Live-In Position (33 page)

“Go on.”

“Um, Victoria’s after school activities—” I paused.

“What about them?” He didn’t move and his voice never changed.

“Well, I wanted to, maybe, take her down to three days a week with after school things, and then give her, like, Thursday and Friday off.” He pushed up onto his right elbow so he could look at me. “If you think I’m overstepping, then you can just say so. I—” His left hand covered my suddenly fast talking mouth.

“What do you plan for her to do?” He removed his hand.

“Dance, piano, and horseback riding?” It definitely came out as a question.
Unsure of whether he would permit my cutting away the language and karate lessons, as well as more leniencies with her non-school time.

He settled back into my lap with a shrug.

“Whatever you think is best.”

I sat still for a few minutes.

“Really?”

“Really. I trust that you’ll do what’s best for her.”

“You’re sure?” I asked, still in disbelief.

He looked back up at my face again. “Sophia, do as you wish with her schedule. My only concern is that she’s happy.”

I smiled down at him. Grabbing his face, I kissed his forehead.

“Well, hell, you can make all the decisions around here if that’s how you respond.” He smiled and climbed up my body, pressing his lips to mine. We didn’t make it to the bed.

“DO I HAVE to go to dance class tonight?” Victoria groaned.

“Ah, come on, I got your schedule down to three days a week.” She rolled her eyes at me. “I thought you liked dance?”

She sighed. “I do, but this year is tap. I want to do ballet again.”

“Well, you will just have to be patient.” She rolled her eyes again.

We stopped off at a deli and ate some sandwiches before I took her to her class. Instead of sitting in the waiting area, I hurried to a nearby bakery and bought a surprise for her. When her dance lesson was over, I held out a white box wrapped in plain white string.

She smiled. “What’s this?”

“Open it and find out.” I crouched down next to her as she sat on the floor.

“These are my favorite!”

Her arms wrapped tightly around my neck, and we ended up falling over onto the floor. I laughed and sat us back up.

“I know they are.”

“Thank you!” Victoria quickly pulled out the chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing and chocolate chips. She tried to stuff the whole thing in her mouth.

“You may want to take smaller bites.” I giggled.

She smiled at me with a large peanut butter icing mustache over her lip. I shook my head.

After the cupcake, she was in a better mood. She didn’t argue when I told her to get out of her junior bridesmaid dress and into the shower early. She looked at me funny for a moment, until I told her to hurry because I had another surprise for her.

I was in my room with my laptop when she burst through the door.

“Okay, I’m done!” She was almost out of breath.

“Wow, that was quick. Are you sure you washed all over?” I teased her.

She lifted her arm toward me.

“You can smell if you want,” she teased back.

“Ew, no way!” I pushed her arm down and laughed.

“Okay, so what’s the surprise?” She jumped up and down.

I stood up and pulled a DVD from the top of the television.

“This.” I held it out to her.

“You got the movie,” she screeched.

“I rented the movie,” I clarified.

“Let’s watch it now!” She ran over and jumped onto the couch.

“We need popcorn first.” I winked at her.

“Yes, and lemonade, too.” Victoria popped up from the couch and hurried out the door.

“Wait for me!” I followed her down the steps.

On our way back up the stairs, we ran into Collin.

“What’s going on here?” He looked at the popcorn and cups of lemonade, then at the both of us.

“Sophia got me the movie I’ve wanted to see!” she exclaimed. “We are going to go watch it.”

“It’s a school night.” He raised a brow at her.

“It will be over in time,” I assured him.

His eyes met mine and stayed there for a moment, lingering, before he spoke.

“You know, my television is larger. We should watch it in there.”

“Really?” Victoria’s eyes almost bugged out of her head.

He looked down at her. “Hand me those drinks and go get the movie.”

She quickly handed over the drinks. He motioned for me to follow him. In his room, I walked over to the small loveseat and a coffee table.

“What are you doing?” He looked at me curiously.

“I figured we were sitting here.” I stopped as I was about to sit down.

“We can use the bed.” Dr. Bishop set the drinks on the side table.

“Oh,” I paused. “Um, I don’t think you want popcorn in your bed.”

He turned around, but before he could speak, Victoria burst into the room and hopped onto his bed.

“This is going to be the best movie night ever!”

Dr. Bishop’s lips broke into a large smile as he stared at his daughter. He looked back to me.

“Everyone on the bed.”

I shrugged and brought the large bowl over to the bed. Victoria sat Indian style in between Dr. Bishop and me.

Midway through the movie, I said one of the characters was a geek and Victoria threw popcorn at me. I tossed a piece back at her, but she moved and it hit Dr. Bishop on the side of his face. We both became statues.

“That’s it.” His tone was stern, but the small smile at the corner of his mouth gave him away too soon. He reached into the bowl and tossed large handfuls of popcorn at both of us.

“It’s war!” Victoria screamed and started throwing it back at him.

I laughed and grabbed the entire bowl, dumping it over Dr. Bishop’s head. His eyes shot to me and narrowed. I tried to jump off the bed, but he caught me around my waist and yanked me down onto the bed.

“What shall we do to her?” He looked over at Victoria who was giggling furiously.

“Let her go!” I offered.

“Nice try, Miss Ashwood.” He smirked at me. “Well?” He turned his attention toward Victoria as he held me down on the bed.

“Tickle torture!” Victoria’s hands came down to my sides and started digging in.

“Oh god, stop! Victoria, quit!” I screamed.

“No way.”

“Ahhh, stop it, you two!” Now Dr. Bishop’s fingers were in my sides as well. “I surrender!”

Both of them were still laughing and gasping for breath as they pulled their hands away from me.

“You are,” gasp, “both,” gasp, “going to pay.” I continued to gasp for breath until I finally calmed down.

“That was fun. Let’s do it again,” Victoria giggled.

I pointed at her. “Don’t you dare,” I teasingly warned her.

Soon the movie credits were rolling, and Victoria was half asleep in her father’s arms. I almost felt like an intruder on the moment. Turning the movie off, I tried to pick up as much popcorn as I could.

“Leave it,” he whispered, picking Victoria up in his arms and carrying her to her bed.

“But I’m not tired,” Victoria yawned out.

We both laughed. He kissed her head and laid her down on her bed. I tucked her in before I placed a kiss on her cheek.

Walking back to Dr. Bishop’s room, I started to clean up the glasses and bowl, placing them on the small coffee table in front of his loveseat. Then I moved back over to the popcorn mess and tried to pick up more of the crushed pieces off of the bed.

“Quit worrying about the popcorn.” He grabbed the duvet of his bed and folded it up with the popcorn inside.

“I’ll take it downstairs.” I held out my hands in an offer to take the bedding.

Instead, he tossed the duvet onto the floor and grabbed my arms, pulling me to him.

“It can wait.” His eyes locked onto mine, and his hands slid around my waist. “I’d much rather you didn’t leave.”

Quickly, he kicked the door shut.

“You’re awfully confident for someone who tickle-tortured me earlier.” I raised one eyebrow at him.

“Forgive me?” he said sarcastically and walked me toward his bed.

“No, I don’t think I do.” I tried to pull out of his hold.

“I don’t like when you pull away from me.” He narrowed his eyes on me.

“Awww, poor baby.” I stuck out my bottom lip. “Get over it.” I slipped out of his arms and giggled.

He easily caught me by the waist and pulled me down onto the bed with him.

“Let’s stay here.” His eyes were pleading. They almost looked desperate. With a simple nod from me, he smiled and we settled into his much larger bed.

“I have to leave for business on Sunday,” he blurted out.

“Um, okay.” Even I could hear the weirdness and uncertainty in my voice.

“I figured you would want to know.” I stayed silent, not knowing what to say. “It’s something you want to know, isn’t it?” He rolled me onto my back and looked down at me.

“Yeah, I mean, if you want to tell me.”

A small groan escaped his mouth as he closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to mine. “Sophia, I want to be with you.” I didn’t know what to say. His eyes opened. “I want us to be together.” I nodded. “I don’t want to sound like some teenager, but if I have to ask you to be my girlfriend, then I will.”

I pressed my lips together hard, trying not to burst into laughter. I couldn’t hold it in.

“I’m sorry. I really am, I don’t mean to laugh, but you…oh god…listening to those words come out of your mouth.” I couldn’t control my giggling. “Have you ever had to say those words before?” I smirked.

“No,” he smiled down at me.

“You’re a dork.”

“I’m hurt.” He faked insult. “You don’t want to be my girlfriend, Miss Ashwood?” We both snorted and fought another round of laughter.

“So I get to
officially
be the secret girlfriend?” I winked at him.

He sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

“I could care less what my family knows, but for now, to everyone else, yes.” His eyes opened, and they looked worried.

“Okay,” I breathed out. It didn’t really matter how large the bed was, he remained wrapped up next to me throughout the night. I didn’t argue.

The remainder of the week flew by. I spent my nights in his room. Another weekend with Grace had come upon us. As happy as I was that Victoria seemed to enjoy spending time with her mother, there was still a part of me that wondered if Grace would eventually hurt her.

I helped Victoria get ready and double-checked that she had her cell phone with her. I reminded Dr. Bishop to talk to Grace about Miranda’s wedding, since it was on a Saturday. With a heavy heart and tear-streaked face, I watched as he drove her to Grace.