His arm started the glide around to draw her closer.
Julia ducked from under his hands. "I should gather my stuff and go."
Yes, she should, but he didn't want her to and couldn't stop the urge to keep her talking so she would stay. Pizza and Julia looked a helluva lot better in his kitchen than the chili and solitude he'd been facing the past year. "Everything go okay with the girls?"
Julia scratched her eyebrow, then dried the wet spot with her wrist as she backed out of the kitchen. "Uhm, yes, homework's almost done. We built a cage for Ivy's desert habitat project. Shelby's in her room typing in corrections on her term paper. And there's pizza in the fridge.">Even one with sleepy bedroom eyes and endless lanky appeal.
"On second thought..." Julia whipped the bag of pretzels from Shelby's hand, poured a pile on the table and scooped one through the chocolate. "Who needs a spoon?'
She plopped into a chair, drawing her legs up and sitting cross-legged. She popped the chocolate-covered pretzel into her mouth. Her eyes slid closed. Euphoria melted through her in a tide of warm chocolate.
If only life could always be this simple, friends and junk food. But Zach wasn't a simple man to understand.
Julia, I need your help.
Her heart stuttered. Another bite of chocolate soothed the unsteady beat.
Shelby clicked a fingernail against the stud in her eye brow. "Is it true that chocolate is the next best thing sex?"
Julia dropped a pretzel in the pan.
Kathleen coughed, twice, then hefted herself from the chair with surprising speed to pitch her spoon in the sink
Clearing her throat, Julia turned to Ivy. "Hon, would you run back into your father's room and look through the diaper bag for Patrick's pacifier?"
"But he's not cranky."
"Better to be prepared."
"Sure." Ivy sighed. Ponytail swinging, she tiptoed around a poster, markers and wooden box full of cactus, on her way out of the kitchen.
Julia waited for Ivy to clear the room then turned back to Shelby. "Do you think that was really appropriate to say around your little sister?"
The teen shrugged. "Well, she's gone now. So? Is it the next best thing to sex?"
Julia longed for simpler problems, like diapers and feedings. Even if she wanted to answer that question, which she absolutely did not, she wasn't sure she could. It had been so long since she'd had a man and chocolate in her bed at the same time for comparison.
She willed herself not to think about the past night she'd spent in Zach's bed. Alone, but so very aware of the man
Where else could she have slept other than the sectional sofa? Not that she'd slept much wrapped in blankets that smelled too much like the man who used them.
Shelby quirked a pierced brow. "Well?'
Julia looked to Kathleen at the sink for help, but her traitorous friend had suddenly decided to wash her hands. She pumped soap from a dispenser with intense concentration.
Weren't doctors supposed to have training in answering these sorts of questions? Julia pulled a weak smile. "I guess I should be grateful you don't already know the answer."
Shelby rolled her eyes. "Forget it."
"Wait. You just surprised me."
"Never mind. I mean, come on, as if you'd really tell me anyway."
Way to go, Jules. "Okay, let's talk about it then."
Shelby pulled her term paper from under the pan. "I just said it to get a rise out of you anyhow. Lucky I didn't ask the Colonel, huh? He would have had a stroke."
Understatement of the year.