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“What?” I asked.
“You do that when you’re eating something you like. I’ve noticed you have a little happy dance.”
He’d noticed that about me?Oh my.“Doesn’t everyone?”
“I don’t know, Allison. I don’t pay as much attention to other people as I do to you.”
There it was, that flirty tone and the sexy eyes. I was a goner. Nick most definitely had other plans for tonight.
“How’s work?” I asked, trying to distract myself. “By the way, did you decide where you’ll open the new fitness center?”
“I’m going to put that on hold for now. We’ve got enough going on.”
My jaw dropped. “Nick, you don’t have to do that.”
“I know. But opening new locations requires travel, and I don’t want to miss out on any time with you and the twins.”
Oh my goodness. This was completely unexpected. I almost teared up. Nick was a wonderful man.
I took a few sips of wine, and soon my entire body relaxed. I then realized Nick was looking at me intently.
“What? Do I have something on my mouth?”
I stretched my legs under the table and then felt Nick trapping them with his. We both froze, but I decided not to pull back. I liked his touch. More than that, I craved it.
“Penny and Spencer were really welcoming,” I said, desperately trying to cut through the tension. “Oh, by the way, Penny seemed to be very disappointed when I told her that you might not be home tonight. I think you were onto something with that matchmaking thing.”
Nick laughed. “I had an interesting call with my gran too. She was askingin detailabout my plans tonight.”
“So, what did you tell her?”
“I teased her. I didn’t tell her anything.”
I giggled. “Nick, you’re bad.”
“She deserves it. Usually, I don’t mind sharing stuff about my life, but I feel like everyone is trying a bit too hard. And I never understand why they keep pushing when I’ve always made it clear that I’m not marriage material.”
His words felt like a punch to my gut. Of course he wasn’t. He was only doing this so I’d get custody of the twins. Why did I keep forgetting that?
“What do you want to do after dinner?” His voice was so nonchalant, like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me.
“How about we play a game of poker?” I asked, voicing the first thought that came to my mind.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nick
“Poker?” I said, certain I’d heard wrong.
“Yes.” She nodded vigorously. “Or I have board games.”
I hadn’t seen this coming. I figured she’d want us to watch a movie or something, cuddle up on the couch,andhave some sexy times. I wanted to take us back to that night in my closet. Pretend marriage or not, that night had been real. And this past month since we signed the papers, other things started feeling real too. I was closer to Allison than I’d ever been to a woman, and to my astonishment, I wanted more of it. I wanted everything.
“Poker it is, then.” Between that and board games, I’d take poker any day.
She jumped up from the table, scurrying away to the console under the TV. Something had changed these past few seconds, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. She’d finally started to relax, but then she somehow withdrew again. Why?
“I found a deck of cards!”