Page 28 of Best Kept Secret

“Okay, I’ve had enough of you two ganging up on me. It’s time for us to leave.”

“Already?” Emily complained.

“Sorry, but Sonia wanted her back in an hour.”

He was starting to resent all the restrictions, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. In the meantime, he was happy he got to see Annie at all. What if Sonia had decided not to tell him about her? What if he’d never known he had a child? There were so many ways this situation could have been worse.

Emily reluctantly handed Annie to him, and he tucked her into the car seat. Then he packed her things back into the diaper bag.

“Look at you, being all dad-like and everything,” Emily said as she walked him to the door.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it?”

She shrugged. “Yes and no. I didn’t expect to see it this soon, but I knew you’d be a good dad someday. After all, you were, and still are, a wonderful brother.”

He swallowed hard, the soft spot he had for his sister growing exponentially. “Thanks, sis.”

“I love you, you big lug. Now, go and drive carefully with my niece!”

She didn’t have to worry about that. He drove like a grandma whenever Annie was on board.

As he slowly drove back to Sonia’s house, he thought about his next course of action. He needed to get Kelsey alone so he could tell her the truth, but she was expecting him to take her on a date. He’d been postponing the inevitable, but he couldn’t do that anymore. The problem was, if he got her alone, he might lose all sense of reason like he’d done before.

If she looked at him like she had the other night at the apartment…if she let him touch her…he’d be a goner. There must be some way for him to get her alone without succumbing to temptation. He just had to figure out how.

Nine

Kelsey and Stacy were eating lunch in the employee lounge on Friday when Nick strolled in.

“Ladies,” he said and smiled.

“I thought you were going out to lunch with Eric,” Stacy said.

“I am, but I wanted to find you two first. I have a proposition for you.”

Their eyes went wide, and he laughed. “Dirty minds. Gotta love it!”

“What kind of proposition?” Stacy asked, beaming up at him.

“How would you two like to go bowling tonight?”

The women exchanged knowing glances, and Nick eyed them with confusion.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“We don’t bowl,” Kelsey stated.

“Have you ever bowled before?” he asked.

“Yes, and we suck at it,” Stacy said.

“Hmm. Well, that’s too bad,” he said, looking directly at Kelsey, “because Hudson’s going to be there too.”

She dropped her turkey sandwich like a hot potato. “Hudson?”

“Yep.”

“You wouldn’t be lying just to get us to go bowling, would you?”