“Well, most women wake up like this.” She laughed, making them both a cup of coffee. “I need my caffeine fix in the morning.” She handed him a full steaming cup, and he took a sip just as she smelled the air from hers. “I’m already feeling awake.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her.
It was the first time she’d been unguarded, and he liked that.
“Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” he asked.
She raised her brow. “We’re going for personal questions now?”
He shrugged. “You can ask me anything you like if you want.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Just know it’ll go both ways.”
“I just bet it will.” She smiled as she spoke.
“I always get what I want.”
She nodded. “Okay, let’s see. Most men like attention, and my job has always been demanding. I’ve never been able to have time off. If I’m with a family and kids, then I’m part of their lives.”
“It does sound rather demanding.”
Temperance shrugged. “It’s the way it is. You see a nanny isn’t just that. I mean, to everyone else we’re just a glorified babysitter, but to some kids we’re the father, mother, friend, loser, enemy, and sometimes, we’re just that reliable car that can get them where they need to be.”
“You’re everything wrapped in a package.”
“Yeah, and going on a date? Some men take exception to their time being cut short because of a phone call. ‘Come and pick me up from a party, please.’ It’s the please that gets me every single time.”
“You left your date.”
“I left my date, and then whatever special connection we had disappeared.”
“That … sucks.”
“It is what it is.”
“If it wasn’t for your job then, do you think you’d be settled down, married, a bunch of kids?” Even as the image of her surrounded by kids was a pleasant one. What he didn’t like was the jealousy that swamped him at the thought of her being with someone else. Temperance would make an amazing mom.
Glancing at her now, Wayne imagined her swollen, expecting their first child. The very thought … startled him.
“Okay, my question for you,” she said, her fingers tapping the edge of her cup. “Why aren’t you married?”
“No woman likes a workaholic. They want to use my bank balance to get whatever the hell they want. Or they try to trap me with fake pregnancies. I’m not interested in liars, and some women will even try to get me to talk about my company in bed. Not happening.”
“That’s … sad.”
“Not really. I guess you can say that my company is my wife.” Even as he said it, Wayne couldn’t believe how damn empty he felt. This was all Temperance. With her being easy to talk to, he could imagine so many other things.
A family. A life outside of the company.
She leaned against the counter, watching him.
“Do you want kids?” he asked.
“Yes. I’d love kids. I’m thirty years old now, so I don’t see many of them in my future.” Again, she shrugged. “It’s what I have to live with for picking this way of life, I guess.”
“You’re still open to it, then? Kids, marriage, love?”
“Why not? There’s nothing wrong with wanting that. My parents had a wonderful marriage. They were in love so I know it can happen, and it’s not a lie either that parents tell their kids. There can be love so long as you’re willing to work at it. Do you want kids?”
His first thought was to say no, and it was even on the tip of his tongue.
“Do you even know what you want?” Temperance asked.
Wayne paused at her question. No one had ever asked him that.
“I’m the owner of one of the biggest companies in the world.”
“What is it that you always wanted when you were a little boy?”
Her question took him off guard, as did his instant answer inside his head. Pushing that to one side, he stared at her, wondering what the hell she was getting at.
She held her hands up. “I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable, but I can see that is what I’m doing. I’m sorry.” She finished her coffee. “So, what would you like to do today?”
Forget what you’re making me fucking feel.
“What did you have planned?”
“Another trip to the park is in order. I did promise him. He has so much energy, it’s a wonder I’m not asleep by the time you get home.” She rubbed her hands together. “I promised the little devil some pancakes. Want some?”
He’d never had pancakes before. He always considered it a childish food. “Sure.”
Drinking his coffee, he watched as she worked, whisking up the batter and putting it to one side.
“Do you like ham and pickle on your sandwich?”
“Why are you making sandwiches?” he asked.
“For us to have a little picnic when we’re done running around. It’s just a few things in a small bag.”