“What does two hundred and sixty-eight mean?”
“That’s how many days until Ruthie starts college, and I have my house back. Not that I’m counting.”
“Are you counting?”
“I’m counting.”
“You know, my parents would probably be very impressed if they thought I were dating a single father. They’d think that was a ready-made family.”
“You really want me to be your Sven?” Erick asked. He already planned on doing it. This woman had taken his angry petulant pyromaniac daughter and turned her into a functioning member of society in under a year. He’d do anything for this woman, including but not limited to pretending to be her boyfriend for a couple days.
“I would appreciate it,” she said.
“We can have sex all week too, right?”
“Okay.”
“What?” Erick burst into laughter.
“What?” she repeated. “Why are you laughing?”
“I didn’t think you’d say yes. I was joking.”
“You were?” Her blue eyes went wide.
“Well...yeah. I mean, not that I don’t want to. I do want to. I swear to God, I thought you’d say no. I never guessed you’d say yes, not in a million years.”
“And why not?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. Oh, no, he’d put her on the defensive. Bad move.
“You’re a little reserved.”
“Reserved? Me?” She sat up straighter, prim as a schoolmarm.
“Your lowest cut shirt is a turtleneck.”
“Is there something wrong with having a warm neck?”
“Not a damn thing. Obviously I misjudged you. I’m sorry,” he said, not at all in the least sorry to discover Clover Greene wanted to sleep with him.
“Okay, I might be a little reserved,” she said. “But it’s not on purpose. When you own your own business and run it all by yourself, you tend to be all business.”
“That’s all I mean. I just never heard you talk much about a personal life. And Ruthie would have told me if you were dating anybody.”
“No time,” she said. “I guess that’s why I said yes when you said...what you said.”
“When I said I wanted to sleep with you?”
“Yes, that thing,” Clover said. “I actually have time this week to do that sort of...thing. It’s been a long time since I was involved with someone in a clothing optional type scenario.”
“How long? Wait, don’t answer that. That was a rude question.”
“We’re talking about sleeping together. It wasn’t rude. It was a fair question.”
“Okay, how long? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
“You show me yours first.”
“Years,” he said. “A year and a half? About that. I was seeing someone right before Ruthie got arrested. Then my entire life turned into babysitting her every minute of the day. You?”