“Okay,” she slowly nodded, and he breathed out a sigh of relief. Her smile, when it came, dazzled him straight down to his toes. “Sounds like a deal. My favorite color is red. I’d be happy to see your house, and if you have a steak, that would suit just fine.”
She blinked those huge green eyes and Ross’ belly did a flip. Suddenly it was hard to breathe and when Teela brushed past him, leading the way in his own house, he was glad. He needed a second to try and get his shit together. His heart wasn’t just pounding hard, it was absolutely racing in his chest. His blood felt like someone had just sewed up hot coals inside his chest.
Ross couldn’t remember a single other time he’d ever reacted to a woman the way he did to Teela. And she’d done absolutely nothing to bring it on. She hadn’t even flirted with him.
Maybe he was just being a guy. It had been a while since he cut himself off women after all and that meant zero sex. Or was it possible he had a completely inappropriate crush on his unconventional, totally surprising, wildly unplanned, basically immaculately conceived baby’s mother?
CHAPTER 11
Teela
Ross’ place was nice. Not in that rich person, I have everything, I’m going to flaunt it, kind of way either. The house was understated and older. It was probably built in the sixties or seventies and the neighborhood was one of those older ones that young families often moved to because the houses were so much less expensive, but the area was still safe. Judging from the flowers at the house down the street, a few cute little old couples still lived there, probably from the sixties, in their first home. Or maybe it was their second. They’d raised their kids there, become empty nesters, and welcomed grandchildren.
At least she imagined it was that way. But maybe some young man just really liked gardening. It was a nice house though. Older, but meticulously maintained.
Ross’ hadn’t always been that way. The stucco and paint on the outside were too new. The inside was too modern. Everything had been freshly renovated, hinting at the fact that the house needed more than just a fresh coat of paint to bring it up to date.
“I like it,” she said shyly. “The house. You did a good job. Or- or someone did.”
Ross turned. They’d just entered the living room. The whole house was painted in a light grey with a white ceiling. The popcorn stuff on the rooms had been scraped away to reveal smooth even surfaces. The windows were new, with fresh white frames. The window coverings looked expensive, those fabric blinds that you tugged down from the top with your hand. Or lowered with a remote. They were mysteriously sheer to let light in, but people couldn’t see through them. She only knew that because Ross said so.
The furniture in the house looked new. A crisp white sectional bordered a black and white area rug which took up most of the floor. The hardwood was dark and the pops of black here and there- the coffee table, a few lamps, the TV mounted on the wall, the black and white pictures framed to the side, seemed to pull everything together.
“I did most of the work myself,” Ross said. He glanced around the room like he was seeing it for the first time, just like she was. He looked a little embarrassed at her compliment. “My parents helped me. I had trades come in to do the things I would have screwed up so badly myself. The kitchen, mostly. The cupboards and the granite. The tilework in there and in the bathrooms. My dad and I put the hardwood down and we all pitched in with the painting. I could have paid someone to do it all, but I wanted to feel like I’d accomplished something.”
“And your mom picked out the furniture and art?”
“She did.” He winked at her and her breath hitched in her lungs. “Do I really look that inept?”
“No,” she rushed on, before she realized he was joking. “I- uh- no. Of course not. It just seems like something she’d enjoy. Or- I don’t know. Maybe she wouldn’t. I don’t know your parents at all.” Her hand flew automatically to her belly and when she realized what she’d done, she dropped her hand back to her side and kept her gaze on her feet. Which were bare. She cursed herself for wearing sandals and not bringing socks. It was probably rude and gross to walk around someone’s house in bare feet. “Maybe they won’t like me.” Teela nearly jumped out of her skin when Ross’ scalding fingers- which were probably in reality just normal temperature, caressed hers before falling away.