Page 66 of Decidedly Off Limits

“You aren’t lactose intolerant are you?” Chloe asked. “I tried giving a boy my chocolate milk once, but he wasn’t allowed to drink it.”

The corners of my mouth twitched as I fought back another laugh. “No, I’m not lactose intolerant.”

Her face brightened. “So, you can eat ice cream?”

I nodded. “I happen to love ice cream. What about you?”

“Change legs,” Kelsey said, and the three of them switched the leg they were standing on.

“You should do it too,” Lindsay said, pointing at me, then wobbled for a second before regaining her balance.

I moved into position, which wasn’t easy with dress pants and a shirt on. I still had my tie on, but had loosened it before coming to the clinic. My suit jacket was back in the BMW.

The girls giggled, even though my balance was better than theirs.

“I love chocolate ice cream,” Chloe said. “And cookies and cream. And mint chocolate chip.” She went on to name at least five other flavors.

“I only like vanilla,” Lindsay said, swaying worse on the one leg than she had with the other.

“Do you think Kelsey loves ice cream?” I already knew she did. I even knew her favorite flavor—raspberry cheesecake.

“Of course she does,” Chloe said, lowering her foot for a second to keep from wobbling too much. “Everyone loves ice cream.”

“Do you think she would like to have some with me after work?”

“Yes!” both girls cried out in chorus.

“So what do you say?” I asked Kelsey. “We can go to The Lickery.” It was her favorite ice-cream place in all of San Francisco.

“Sounds good.”

Did you notice it? The glimmer of excitement in her eyes?

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

Well, the way to Kelsey’s heart was via her favorite frozen dairy product.

Any man worthy of her would know that.

“We just have a few more exercises to do,” Kelsey told the girls. “Should we get Trent to help us?”

There was another chorus of yeses, with Chloe jumping up and down like a rubber ball. Kelsey had me toss a beanbag to Lindsay, who had to catch it while standing on one leg. Kelsey did the same with Chloe.

Once they were finished, Kelsey dismissed them, then told me she had to complete some paperwork first before she could leave, but it would only take a few minutes. While I waited for her in the hospital courtyard, I checked my office emails on my phone.

At the sound of voices entering the sunny space, I looked up from the email I was reading. Kelsey was walking toward me with a man wearing a suit. She pointed at me and he waved over a gorgeous redhead sitting at a nearby table. Unlike Kelsey, who was wearing yoga pants and a white T-shirt with the hospital name on the chest, the redhead was dressed in a sleeveless black jumpsuit that skimmed her toned body.

Kelsey and the man approached me at the same time as the redhead.

“Faith,” he said to the woman, “this is Kelsey, the woman I was telling you about. Kelsey, this is my cousin.”

His cousin’s lips curved into a seductive smile…aimed at Kelsey. Her heated gaze traveled down Kelsey’s equally scorching body.

And I swear every hot-blooded male’s fantasy was playing out in living color in front of me.

Minus the kissing.

Although from the way Faith was checking out Kelsey, it was clear she would’ve been in favor of that too.