Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Some people’s desires were bigger than their budgets.
“I can imagine he probably didn’t like that answer.” I was hoping Ashton had explained the gravity versus money problem with more tact but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. “How is he still not happy with the plans?”
With the number of extra hours Ashton had put in avoiding the whole diapers and tickling thing, he should’ve been ahead on every project imaginable.
His sigh and the way he finally managed to look away from the new shelf by my chair said he agreed with me. “I have no idea. We’ve redone them three times. I’m at the point where I’m going to call his wife and ask what the fuck is going on. They both said he’s the contact but he can’t make logical decisions.”
Ashton’s client wasn’t the only one who couldn’t handle logic, but that was okay because it was cute on him. “Maybe drop off paperwork when you just happen to know he might not be home.”
I shrugged in an oops kind of way as he grinned.
“It’s not an ignoring the contact thing if it’s an accident.” Looking brighter and clearly having forgotten the diapers for the moment, his smile turned devilish. “And I have to make small talk or I’ll be rude. If she does something like invite me in for coffee I’ll have to talk to her. It’ll seem fishy if I don’t.”
His office was weird enough that I could see it going sideways with some kind of strange cheating scandal popping up, so I nodded. “Agreed. You don’t want to be accused of hiding anything.”
Head cocking, he frowned. “Something like that happened a few years ago. So you’re right.”
Yep, they were all very normal looking but everyone who got hired was interesting in some way…even if they didn’t know it when they first started there.
“Then it’s only polite to be open and friendly.” Hopefully that wouldn’t lead to any problems we hadn’t thought of. “Does that mean you’re probably going to be late tomorrow night?”
It wasn’t an intentionally leading question but he frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “I apologized about that.”
Well, kind of.
“I’m not sure mumbling that you were a dick and then sucking on my dick is actually an apology, but that wasn’t what I meant.” Clearly it was still on his mind, though. “I was thinking about dinner. I wanted to grill those steaks we got, so I need to time them right.”
And since we didn’t have any plans for the weekend, I’d been going to make a ridiculously sized pitcher of something alcoholic and fruity.
That took the winds out of his disgruntled sails. His arms came down as he deflated and looked like a scolded puppy. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
He’d said that entirely too often lately.
“Thank you.” Heading over, I scooped him up in my arms and tucked him in a baby carry against my chest as I took him over to my chair. “But I think getting to the bottom of your feelings will be better than you having to constantly apologize.”
He’d gotten very good at it lately, but blow jobs couldn’t magically fix everything no matter what interesting logic he’d found in a book. Because no matter what that author had written, apologies didn’t always start on someone’s knees.
“This is much better.” Settling him against me, I shifted him so he was curled into my chest and didn’t even try to put him in a more grown-up position. “Now, no more worrying about me being frustrated with you for overworking and no more feeling guilty. I understood what you were doing, and if I’d been upset, I’d have talked to you about it sooner.”
He’d needed time to stew in his worries to distill them a bit.
I thought it was a crazy process but rushing him had never helped situations like that. He was worrying about it entirely too much, though. So as I rubbed his back, I kissed his head and tried to decide how to fix it. “When I got to the point where I knew something needed to change, I bought the diapers. If you’d upset me, I promise I’d have told you.”
As it was, I’d just been bored and had gotten entirely too caught up on my paperwork. His sigh said he wasn’t happy with that answer, though. I wasn’t sure what else I needed to say, but he didn’t make me read his mind that time.
He did, however, sigh and pout. “But I was mean to you.”
With anyone else I’d have said we needed to agree on disagreeing, but Ashton wasn’t like anyone else I’d ever met. “I think you were mean to yourself more.”
He’d stressed himself out more than he’d been mean to me, but he didn’t see it that way. Maybe I could help him with that, though. “You stressed out my baby. You gave him too much soda and not enough sleep. You even worked too much and hid from me.”