Page 57 of Protecting Love

She waved her hand. “Please. There were nine of us. Do you think my mother was cooking fancy dinners each night?”

“No clue. Was she?”

“Oh, you know more about me. We both know that. And though my mother never had to work and money isn’t or wasn’t an issue, we had our fair share of burgers, hot dogs, and mac and cheese meals. Those are the best.”

“I remember those days,” he said. “No more boxed mac and cheese in my house though. Ian is all about fancy shit.”

“Ian?” she asked mid-chew.

“My son,” he said.

“You’ve got a son? Are you married?” she screeched.

Her eyes dropped to his left hand. No ring. Not that she’d ever seen one because she looked.

But that meant nothing.

Maybe in his job he didn’t want anyone to know he could have a family at home.

“Divorced,” he said and continued to eat as if that was the end of the conversation.

Oh, hell no.

He started it.

She was going to finish it.

14

TESTING HIMSELF

Fletcher was regretting bringing up his son.

But the truth was, he hated to see Paris so tense tonight.

He’d tried everything he could to relax her.

He teased her. Taunted her. Touched her.

In the end, he was positive it internally worked him up just as much.

Maybe what he was really doing was testing himself.

Which was ridiculous because it wasn’t like he had any rating system.

He turned his head, saw Paris chewing next to him, her eyes locked on his actions.

She wasn’t going to let this drop.

Maybe he didn’t want her to either.

“How old is your son?”

“Sixteen.”

“How old are you?”

“That’s personal, don’t you think?” he drawled.