A Sweetheart For The Single Dad (The Camdens Of Colorado Book 8) by Victoria Pade Page B

was part of her assignment and she shouldn’t be fostering any kind of attraction to him. But there he stood. Looking the way he looked. And giving her the chance to spend tomorrow with him.
    It just wasn’t in her to say no.
    “That would help me out. I’m always afraid I’m not exciting enough for Carter on my own and without a car... He’d play with the dogs for a while but if we just had to hang around here he’d hate it.”
    “Think he can play with the dogs until noon? Candy is bringing Sam at eleven-thirty.”
    “That should be about how long the dogs and I can entertain him.”
    “Noon then,” he confirmed. “I promised Sam I’d take him to the Adventure Kingdom.”
    “I don’t know what that is.”
    He grinned. “Well, tomorrow you’ll get to learn. If it was winter we’d go to one of the indoor places but since we still have some warm weather to cash in on, this one is outside. There are trampolines, tree houses, bouncy houses, a maze, an inflated castle, a whole pirate ship. Kids love it.”
    “Oh, Carter would, that’s for sure!” she said, knowing that this would be one visit with Aunt Lindie that wouldn’t disappoint him.
    “So we’re on,” Sawyer concluded. “Go see if you can sleep off the rest of those drugs and we’ll hope we don’t get anywhere near any moldy water tomorrow.”
    “Or instead of trampolines and tree houses and castles and pirate ships there’ll be gurneys and wheelchairs and so many other entertainments,” she said.
    He laughed, something she loved making him do.
    “Yeah, every bit as much fun but let’s try for Adventure Kingdom instead, huh?”
    “Sure, if you want to settle for less.”
    He was still very focused on her, still smiling, but he wasn’t showing signs of leaving.
    He took a breath and said, “Yeah. I’m going.”
    “Thanks for everything you did today,” Lindie said belatedly, so lost in looking into those crystal-blue eyes that she’d almost forgotten her manners.
    “I really just hung around.”
    “I appreciate it, though. Nobody
wants
to hang around a hospital emergency room.”
    “I was glad to do it,” he said as if he meant it.
    All at once he clasped her shoulders in two big hands and leaned in.
    And Lindie just knew he was going to kiss her this time and her heart raced once more and she tilted her chin and she was ready.
    Only the kiss he gave her was on the forehead.
    The forehead.
    Deflating her every hope instantly.
    Then his hands were gone and he was at the door, opening it and going outside.
    Lindie forced herself to act as if having him kiss her on the forehead happened every day.
    “Drive safe,” she said.
    “Sleep well,” he countered.
    And off he went.
    Lindie closed the door, slumped against it and frowned at the four dogs who were all sitting in a row watching.
    “I guess we’re going backward,” she told them. “Last night he at least hit the lips—even if it was for only a fraction of a second. Tonight all I got was hands on the shoulders, kiss on the forehead. Probably the way he says good-night to his son.”
    But what was she saying? And thinking and feeling?
    She and Sawyer Huffman shouldn’t be going anywhere when it came to kissing.
    They shouldn’t be kissing!
    But still...
    Should or shouldn’t, she couldn’t help
wanting
him to kiss her.
    For real. On the mouth. Long enough to feel it. To experience it. To kiss him back.
    “Uh-uh, I can’t,” she said to her dogs as if they’d encouraged her. “I can’t get into anything with this man.”
    And she wouldn’t.
    She really, really wouldn’t. Not when he was completely opposed to everything Camden. Not when he was their adversary. If anything could rattle her place in the family loose it could be that.
    She just had to figure out how to stop the attraction to him and still do what she needed to do with him.
    Then it occurred to her that tomorrow she would meet his son. She would see him with the child, which was that one thing she