Guarding His Fake Family by Knight Katie & North Leslie

Author:Knight, Katie & North, Leslie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

The next time Alisha woke up, the bedside clock read five-thirty. Damn. She’d been napping almost four hours. After yawning and stretching, she got up and used the bathroom, then went downstairs to work on her laptop.

Sleep had refreshed her and now she was ready to dive back into her research. Simon sat across the living room from her, using the dictation software on his phone. He acknowledged her arrival with a grunt but didn’t say anything else. The tension from their argument earlier was still there, but lessened, thank goodness.

She opened up the laptop, losing herself in the joy of the hunt. Alisha pulled up her list of leads and began looking into them, one by one, checking into them all, no matter how small. Time drifted and the next time she looked up, an hour had passed. Simon was returning from upstairs.

“I just gave Amy her bottle and got her diaper changed. She’s down for another nap,” he said, taking his seat across from her again. “What are you working on?”

He looked relaxed now and seemed genuinely interested in her answer, so she went with it. Dropping their discussion from earlier today was probably a good thing anyway, for now. “I’ve been checking on some of the leads I had about properties tied to the Andronettos and I think I’m on to something.”

“Yeah?” He got up and moved to take a seat beside her on the sofa. Simon peered at her screen, then exhaled slowly. “That’s good. We can check on those more tomorrow. You should stop now so we can have some dinner. You barely touched your lunch.”

Her hackles rose again. Maybe their earlier discussion wasn’t over after all if he still thought he had the right to tell her what was best for her, as if she wasn’t an adult who could decide for herself. “I’m fine. And I’m not hungry.”

He raised his eyebrows, staring her down. “But it’s not all about you. Not anymore.”

“Jesus.” She slapped her laptop closed and gave him a stern side look. “Are we back to that again, Simon? It’s not your decision how I choose to take care of myself, okay?”

“Sorry.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I meant no offense. And you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself. I know that. I just didn’t want you to push yourself too hard, that’s all. We had a scare earlier and I, for one, would rather not have another one.”

“And you think I would?” Her gaze narrowed. “You think I enjoyed that experience, Simon?”

“That’s not what I meant.” He scooted to the edge of the cushion and rested his forearms on his thighs, raking his hands through his hair. “God, everything I say comes out wrong.”

“Maybe you should shut up then,” she said, moving forward as well to set her computer on the coffee table.

“Nice.” Simon gave her some side eye. “Why are you so defensive about everything today?”

“Why do you keep pushing me about this?”

“Because I care about you, dammit.

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