly laughing as she did it, that sexy rumble of mirth coming from deep inside his chest, his dark eyes sparkling.
How many women had gotten to see that first hand?
Why did I care?
I forced myself to turn around, toying with my name tag as I finished the champagne. I didn’t care. My life was good. Complete. I had Katie, and she was healthy and happy, even without her dad around. And I had fantastic and supportive neighbors and friends, and my own house that I owned outright, thanks to my parents. And I had a job that was challenging and exciting. Of course I was halfheartedly hoping to change that last part so I could be a better mom to Katie.
“I always worried you were going to hurt yourself someday, doing something just like this.” Sly’s deep rumble came from over my shoulder, and he sat in the chair at my side, placing another flute of champagne in front of me.
“Sitting at a table? I’m not that clumsy,” I assured him, already feeling my ire pricking up for yet another fight.
“Nah. Thinking too hard.” His smile was easy, light. He didn’t have that air about him that told me he was trying to get to me.
I relaxed a tad and wished I had more champagne. “I was just enjoying the party,” I lied.
“And thinking.”
“Maybe a little.”
“Want to play twenty questions?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll guess what you were thinking about.”
“Okay,” I said. He didn’t have a big enough ego to guess that I’d been thinking about how sexy he was, did he?
“Were you thinking about Katie?”
“I mean, that’s not fair. I’m a mom. I’m always thinking about her somehow. Maybe not actively.”
“So one point for me.”
“You don’t keep points in twenty questions.”
“Maybe you’ve been playing wrong.” Sly’s big body was relaxed at my side, and his face kept that easy smile. What would it be like to get to be the woman at his side all the time? To have that smile warming the space around me? To know that when it was all over, we’d be leaving together?
“Half a point.”
“Fine. Were you thinking about work?”
“A little bit.”
“Another point.”
“Half point.” Though maybe that one deserved a full point.
“How many things can you think about at one time?”
I laughed. “A woman’s mind is a deep and complicated place, Sly. I can think about lots of things at once.”
“Were you thinking about me in there at all?” His easy smile dropped, and a little line appeared between his brows.
