Heated Rush - Leslie Kelly [36]
It was one of the little services that had helped make Baby Daze such an early and decisive success. Things were going so well that Annie suspected she might be able to replenish that emergency savings account within a few months, rather than the year it probably would have taken her before.
“A strange man!” someone shouted. The chorus was quickly taken up by all the children. “A man, a man, a man!”
Startled into dropping the wet naps she’d been using to wipe off a dozen pair of sticky hands, Annie jerked her attention toward the locked front door, toward which twelve little arms were already pointing. She immediately recognized the surprised—uncomfortable-looking—face of Sean Murphy.
Willing her racing heart to still, she called for Tara to come finish supervising the kids’ bedtime snack, then approached the door. Unlocking it, she stepped out into the summer evening, wondering if the warmth she felt was simply because her body was adjusting to leaving the air-conditioned room. Or because, as always, she just found Sean Murphy so incredibly hot.
“Hi.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude. You weren’t answering your cell phone and I got a little worried.”
He was worried about her. When her family acted that way, it infuriated her. But Sean? Well, Annie couldn’t prevent a pleased shiver at the realization that he’d been thinking so much about her. As she had him.
“I was running late this morning and I forgot my phone. It’s still on the charger at my place.”
“Ahh.” He looked past her, into the room, where the kids were cleaning up their snack tables, licking tiny crumbs off the tips of their fingers. They’d already exhausted their curiosity about the stranger at the door, who they obviously figured was not a bad guy since Miss Annie was standing outside talking to him. Graham cracker crumbs were much more interesting.
“I’d better go. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“Why were you trying to reach me?”
“I thought maybe we should work on our story before we got to your parents’ place tomorrow.”
“Our story?”
“You know…how we—you and Blake—met. That type of thing. We never really covered that last night.”
Annie felt the blood rush out of her face, and she leaned back against the door. How they met. God, she did not want to think about how she’d met Blake. Especially here, where her guilt and humiliation were at their highest level.
“I’m sure we can work it out on the drive tomorrow,” she muttered, already regretting having to wait until then to spend more time with him.
Hearing a shout behind them, Annie spun around and peered through the window. Dylan McFee had just tackled Jessie Sims, trying to steal a toy he wanted. Tara leapt into the fray, as did Ellen, the other worker who’d volunteered for tonight’s shift.
“I should go, you’re busy.”
“Yeah,” she whispered. Then, looking back at him and seeing the amusement dancing in those sexy eyes, she found herself saying, “There’s a restaurant up the street. Maybe you could go have a drink or something and wait for me to finish up? Then we can…talk?”
Holding her breath, she couldn’t help smiling in pure relief when he nodded his agreement. “What time?”
“Pick-up is no later than nine. Someone will be late and apologetic. But I should be able to get out of here by nine-thirty, nine-forty-five at the latest.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you then.” He cast one more glance at the melee going on inside, wearing a childless-single man grimace so pained it made her chuckle. Then he strode down the block, his thick, black, unbound hair flowing loosely over his shoulders. Lord, why was the sight of one man’s hair enough to send all the strength from her legs and set all her feminine parts tingling?
She shook off the reaction, needing to get through the rest of the work night.
Once back inside, she immediately saw the excitement on Tara’s face. It was echoed by the curiosity on Ellen’s. But they were all too busy getting the children ready for their parents’ arrival to talk about it. By the time the last ones did arrive, at nine-twenty-eight, Annie had already sent Ellen home