Undeniable You (Sapph in the City #4)

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Larison

I shouldn’t have brought her to meet Juniper. I’d had a feeling that my daughter would love this woman and that was a huge problem.

Jo was…well, she was gorgeous . I’d been so busy worrying about her being qualified and getting along with Juniper I hadn’t considered the fact that she might be pretty. That my initial reaction to her might have almost knocked me out of my chair and I had to keep finding things to do at my parents’ house so I wouldn’t just sit there and stare at her as she interacted with my daughter. Of course Juniper adored her immediately.

I’d never considered how attractive it might be to see a beautiful woman immediately click with my daughter. It was arousing and heartwarming at the same time, which was a confusing cocktail of feelings that I was doing my best not to swallow and choke on.

When was the last time that I’d had this kind of reaction to a woman? To anyone? A long fucking time. It was even longer since I’d sought anyone out for the purposes of dating or sex. All that had gone out the window when I had Juniper.

Even if I’d found the time to date, did I really want to fall for someone my daughter might not like? Or someone who said that they were fine with me having a child in theory, but then in reality couldn’t handle it? There were just too many ways that things could go wrong, so I’d set that aside and had focused on raising Juniper and keeping my crap together.

Not that I was thinking about dating this woman that I wanted to hire to watch my daughter. That was definitely something I was never going to do. I wasn’t some predatory man who preyed on a younger woman so he could trade his first wife in for a newer model. Gross.

No, I wasn’t going to do that. The best course of action would have been to tell her that she wasn’t right for the job or I’d changed my mind or something like that. But there was Juniper. Her instant connection with Jo couldn’t be ignored. Even if I told her she wasn’t right and hired someone else, Juniper was going to ask why she couldn’t see her.

This was a no-win situation unless I could wrestle with my own desire and lock it away for my daughter’s sake. Jo would be good for her. For both of us, really. As long as I could keep myself together.

Juniper talked non-stop to Jo as I drove her back to her apartment. Jo was attentive and funny and truly had a way with kids. When we arrived, Juniper was upset that Jo had to leave.

“It’s okay, we’ll see each other really soon,” Jo said as I prepared for a meltdown. She looked around in her bag and pulled something out, handing it back to Juniper.

“This is one of my little friends. You can name them whatever you want. But you can tell them things and I’ll hear them. I have a very strong connection with toys,” Jo said, twisting back in her seat so she could look at Juniper. “So anytime you want to tell me something, tell them and I’ll hear it.”

That seemed to mollify Juni as she turned the toy over in her hands. I couldn’t really see what it was, but it was purple and sparkly. Did Jo just carry toys around in her bag?

“Well done, Mary Poppins,” I said under my breath, but Jo heard me and laughed.

“I’m still working on the flying part,” she said as she undid her seatbelt.

“Bye, Juniper. It was awesome to meet you and I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Juniper nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you,” I said. “For…everything.”

Jo winked and my heart tripped over itself. Nope, I wasn’t doing that.

“I’ll be in touch about everything.” I had to remember the reason she was in my car in the first place. Because I was going to hire her to work for me which meant any salacious thoughts I had were strictly forbidden and would need to be ignored. I could do that. Hell, I’d ignored a lot of things in my life. This would be fine.

“Oh, uh, it was great to finally meet you too,” Jo said, her voice soft and low and her tone made me want to hear her say all kinds of things to me.

Inappropriate things. So inappropriate.

“It was good to meet you as well,” I said, my voice choked. She waved and I watched her as she approached her lobby door and waited until she went inside.

I exhaled a shaky breath and closed my eyes.

“Mama?” a tiny voice in the backseat said.

“Yes, my love?” I asked, opening my eyes.

“I like Jo.”

“Me too.” For entirely different reasons.

I know this is short notice, but do you think you could start this week? I held off several hours on sending the message. Juniper had been demanding that she wanted to see Jo again, and had been clutching the toy Jo had given her, which turned out to be a little sparkly purple chibi dragon. It was cute as hell and I wondered where she’d gotten it.

Jo answered quickly. I hoped I hadn’t interrupted her. I probably should have asked more personal questions. But I guess I figured I knew enough about her from Sophie, but did I?

That works for me. When were you thinking?

We went back and forth, and she agreed to start on Friday, even though it would mean she’d only work one day. I had a million things to do at the bookshop and so many emails I’d been ignoring for days that could no longer be ignored.

“Hey Juniper, how would you like for Jo to come over on Friday? She’ll hang out with you all day and I’ll get everything done at the bookshop and then we can hang out and watch movies and have pizza.” That was a guaranteed hit with just about any kid, and especially mine. As much stress as the responsibility was, having a kid was honestly so fun. I had someone to hang out with who got excited about mundane things. Being around someone who saw the world in a different way really put a lot of things in perspective. Sometimes I wondered what kind of person I would have become if I hadn’t had Juniper.

“Yes, yes, yes!” She jumped off the couch and started doing a little hoppy dance that she did when she was excited about something. That was a good sign.

“Well that’s good to hear because she’s going to.” Right now, she was thrilled, but I didn’t know how it was going to go when it was actually time for me to leave her with someone she didn’t know very well. I’d also need to show her everything in the apartment and give her all the rules. It wouldn’t be easy, leaving Juniper. There was a good chance that I’d be the one who would freak out more than my daughter when it came time to go to work.

Ugh, I hated this. Parenthood was more complicated when you actually liked your child.

“Jo, Jo, Jo,” Juniper chanted as she twirled around the room.

I’ll be there Jo sent.

If I got through Friday without a breakdown, I was going to consider that a win.