“Are you sure you’ve got her?” Kelly asked. “I could’ve gotten her inside.”

Jake’s chocolate-colored eyes looked at her skeptically as he carried Fiona in the house. She’d fallen asleep during the third period, and he had insisted on following them home and carrying her inside, after he’d already carried her out of the arena to the car.

They’d had to wait around for him to finish up some team stuff, but he’d returned, ready to help. If Kelly had been thinking, she would’ve taken off when he was otherwise preoccupied.

She had a feeling Fiona was faking it, at least some of the time. No matter how careful Jake was not to jostle her, that was a lot of carrying around to do without something stirring her awake.

“Would you just open the door? She weighs about half as much as you do, and you’ve already got that little one to get inside.”

He nodded his head forward to indicate Simon, with his head resting on her shoulder. Kelly could easily buy the three-year-old being tuckered out after the exciting night. Since Fiona had been attentive most of the game, and generally decided she didn’t need to sleep at normal times, Kelly wasn’t sure if Fiona was asleep or just liked Jake carrying her around.

She got out her key to get the front door open. If felt weird to be bringing a guy back to her sister’s place.

Not that she had any expectations as far as Jake went. She knew he was just being nice. After he’d grabbed some food and taken her back to the suite, he’d kept his distance. It didn’t feel exactly like a cold shoulder, but things in her cozy leather chair were a little icy.

Trying not to think about that, she focused back on the fact they were getting ready to enter the house. She’d had other people over. Hannah and Nina, along with their husbands, had been over multiple times. Jake was just the first person she cared how he would see the mess they were about to walk into.

Kelly wasn’t a big cleaner, so the living room alone looked like a circus had just finished up a three-hour show. Mia, the nanny, usually helped some with picking up after the kids, but she’d taken the week off because her parents were in town. If Kelly had any clue that the hunky hockey player was going to follow her home, she would’ve planned ahead and hired someone to take care of the mess.

Since that hadn’t happened, she bit her lip as she flipped on the light in the entryway. Her eyes immediately scanned the piles of toys and leftover food littering almost every surface of the living room. Kelly would have stayed frozen there if a throat clearing behind her hadn’t reminded her that Jake was carrying the heavier of the two kids.

“If it’s possible, close your eyes and just follow my voice.” The words made Kelly scoff, and she was the one saying them.

It was a stupid request, especially since she was thin enough that she wasn’t doing anything to really block Jake’s view of the destruction.

“If it’s the mess you’re worried about, believe me, I’ve seen worse. When I was in the minors, I had a roommate who didn’t believe in the concept of a garbage can. I won’t go into details, but he kept literally everything.”

Kelly cringed at the picture he painted. The toys and pizza in the room seemed a little mild, considering, but still not the image she wanted Jake to see.

“Thanks for that. It doesn’t change the fact that this mess is only meant to be seen by the people living here.”

Leading him to the staircase off the right side of the entryway, she did her best to hold onto Simon and the railing to keep from falling backward into Jake. She was a little lightheaded, thanks to lack of any real food that day. She’d been so nervous about the possibility of running into Jake that she hadn’t had anything more than a few peppermint candies. They usually calmed her stomach, but the prospect of seeing Jake had been too much for them to do any good.

“I’m pretty sure being a little sloppy isn’t your worst attribute.”

She realized how stupid her words were when she heard his. She’d already spelled it out that without question she was a drug addict who had problems convincing herself to eat. One of those things, or maybe even both, were likely to kill her, and she was worried about him thinking she was a slob.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Kelly directed Jake to the first door, trying to forget about what an idiot she was. It was hard, when almost every aspect of her life seemed to scream it loud and clear.

Jake looked around the corner of the room, which Kelly knew was ten times cleaner than the mess he’d seen downstairs. Fiona preferred being and doing the exact opposite of everything Kelly did. So, of course, her room was the cleanest in the whole house. She showed off every morning, making sure the pink sheet on her little bed was all square and neat.

Glancing back at Kelly, Jake raised his eyebrow before stepping into the room. Kelly didn’t have any answers for him, so she just shrugged. As soon as she did, she realized the movement disturbed the golden-haired boy on her shoulder, and she held her breath, hoping it didn’t wake him. All the walking probably had a greater effect, but she was so close to having both kids down for the night that didn’t breathe.

To not delay moving on with her evening, Kelly made sure Jake seemed to have things in hand and left him to deposit Simon in his room next door. The tan carpet thankfully muted the noise her heels would’ve made against any hard flooring.

While the downstairs was mainly tile and wood, the stairs and the entire second floor were carpeted. It was smart, considering how rambunctious Simon could get at times. There were times Kelly thought she should just wrap the kid in bubble wrap, but she deduced he probably wouldn’t be able to breathe that well in the outfits she had in mind.

She was so afraid she’d screw the kids up for life that she spent most of her time just staring at them. It was disturbing on many levels, but Kelly didn’t know what else to do. The kids had lost so much that she couldn’t handle the idea of either of them even getting a paper cut.

The foreign concept of worrying about someone that much hadn’t won her any favors with Fiona. Kelly couldn’t watch both kids every second of the day, and with Fiona having school five days a week, the task seemed futile. The little girl always came home with cuts and scrapes from playing at recess. She took immense joy in watching her aunt’s eyes widen in horror when she saw them. Each skin abrasion felt like Kelly was somehow failing her sister.

“You okay?”

Kelly started at Jake’s deep voice. She’d managed to lay Simon down and had sat on the edge of his bed, smoothing his hair where it was a little flat from leaning against her shoulder. She leaned down and kissed his forehead before turning to the other male in the house.

She’d thought she wanted to spend some time alone with Jake, but the thought of it suddenly terrified her. Being afraid of everything was one of the reasons she’d easily escaped into the world of drugs, even after her first experience hadn’t exactly been something to write home about. A line would’ve helped the anxiety bubbling up inside of her, but she didn’t have any in the house, and she was learning coke didn’t solve all her problems.

One of those problems was leaning in the doorway across the room from her. He’d at some point loosened his tie and unbuttoned a few buttons of his navy dress shirt, revealing smooth tanned skin. Kelly plastered on a mostly fake smile as she got up, pulling Simon’s blankets up to make sure he was covered.

The smile on Jake’s face didn’t seem fake, with a dimple on his right cheek clearly visible. His head was cocked to the side, so she couldn’t see if he had a matching one on the other cheek.

“I’m fine. Can I get you anything?”

He moved out of the doorway as she walked through it. As they made their way down the stairs, she could feel his heat just behind her. They’d taken separate cars, and both had their hands full, so she didn’t have any solid proof, but Kelly still felt like whatever barrier he’d put up after they returned to the suite was still there.

She couldn’t blame the guy. He’d hit on her at a wedding and quickly found out what a mistake that was.

They made it all the way to the bottom of the stairs before he answered her question. She’d pictured him hitting that last step and pushing her out of the way to run out the door, but he surprised her by placing his large hands on her hips, pulling her back into his very firm chest.

“I know it’s late, but I thought maybe I could help you with the mess you’re so worried about me seeing.”

Kelly didn’t know what was more surprising, his touch or the offer. Her head told her she should pull away, but her body relaxed into his arms as he nudged her head to the side, so he could lean his head on her shoulder. In her heels, he was a few inches taller than her, so he fit against her almost perfectly.

“You don’t have to do that. I’ve obviously let things go a little far, but you’ve already done so much just helping me get the kids in. If you want to stick around, I’m sure we can clear a path on the couch to sit.”

She thought about stepping forward to lead the way, but she didn’t want to mess up the moment. She’d had dreams about Jake’s body against her many times, most of those times without clothes. Even the clothed version was better than a lot of her fantasies, and she wanted to savor it for as long as he allowed.

“I think I prefer to keep busy, if that’s okay with you. If you’re tired, you can sit on the couch and just tell me where to put things.”

Kelly’s forehead scrunched as she let his words sink in. She was the damaged one, and yet he was offering to clean her house. She was certain she wasn’t hallucinating, but something seemed off.

“Why in the world would you do that?”

The mystification was clear in her voice. She tried to come up with some kind of reasoning for his offer, but nothing made sense. He’d put a wall up, then offered to help her take the kids home, and now all he wanted to do was clean the house?

She’d met a lot of crazy people, but he was taking the cake.

“Because I want to spend time with you and get to know you better,” he whispered in her ear, causing a shiver to run down her body. “But, I don’t think I can do that if we’re sitting on a couch together.”

Turning, Kelly put a little room between them and stared up into his brown eyes, trying to see if she could figure out what he was thinking. She’d never been good at reading people, and Jake didn’t seem to be giving anything away. His left brow arched up, almost in a challenge.

“I don’t understand.”

The words probably weren’t needed. Her face had to display her utter confusion.

Jake only smiled and grabbed her hand to direct her into the other room. Kelly winced as he had to maneuver around and step over stuffed animals. She’d been amazed at the never-ending supply of toys that kept appearing. When she was a kid, she’d never gone without the things she wanted, but she wasn’t spoiled to the level Fiona and Simon were.

There was a clear spot on the couch, so Jake guided her there and pushed her to sit. If he was really committed to cleaning up, she couldn’t just sit there and watch him. That thought didn’t stop her from at least sitting for a second. She needed to figure out exactly what was going on. Like he’d said, it was late, almost midnight, so she didn’t expect him to stick around long.

“What don’t you understand? The fact that I want to get to know you or that I’m not going to sit with you?”

“Yes,” Kelly answered simply, because she didn’t understand anything.

A warm laugh was the initial response. Jake kneeled in front of her, making it so she didn’t have to crane her neck to look up at him. As it was, his crotch had been pretty much at eye level, and she was glad to not have the temptation to stare at it. Those dreams of hers more than likely exaggerated his actual size, but she was curious to learn if there was any kind of accuracy in her imagination. When he’d pulled her close to him, she’d felt his firm chest, but below the waist had somehow been just out of her touch.

“I kind of think both are self-explanatory. From the moment I saw you at that reception, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. That being said, I’m not looking to be one of the guys from your past, just looking to take advantage of you.”

Kelly opened her mouth to speak, but Jake held up his hand to stop her. He was right that there were some guys in her past who’d used her, but more often than not, she was using them to get drugs. If anything, she’d been taking advantage of them.

“I’ve done some research, so I know what the internet says about you. As far as I’m concerned, unless it comes out of your mouth, I don’t believe it.”

The confusion left Kelly’s face as it went completely blank. The guy was insane. She’d figured he’d looked into her, but if anything, that should have sent him running in the other direction. People who learned about her didn’t want to get to know her. Those who did either wanted to party with her or fuck her. As crude as that was, it was the truth.

“Did you have to sit out tonight’s game because you have a concussion?”

Jake shook his head. She concentrated on his eyes, looking for a sign maybe his pupils were off. In his line of business, he had to take a lot of blows to the head. Kelly hadn’t paid close attention to what was going on out on the ice, but she saw how hard the players hit each other. Those kinds of hits would explain Jake’s odd line of thinking.

“No, sweetheart, I don’t have a concussion.”

“Are you sure? It’s hard to get a good look at your eyes with all that brown surrounding your pupils.”

Kelly could see his smile spread further across his face in her peripheral vision, but she kept her eyes trained on his. She was so confused, and nothing he said helped clear things up.

“I’m positive. I wouldn’t have carried your niece around if there was a chance of it. You may be used to living in the fast lane, but I want to take things slow.”

“Is that code for not wanting to have sex with me until I clear some doctor’s tests?”

She wasn’t sure where the thought came from, but it made sense and escaped her lips on its own. A smart man, which Jake seemed to be even with their little interaction, wouldn’t want to touch any part of Kelly without getting a clean bill of health first. She already had everything she needed to prove her past lifestyle didn’t leave any lasting problems, but she kept the information to herself.

Jake shook his head. “No code. I just think we should take things one step at a time.”