“Did she? Did she also tell you she already had an ice cream?”
“Of course! This one’s for me.” Ms. Thompson winks at my scheming child. I don’t need to be a detective to know the two of them are in cahoots. She inches forward and slaps the cracked banana seat of her bike. “Besides, this bad boy needs a tune-up.”
“You actually plan to ride that thing?”
“You know it. If Nellie and I want to ride our bikes to school, I need to make sure mine is road ready.”
My lips twitch. Normally, her banter drives me up the fucking wall, but right now, I’ll take anything over the adulteress sucking all the air out of my booth. “All right. Hop off that thing and let me have a look.”
As Ms. Thompson gets situated, six bikes race past us, with Nellie somewhere in the middle. Her eyes gleam victoriously at the mission accomplished.
“I’ll have to hold it for you. It doesn’t have a kickstand. Probably fell off twenty-some years ago,” she says. She moves to straddle the front tire and hold the bike by the handlebars. Her legs are short like the rest of her, but they’re tanned and toned where they leave her jean shorts, capped off with her signature white sneakers.
I avert my gaze to the chain, trying to think of something other than Ms. Thompson straddlinganything.Unbidden, the image of her straddling me pops into my head.
Get it the fuck together, Sutton.
She leans forward, her cleavage appearing in my line of sight. I quickly avert my gaze to the rusty bike chain. Since when do I notice her cleavage? It must be because she’s finally out of one of her baggy sweatshirts.
“Is the home-wrecker gone?” she whispers.
“Yup.” I swallow over a lump in my throat.
“Good. I thought she was going to tear your shirt off and lick the sweat from your nipples.”
Dear God. Suddenly, I’m thinking of a tongue on my nipples, and it doesn’t belong to Stephanie. I wasn’t sweating before, but I sure as fuck am now.
“Are you jealous, Ms. Thompson?” A swipe of my tongue wets my lips.
“Just looking out for my job security, Officer Sunny.”
My ass rests on the heel of my shoe, relaxing a forearm on my knee. “Do you always have a ridiculous imagination?”
“Oh, come on. I’d have to be blind not to see that the woman wants you to call her Mommy. And once that happens, who needs a nanny?”
“Never gonna happen.”
“Single for eternity, eh? Me too.”
This conversation is barreling down a dangerous road, one I haven’t explored in nearly seven years.
One I’m perfectly fine keeping locked tight until Nellie graduates from high school.
Rocks sputter beneath my shoes as I push to my feet. “Needs a new chain. Bring it by my house in the morning, and I’ll get one put on for you. Here’s a helmet.”
“What about my coupon for free ice cream?”
“Are you going to give it to my daughter?”
Her eyes shoot skyward. “No, I’m going to eat it by myself.”
I hold out the paper. When she grabs the other end, I lean in close. “I don’t believe you,” I murmur. The words hold a deeper meaning I’m yet to unscramble.
“Want to share it?”
Lust swiftly punches my gut when her brown eyes drop to my mouth.
Squinting at her, I flatten my lips. “No.”