When I dropped Roxanne back at her apartment, I wanted to bang my head against the steering wheel of my car. I still couldn't believe that I'd been so stupid, so careless, so unprofessional as to kiss the student who I had been trusted to look after during our trip. I felt like a predator that got Roxanne drunk, only to take advantage of her. I knew this wasn't true, and that she was clearly just as into what was going on as I was, but I couldn't help feel as though I'd committed some sort off grave trespass.

Watching her walked up to the front doors of her apartment building, however, a throwing a smile and a wave over her shoulder as she did, made me want nothing more than to run up to her, lift her off of her feet, take her to bedroom and ravish her.

But I couldn't. There were professional considerations at play, and though it seemed she was more than happy to have my attention, one of us had to be the adult in this situation.

Besides, now that Roxanne was gone, all I wanted to do was speed home and see Darla. I couldn't believe it had been so long since I'd seen her; I was beginning to feel like an absentee father. Sure, we'd talked nearly every night on face time, but it was a pale imitation of being there with her. I made the drive, my heart racing with excitement to see my daughter again.

When I pulled up to the house, I was greeted by my sister Annie waiting for me, Darla at her side. As soon as I parked and stepped out of the car, Darla ran towards me, a big smile on her face.

"Daddy!" she yelled, her face bright, her arms outstretched.

"There she is!" I said, scooping her up off of the ground and holding her tight.

It was indescribable how I felt as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek. Being away from her had felt as though I'd had a part of me ripped out.

"Good to see the Evan McCall fan club reunited," Annie said, walking towards us.

"Oh?" I said, setting Darla down.

"That girl is crazy about you," said, Annie, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "'Dad this' and ‘Dad that;' especially in these last few days. She's a great kid, though."

"She has her moments," I said, mussing Darla's hair.

Annie flashed me a smile as we walked back into the house. A computer programmer who worked remotely, Annie was lucky enough to be able to not be tied down to an office, giving her the freedom to visit friends and family wherever and whenever she wished. And as she was still single, she wasn't tied down with any obligations, which made her the perfect choice to watch Darla whenever I had to leave town for a week or two.

"How was the trip?" she asked, pouring me a cup of coffee as I sat down at the dining room table.

"Good," I said, the image of Roxanne's eyes looking up at me just before I kissed her invading my thoughts. "Got a lot of work done, maybe even enough for another book."

Annie and I chatted over coffee for a while, Darla sitting on my lap as the adults talked. After a welcome back dinner out later that evening, Annie stayed over one more night before heading back out in the morning.

The next day, once I was refreshed from a good night's sleep, I hunkered down in my office and began the process of looking over the copious notes and chapter drafts that I'd done during the trip. Sure enough, the more I looked over things, the more I realized that there was going to be more than enough information here for a book.

Sifting through the papers, the chapter that Roxanne had written with me caught my eye. I looked it over, realizing that it was good- very good. A few tweaks here and there and it would make a fine addition to the book that I was putting together in my head. But not wanting to revisit the issue of her and me, I set the chapter aside for the time being.

The next week flew by, spent nearly evenly split between time with Darla and time on the material, with a little prep for the semester ahead mixed in. The summer had already passed, and the fall semester was now staring me in the face, demanding my time and attention. But there was still too much work to be done if I was going to get the material from the trip together into at least the skeleton of a book.

Finally, I had to accept the fact that was right in front of me: the only way that I would get the work done that I wanted was to have the help of an assistant. And there was only one person who was as familiar with the material as me.

Sighing, I pulled open my email, typed up a brief missive to send to Roxanne, keeping it as professional as possible, and fired it off. I had a response an hour later, letting me know that she was happy to help. I responded, asking her to meet me at the library later that day where we could go over the material.

Once the plan was set, I sat back in my seat, shaking my head at the mess that I had gotten myself into. Sure, Roxanne didn't seem too put off by what had happened, but I had been hoping to put some distance between the two of us, letting things cool off before we saw each other once again. As much as I wanted her, I knew that the best thing for her would be to let her attention get taken up by some other guy, the memory of her kiss with her professor simply slipping into her memory.

Little did I know, it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing ever is.