Abruption by Riley Mackenzie Page B

myself enjoy everything Guy right now. He grabbed my hand and stopped me from continuing on. “Guy, I have to go. I’m gonna be late, and more importantly, your sweet boy is waiting. I’m sure his tummy is growling, and he may be going through iPad movie making withdrawal,” I said with a laugh.
    “You’re so right. I’ve got to get him home.” He kissed my cheek and tapped my butt. “You know you’re a natural.”
    “A natural?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
    “Your maternal instinct—it’s top-notch, doll.”

O kay, now I was getting pissed. She had a life—I got that. A career—me too. Hell, I had a family that came first, but I still scrounged up thirty seconds to pick up the phone. What was her excuse? Four days of incommunicado made no sense, especially after that night. Even more so with the way she lit up for me the morning after.
    I got that we hadn’t spent much time together. But it hadn’t stopped her from making the small stuff matter. She remembered everything, every detail, even things I wasn’t sure I’d said aloud. Not to mention she didn’t have the widower look. Instead of the oh you poor thing, let me make it better look, she had the I sympathize, but it doesn’t give you a reason to be a dick look. That I could appreciate. Hell, I even liked it. So much so, I reluctantly let my guard down for the first time since her . And I wasn’t lying when I told her she was a natural. With Finn. With Max. With me. So whether she was toying with me or just plain not interested, this needed to be resolved. I was too old and had been burned too many times for games. And I definitely wasn’t going to tolerate limbo, especially with my children involved. Letting them hang together was an amateur move on my part. I knew better. This was the exact reason I didn’t date. There was no time for this bullshit.
    I ripped the sweaty blue cap from my head and kicked my feet up on my desk. Two hernia repairs down, a hemicolectomy, and two appys to go. I snatched up my phone and stared at the screen like some text was magically going to appear. No such luck.
    I should let the whole thing go, chalk it up to another life lesson about women, complete with phenomenal sex as my parting gift. But I couldn’t. History might prove I wasn’t the best judge of character when it came to the opposite sex, but Jules seemed different.
    The real deal.
    Hell with it. I scrolled, tapped her name, and hit speaker. She worked Monday and Tuesday night, was off Wednesday, and was due in today at eleven. It was a quarter to, so there was no reason she shouldn’t answer. Great, I sounded like a stalker now. Whatever, they were just cinnamon rolls.
    “Hello.”
    Damn, her silky voice had a way of taming my irritability. “Hey,” I said back, hoping she couldn’t hear the smile in my voice.
    “Is everything okay? How’s Finn?” Her tone was laced with genuine concern.
    “Yeah, yeah. He’s much better. Crazy—must have eaten something rancid. My poor boy no sooner stopped throwing up, had to deal with the other end. Rough two days, but turned out to be a crash course in potty training.”
    “That’s so strange, but you’re lucky no one else got it. The whole potty training thing is an awesome feat though, he must be so proud of himself! He really is such an amazing kid.”
    “Now I’ve got to schlepp all over to try and find Power Ranger boxers. He’s giving Maya a hell of a time over wearing whatever kind she picked up.”
    Jules’ soft laugh, that laugh filled the air waves before she said, “I’m not sure they make Power Ranger boxers , he might have to settle for briefs. Just hit up Amazon Prime. He’ll have them in two days.”
    “Good suggestion, thanks.” I probably should’ve known that.
    Were we really talking about my son’s underwear options? I appreciated her concern for Finn, but I’d never guess this was the same woman who crossed the line from Finn’s nurse to our last exchange