said anything.” Her voice was as gentle as her hands. “I’m not a parent and challenging you in front of Paisley didn’t help.”
“So you’d wait to challenge my parenting skills until after she got out of the car?”
She gasped. “Somewhere between this afternoon and tonight I became my mother. I won’t ever challenge you again. That is a promise.”
“Ever?”
She hesitated. “Well, about parenting stuff. As long as we’re roommates, the rest of it’s fair game.”
Instead of being annoying, her insistence on calling him on his shit was a complete turn-on.
“I know your comments came from a good place. They just touched on a sore spot. I’ve never been the enforcer and it sucks. I suck at it, just like the guys said I would.” He could already hear Gray’s lecture coming. “I tried to be the fun dad, but that’s Levi’s job. Gray’s had a lock on the live-in dad since before I was even in the picture. No matter what role I try to fill, someone else has been doing it longer or is better at it than me.”
And then, because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, he added, “I catch grief from all sides now. But hearing it from you? Man, that rubbed me a little rawer than hearing it from them.”
“You’re a great dad, Emmitt. Even I can see that.”
“I used to be the world’s best dad. Even have the mug to prove it.” He carried it with him everywhere he went. Even when he was limited to a single rucksack, that mug was never far from reach.
“You don’t need a mug. The way she looked at you, even when she was mad, spoke loud and clear. You are her everything.” The naked honesty in Annie’s tone had him shifting in his seat. “Paisley is lucky to have as many people looking out for her and loving her as she does. My intention was to get her talking, not make you mad.”
“You accomplished both. At first, it felt like you were taking her side, that it was me against the world again, and I was mad as hell. But it’s hard to be mad at you when your hands are on me.”
She paused, her tone light when she said, “I can take them off you.”
“Tease,” he whispered, meeting her dark, dreamy gaze. She was leaning so far over the console, it wouldn’t take much to pull her into his lap. Which was exactly where he wanted her— in his lap with her hands all over him. Because—Lord help him—he wanted his hands all over her.
And the wants didn’t stop there. He could fill a book with all the things he wanted when it came to Annie.
“Concerned,” she said, her fingers going back to his head.
He groaned because, Christ, his head was pounding. He wasn’t so sure he’d make it to the couch if Paisley had left all the lights on inside the cabin.
“Here.” She pressed a couple aspirin into his palm.
He looked down and laughed. “That’s about as efficient as a bandage on a broken bone.” He took a pain pill from his pocket and swallowed it dry. “If this concussion doesn’t kill me, then my kid will.”
“She’s a great kid, Emmitt.”
“It sounds like you have a but coming.”
“No buts. You guys have raised a smart and loving daughter.” Her palms cupped his cheeks, her thumbs gently massaging his temples. “Maybe let her explore how smart she is.”
“That’s the same as saying but.”
She laughed, soft and husky. “When I was Paisley’s age and my mom would forbid me to do something, it made me want to do it more. Not that I ever did—I was too much of a Goody Two-shoes, like Gray.”
Wanting to get his hands on her for a moment, he ran his fingers through her hair, around to the back of her neck until the short, silky strands slid from his grasp and fell forward. “Trust me when I say, you are nothing like Gray.”
“Why do you say that?” Her breath was unsteady as she spoke.
“I’ve never wanted to kiss Gray.” Damn, her lips were right there, parted and ready. His part—oh, it was more than ready. “I’ve never wanted to kiss anyone this badly.”
“Sounds like a but coming.”
“I promised you that when this happened, you’d have to make the first move.” Stupidest promise he’d ever made. “And I don’t want to be some line that you want to push. I have enough of that in my life. When we kiss, I want it