Chapter Nine

Dennis stretched his legs on the bedroom chaise and pulled Cole onto his lap. Cole fiddled with the quilt Dennis’s mother had made. He flipped it and tugged on it until it untwisted covered their feet.

But Dennis didn’t see the flashes of colorful quilt moving this way and that. He was preoccupied with the memory of Audrey, her arms folded across her sheer, wet shirt, her curves visible despite her attempt to hide them. He’d seen flashes of pink, soft and lacy, through the shirt. What a surprise, to catch a glimpse of this hidden side of her, a side expressed with such dainty, feminine lingerie. Dennis thought of her as practical and fuss-free, the kind of woman who wore white cotton and elastic, not pink silk and lace. But now he couldn’t shake the image of Audrey with her light hair cascading free, delectable in nothing but pastel lace and bare skin, showing him this secret side of her.

Seeing her like that had been an erotic tease, like watching a private wet t-shirt contest with only one contestant. There was a time in his life, during his long-ago wild youth, when he might have given in to the temptation to ogle those tantalizing hints of flesh and lingerie. But he was beyond all that now, that time just a fleeting moment before he’d met Katherine. Everything changed for him when she came into his life, and then changed again when she left. Now success in his career and taking care of his son’s needs–these, and not daydreaming about a woman’s curves, were his dual purpose. They had to be.

Part of that purpose was now squirming on his lap. “Tell me about your day.” This was Dennis’s favorite part of the day, sharing stories with his son.

“Ummm.” Cole screwed up his face as he thought. “I had to do so much stuff.”

“What was your favorite part?”

“My favorite part was–well, actually, I had more than one favorite part. I liked it when everybody gave me tattoos. See?” Cole held his left arm up to display smudges of green ink. “And also, it was my favorite part when Miss Turner let me tell the taxi driver man where our address is. Also when–”

“Wait, back up.” Dennis held Cole’s arm up for a closer inspection. “What’s this about tattoos?”

“Daddy! I told you that part already. Now I want to tell you something else.”

Dennis let Cole’s arm drop. He could ask Audrey later. “Okay, tell me about something else.”

“The funniest part was–well, actually, there were a lot of funny parts.”

“Is Miss Turner funny?” So many times, Dennis had found himself unable to control a smile around her. He was charmed by her practical good cheer. Maybe Cole was, too.

“Yes, she’s funny, and I’m funny, too. But this one funny part was when all the ladies said ‘Mrs. Delaney’ to her, and then everybody laughed.” Cole twisted around to look at Dennis. “Daddy, why is that funny?”

Dennis was mystified. “I don’t know, son. Who said this to her?”

“The ones who take care of the kids. Like Nanny Susie. There was a lot of them today.”

“There were.” Dennis corrected him automatically. Perhaps the nanny brigade had mistaken Audrey for his wife? Dennis sizzled with unexpected pleasure at the thought. Audrey was beautiful, successful, highly respected, and unfailingly charming, a graceful woman with a no-fuss modern outlook. She’d make a fine wife for any man of their social standing. In fact, he was surprised none of the Chicago bachelors had snapped her up.

Though, for all he knew, there was a boyfriend lurking in her private life. For all he knew, she was living with a man, planning a wedding. For all he knew, that lacy pink bra was meant to tantalize someone else, some hotshot with no baggage. Audrey went by Miss Turner and didn’t wear a wedding ring, so he doubted that she was already married. But that didn’t mean she was single and available.

“Daddy, is our name funny? Is that why the ladies laughed?”

“No, son, we have a fine name. I think probably what happened was, the women thought Miss Turner was your mommy, so they called her Mrs. Delaney. Then, when they found out she was Miss Turner, they all laughed because they thought their mistake was funny.”

“Sometimes mistakes are funny.” Cole tugged on the quilt again, looking for his favorite patch with tiny brown dogs on a green background. “I made some funny mistakes today.”

“Hey, Cole?” Dennis felt himself held still and jittering all at once, like an electrified wire. He couldn’t believe he was about to do this.

“Yeah, Daddy?”

“Does Miss Turner have a boyfriend?”

Cole shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Does she ever talk about who she spends time with?”

“Who does she spend time with?”

“I’m asking you. Do you know?”

“Is it her mommy and daddy?” Cole seemed to think they were playing a guessing game.

“No, I’m just trying to find out if she has a boyfriend. Can you find out for me, son?”

Cole twisted to look up at him. “Why?”

Why, indeed. Dennis felt queasy. He couldn’t believe he’d been prepared to use his son to spy on Audrey. And there was no point to it. He could never ask her out himself. He just wasn’t set up for that sort of thing. “Never mind. Forget about it.”

A soft tap sounded at the half-open door. Dennis saw one long slice of Audrey, clad in a shirt that draped down her small frame like a nightgown. He saw one rolled-up sleeve exposing a graceful, shapely arm, and a small hand with tapered fingers. He called out to her and his breath caught, trapped in his throat, as she emerged from behind the door.

The huge t-shirt sagged off her shoulders, and her round blue eyes were almost too large for her delicate face. Dennis’s glance swept quickly up and down her length. He wanted to cross the room to her, pull her close, and breathe deeply. She would smell like the two of them combined, his scent faint on the shirt, her own clean womanly scent underlying it. He found himself breathing again, trying to draw her into his lungs from across the room. Embarrassed, he jostled Cole a little, giving in to the urge to try to camouflage his roving eyes and flaring nostrils. But the image of her was branded in his mind.

She was adorable.

And completely, one-hundred-percent off limits.