“You’re sitting on it,” I say, then close my eyes when Parker stiffens and looks down at the cushion he’s sitting on.
“You’re sleeping on the sofa?”
“No. It’s a Murphy bed.”
ChapterThree
Parker
This was a mistake. This was a big fucking mistake. When I walked up the stairs and saw that kid flirting with her, something tightened in my gut. Something that felt a little too close to jealousy.
I might have been able to write it off as being overprotective, but then that Dan kid had to go and call me her father. I got a little too much satisfaction when his eyes widened and he thought that my relationship with Lucy might be sexual.
Then there was that whole bed situation. When Lucy told me that I was sitting on her bed, my dick perked up a little too fast.
“Why are you shaking your head?” Lucy asks as I drive into downtown Palo Alto.
“I just can’t believe you’re going to college. I guess I didn’t really figure you’d grow up so fast.”
“It’s been two years, and I was pretty grown up when you and Mom got divorced.”
“I don’t think you would have had the guts to threaten to live in the dorms or take out student loans and do whatever the hell you wanted back then.”
“I wasn’t eighteen back then. I didn’t have a whole lot of choices.”
I sigh. “I’m sorry about that. I tried to get your mom to loosen up a little.”
“I know you did, at the cost of your marriage.”
I turn and look at her before casting my gaze back to the road. “That’s not why we got divorced. I mean, it was part of the issue, but only because I couldn’t handle your mom’s controlling nature.”
“You and me both,” she mumbles.
“But you’re spreading your wings. You’re going to try pot and party with guys and do all the things a young woman does in college.”
When a laugh bursts from Lucy, I smile in response. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s just that I never really thought of you as old until you called me a young woman.”
“That’s what you are.”
“I thought when you turned eighteen, you became a woman.”
I shrug. “There are a lot of different things that pull together to turn a girl into a woman.”
Lucy’s shoulder’s slump. “Yeah, well, that hasn’t happened yet. Thanks, Mom.”
I choke on my own spit. Did Lucy just admit to being a virgin? In all honesty, I’m not surprised. Hell, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Marion bought one of those house arrest ankle bracelets and put it on Lucy.
Still, Lucy is gorgeous. As we pull up to a stoplight, I glance over at her. Her teeth are abusing her full lower lip. Her cheeks are a healthy pink. Is she embarrassed about what she just admitted? From my vantage point, I can see down her dress far enough that I know she’s wearing a bra the same color as her skin and that it’s lacy.
Fuck.
I need to get my mind out of the gutter. Lucy’s my stepdaughter, or at least she was. My dick keeps reminding me that we’re not connected that way anymore.
“I’m sorry your mom holds you so tight,” I say.
“I know she loves me, but,” she sighs. “When you were packing up to move out, I seriously considered asking you to take me with you.”