Written with You (The Regret Duet #2)(18)

I nodded and dipped for another lip touch.

Ducking, she dodged me and laughed as she trotted to her car. “Night, Ian.”

His dark gaze tracked her until her taillights disappeared into the distance. Only then did he turn his attention back to me. “We’re keeping secrets now?”

I shrugged. “So, funny story. Turns out you were right and I have a thing for Hadley.”

He strolled up to the door. “Shocking. I’m especially impressed with how you were so mature and upfront, telling me about it so I didn’t have to show up at your house unannounced to find out.”

“Don’t give me that guilt trip. You know why I didn’t tell you.”

“Because I would have told you, again, that it was a stupid idea?”

I swayed my head from side to side. “More or less.”

He followed closely as I walked inside, heading straight for my downstairs office. I didn’t work from home much anymore, but when Rosalee had been little, I’d claimed that glorified closet so I wouldn’t wake her up while on the phone. Nap time was too precious to take chances.

That space had once been a mudroom, but I’d added a wall and a door. It was just big enough for a desk and two leather chairs, but it was quiet and far enough away from the action that I rarely heard Godzilla knocking down Rosalee’s building blocks.

And given that Ian was prepping to give me an earful about Hadley, we needed all the privacy we could get.

“Rosie in bed?” he asked, sinking into one of the chairs.

I walked around the desk and sat down. “She’s supposed to be. But I took away her TV time because she smeared lipstick all over the bathroom. So she’s probably up there destroying something else.”

He chuckled before letting out a resigned sigh. “Good, then you have plenty of time to fill me in on what’s going on between you and Hadley. Are you sleeping with her? Trying to sleep with her? Copping feelings? What?”

“Is there an ‘all of the above’ option on this quiz?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jesus, Cav. What the hell? This isn’t like you.”

He was beyond right. This rash and emotionally driven guy was nothing like Caven Hunt. I liked women—a fuck of a lot—but I always had my priorities in check. Ever since Rosalee had entered my life, she’d been at the very top of that list. But there was something about Hadley. Something that had me taking risks. Something that didn’t date back to our one-night stand but rather to the bond we’d formed over the last few months.

“She makes me feel.”

“Feel what? Please tell me what the hell this woman makes you feel that approximately one billion other women on the planet couldn’t?”

The corner of my mouth hiked up. “That was the end of my thought. She makes me feel. And it’s crazy given who she is and her parents and… Well, you know the rest. But I don’t know. Having somebody who understands me on this level is like feeling the sun for the very first time.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Keats. Are you writing poetry over there?”

I barked a laugh. “I’m serious. She’s different. I’m not a wolf in sheep’s clothing when I’m with her. She’s seen the skeletons in my closet, and she gets them because they are the same ones hanging in hers. And I fucking hate that she gets it. But Christ, there is something to be said about not having to fillet myself open to explain every excruciating detail of my past with a woman. I’ve never gotten serious with anyone because opening myself up and airing out the dumpster fire that is my life seemed like a nightmare…but she already knows.”

“You let this one go and I’ll personally sit down with the next woman and explain everything about your past. Deal?”

I shook my head. “As very appealing as having a mediator in my relationship sounds, I think I’m going to pass.”

He groaned, crossing and uncrossing his legs. “When are you going to tell Rosalee?”

“Tell her what? That I have a thing for Hadley? Because I gotta say, I’m not sure I’m obligated to reveal that information to a four-year-old.”

He stood up and quickly peeked out the door to make sure the coast was clear. Then he dropped his voice so low that it was almost inaudible. “I’m talking about telling Rosie that Hadley is her mother. She’s spending a lot of time here these days. Are you even the least bit concerned that she’s going to slip and tell her before you have the chance?”

I reached into my desk and pulled out the paper I’d had Hadley sign the first night she’d come over. The one that outlined exactly what she wasn’t allowed to discuss with Rosalee including but not limited to the fact that she was her mother. I slid it across to him. “I had her sign that as an insurance policy. She breaks it and you might get your wish because, feelings and understanding notwithstanding, she tells my daughter anything without discussing it with me first, we’re going to have problems.”

He lifted the paper and scanned over it.

I’d known Ian for a lot of years. He was my best friend and more of a brother to me than Trent in a lot of ways. It was because of that that I sensed the exact moment he went on alert.

He blinked several times before shaking his head as though his mind were an Etch A Sketch he was trying to reset.