I glanced at the door, and, of course, at the exact moment that I stood there staring at it like a lost sailor wishing for a mermaid to appear, it opened again and April walked in. Her gaze connected with mine almost instantly, and she did nothing to mask the worry in hers.
“She’s there.” Adi frowned and pointed at the door, tilting her head as if she wanted to question if I was okay.
Hunter laughed it off, wrapping his arm around her bicep and leading her to the other side of the room. I had an almost overwhelming urge to take April into my arms when she didn’t stop moving until she was in front of me, but the fact that Hunter and Adi were in there with us, plus the expression on her face, made me think she wouldn’t want me to.
“Hey,” I said. “Did you have a good shift?”
“No.” She scrubbed her hands over the side of her face, bringing her weary gaze to mine. “It felt like it was six days long.”
“Why? What’s going on downstairs?” I frowned. “I haven’t heard about anything out of the ordinary happening.”
“That’s because nothing out of the ordinary is happening down there.” She lowered her voice and flicked her hand between our chests. “The out of the ordinary shit all seems to happen up here.”
Glancing over my shoulder to make sure Hunter and Adi were otherwise occupied, I took a step closer to her and rested my hands lightly on her hips. She tensed and checked for them too but then sighed as she relaxed into my touch.
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary about two unattached, consenting adults who are attracted to each other getting together,” I said. “It’s so not out of the ordinary that it’s kind of what the human race depends on for its survival.”
She cracked a smile at my joke, shaking her head as she brought her hand to my stomach and played with the material of my shirt. “Does that mean things aren’t going to be really awkward between us now?”
“No awkwardness here.” Since my back was turned on the room and I was pretty sure I was blocking anyone’s view of us now that we knew exactly where they were, I risked a quick kiss to her forehead. “What we do when we’re alone has nothing to do with anyone else. I don’t know about you, but I enjoyed what we had here. I really don’t think we have anything to feel awkward or guilty about.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to jeopardize Adi’s therapy for anything in the world, least of all for a hookup.”
Ah, so that was what this was about. “Again, what we do when we’re alone has nothing to do with anyone else. Not even Adi. Regardless of how things play out between the two of us, I won’t stop her therapy. I’m not that guy.”
“You mean you’re not spiteful, vindictive, or like to abuse your position?” She lifted her chin defiantly, but there was humor in her eyes. “Good. But you should know if you go back on your word about this, I won’t stop bugging you to keep doing the therapy. No matter what.”
I dipped my head to look into those green eyes and flexed my fingers on her hip. “You mean if I threaten to stop her therapy, you’ll be around all the time?”
She patted my stomach with a coy smile. “Don’t go getting any wild ideas on me, buddy.”
“I think we should stop therapy immediately.” My voice was so low it was almost a whisper. “I’m also not your buddy, April. I’m so much more than that.”
“Are you?” Her gaze darted from one of my eyes to the other. “From where I’m standing, we’ve been on one date with child supervision and we’ve hooked up once. That’s it. That’s what we are to each other.”
Why did she sound so defensive all of a sudden? I had a feeling I’d inadvertently smacked right into one of her barriers. It stood to reason that I’d trip over some of her baggage at times. It still didn’t scare me off.
Dipping my head lower, I positioned my mouth just above her ear, so close that her hair moved against my lips when I spoke. “We’ve hooked up once so far but it’s going to happen again. It was too good not to happen again. And again. And again. There’s so much I still want