Hard to Resist - By Kara Lennox Page 0,45
the third bedroom—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said, holding out her hand like a traffic cop stopping cars. “I don’t think this is such a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t be proper. I mean, it wouldn’t be a good example to set for Samantha.”
“You mean because we’re not, like, married?”
She nodded. “I know it’s old-fashioned. And I’m not totally against couples living together, but we’re not exactly…” She struggled for a word.
“Committed?”
“Well, yeah, I guess. We’ve been seeing each other a very short time.”
“We would be living under the same roof,” he reasoned. “But we wouldn’t be living together.”
Kat was already shaking her head before he finished his sentence. “Really, not a good idea,” she said with steely determination.
“Kat, don’t rule it out before you’ve thought about it. Do you really want Sam to be away for two weeks while you’re without A/C?”
“No, I don’t. But I can’t move into my boyfriend’s house,” she said with troubling finality. “That’s sending the wrong message to Samantha about how to deal with challenges. And what would I tell the StrongGirls? The most important thing I can do for them is to teach them by example.”
“So you’d rather roast in this oven than compromise a little?”
“I can’t compromise my values. If I lose those, I lose everything. Anyway, there’s another issue.” She glanced out the window, chewing on her fingernail, then turned back again. “Sam is getting way too attached to you.”
“That’s not a bad thing,” Ethan said, confused. “It certainly beats having her scream when I walk into the room.”
“But if something happens, you know, with you and me. Not that I think it will—”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said flatly.
“We don’t know what the future holds. We’ve only known each other a little while. It’s too much, too soon. And frankly, once Sam and I live a couple of weeks in your beautiful house, with that big kitchen and those roomy closets, it’s not going to be easy to move back here.”
He must not have looked convinced, because she added one more ingredient to her argument.
“When I was about Sam’s age, my mother moved us in with one of her boyfriends. I mean, she did it more than once, but that particular time, the guy was nice. I remember him very clearly—his name was Hal. He was a mechanic and he smelled like motor oil—and he had a cute little house. He gave me butterscotch candies and called me Kitten. But after a few months something went wrong and we had to move away, and I never saw Hal again. I was heartbroken. And I know it’s because we lived with him and he felt like a daddy to me.”
“You think Samantha sees me like a daddy?” The idea filled him with wonder and pride.
“I think if we lived in the same house, she would start to get that idea, yes.”
“So you’re just going to stay here and roast.”
“I’ll be working during the heat of the day. And it’s not so bad at night. I mean, people lived for thousands of years without air-conditioning. I hardly ever had it when I was growing up.”
Nothing he was going to say would dissuade her, and he had no choice but to give up. He would simply get the job finished as quickly as he could.
“Then, I better get to work while I still have some daylight. The sooner I can finish this thing, the sooner you’ll be cool again.”
As Kat watched him go, she felt an unreasonable urge to cry. He really did have her best interests in mind. He wanted to take care of her and Sam, and that was a noble thing. The guy’s heart was as big as a beach ball.
And it was tempting—far more tempting than she’d let him know—to move into that wonderful old house, with its polished hardwood floors and high ceilings, and the funny spiral staircase that led up to the attic conversion where Samantha liked to play.
Hadn’t she fantasized about it just two nights ago? If she and Ethan were further along in their relationship, if they were in love and committed to making a future together, things might be different.
But to move into her new boyfriend’s place for convenience’s sake just didn’t seem right. It wouldn’t matter if they had separate rooms. It wasn’t right.
She had already let herself become too dependent on Ethan. They were sharing meals, working on the yard and doing their grocery shopping together. Ethan often looked after Samantha while Kat was