Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(43)

She stared at him for a beat, and then another. Then she gestured with her chin and they walked to her building. She lived on the third floor and it was a walkup. At her door, she pulled out her key but didn’t use it. Instead, she lifted her face to his. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Open up,” he said. “You should never loiter in this hallway.”

She unlocked the door but then blocked his way in, bending to give Lollipop another proper goodbye. This took like five minutes. Finally rising, she met Caleb’s eyes. “Goodnight to you too.”

And her goodbye to him had taken a second. But he’d told her it was her choice and he’d meant it. “Goodnight.”

Lollipop tried to get inside. Sadie paused, looked behind her into the apartment and then bit her lower lip. “Fine. You can come in. For a minute.”

The dog was all in.

So was Caleb. He shut and locked the door behind him, taking a sweeping gaze across her place. It was small, with comfortable-looking and very lived-in furniture and colorful throw rugs scattered throughout.

Cute. Cozy. But not warm. In fact, it was freezing in here. “Something wrong with your heat?”

“No.” She moved into the kitchen and put fresh water into Lollipop’s bowl. She put the container Rocco had handed her into her fridge, which was looking pretty bare.

“Just haven’t had a chance to go to the grocery store,” she said to his unasked question, turning away to scoop some food for Lollipop, who pounced on it and happily dug in.

Caleb kept his eyes on Sadie. He knew she wanted to think she was an island, that she was unreadable and not easily figured out, but she was wrong.

He already knew she was struggling financially. He wasn’t going to be able to ignore that. He wouldn’t have been able to ignore it for a perfect stranger, so he certainly couldn’t for a woman he suspected he was falling for big-time. “You’re pretty new at the day spa,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And you’re still building your clientele at the Canvas Shop.”

“Yes.” She narrowed her eyes. “Your point?”

“I could help—”

“Wow, would you look at the time?” She strode to the door and opened it for him. “Okay, you got your little peek into my world. Time to go.” She added a little chin jerk to the opened door.

Thinking the new energy in the room meant playtime, Lollipop loped a circle around them with an excited bark.

Caleb moved to the door, stopping very close to Sadie. So close that their bodies brushed up against each other. She could’ve stepped back, but she didn’t. He decided to take that as a good sign. “Everyone struggles sometimes, you know that, right?”

“Do you offer to help everyone then?” she asked in a deceptively serene voice. Deceptive because her eyes were flashing temper.

“I help who I can.” He paused. “Sadie . . .”

She closed her eyes. Reaching out, he gently shut and locked the door again, staying on the inside with her. And when he stepped even closer, she put her hands on his chest, her fingers curling into his shirt, whether to pull him closer or keep him at bay, he wasn’t sure.

“You drive me crazy,” she murmured. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah. And ditto.” Liking her hands on him, he decided to go with optimism and wrapped his arms around her.

She pressed her face into the crook of his neck and inhaled deeply, like she craved the scent of him and he felt his body react. “Sadie. About your heater—”

“You aren’t going to be nosy and bossy about this, are you?”

“Nosy and bossy are the female Parkers, not me.”

She snorted. “Okay.”

Wrapping her hair around his fist, he used it to lift her face so he could look into her eyes. “So you’re saying I’m nosy and bossy.”

She laughed but pressed herself a little closer to him so he forgave her.

“Hello,” she said, still smiling. “Have you met yourself?”

“So I like to be aware of what’s going on around me, and—”

“B-O-S-S-Y ,” she said, spelling out the word. “And you also always need things to go your way.”

“Okay, so that might be true. And you’re changing the subject.”

“I’m not a charity case, remember? So thank you for caring and offering, but I’m fine.” She said all this without taking her hands off him. A good sign, right?

An even better one was when she nudged him up against the door at his back and pinned him there.

His hands went to her waist, slid up her arms, and cupped her face. “Sadie.”

She stared at his mouth. “Yeah?”

“I’m going to kiss you now. If you’ve got a problem with that, tell me, okay? Don’t put that lethal knee of yours into action and ruin my chances of having kids.”

She looked from his mouth to his eyes, her own surprised. “You want kids?”

“Yeah, maybe. Someday.” He gave a small smile when she just stared at him. “What?”

“I guess I’m just a little . . . fascinated by the idea of you being a dad to a couple of mini suits running around, taking on the world with all that effortless charm and charisma you put out there.”