Someone to Watch Over Me (8 page)

“Tuttle,” Levy echoed, ever the sponge of
knowledge.

“Don’t worry, little man, it’ll grow.”

“
Yew
tuttle?” Levy inquired curiously. Free from the confines of his
diaper, he grabbed his package, squishing it in his hand like a
ball of putty. I’d seen it before so it was no great shock to me,
but Tate looked like he was about to go cross-eyed. I merely took
Levy’s hand and pulled it away, encasing him safely in a fresh
diaper.

“
He’s asking
if you have one too,”
I told Tate, who
was at a loss for words.

Tate
adjusted himself unconsciously and swallowed down the last of his
discomfort. “Yeah, but mine’s big.”

“Big tuttle!”

“
No, big pee
pee,” Tate corrected. “You turtle.”

“
Yew
tuttle!”
Levy crowed. Clutching his toes, he rolled to his
side, staring up at us with an exuberant smile.

“
Whatever,”
Tate said, “but
heed my words, kid, if
you keep handling it like that, you’re going to stunt its growth.
Squeezing it like that can’t be healthy.”

Finished, I
bundled up the sodden diaper and dropped it in the small
wastebasket beside the bed. “Are you planning to use those as a
string to tie around your finger so you don’t forget me when you
leave?” I gestured to the white lace thongs Tate was wringing in
his hands.

He looked
down at the undergarments and smiled waywardly.
“Forget you?” he protested. Lifting Levy off to the side,
he climbed onto the bed, coerced me to my back and wedged himself
between my thighs. “Cooper, I don’t think that’s possible. If
anything, I want more of you.”

Which part
of me he wanted was evident. I could feel him hard against my
core.
Taking my mouth in a firm but
teasing kiss, he further corroborated his claim. I moaned low in my
throat, impulsively raising my hips to meet him. His hand wandered
down my thigh, hitched my leg over his waist. His hips swiveled,
stroking me with the thick ridge of his jeans.

“
Yup,” Tate
groaned, “definitely more.”

“If you can do it again after last night—or
rather this morning, then you’re amazing. Amazing or
superhuman.”

“Amazing. You had it right last
night.”

“I don’t remember saying
that.”

“Oh, you did, but it came out
something like ‘Ungh!’” His eyes rolled to the back of his head,
blithe and mocking. “You go completely incoherent when I’m inside
you. I love it.”

Laughing deep in my belly, I
turned a warm shade of red. “I do not.”

“Yes you do.”
Grinning, h
e
set back to work,
following the line of my throat with the edge of his
teeth
.

“Tate
.
” He followed my eyes to Levy, who
was paying
no attention to what we were
doing
, enthralled as he was
with the lint
in
between his toes.

“Hey kid.”

Levy looked
up, feet forgotten.
“Huh?”

“You want that donut now?”

A cheeky smile spread across Levy’s face. “I
hab it?”

“
It’s all
yours. The chocolate milk too.”

Levy climbed
off the bed and toddled from the room. Out in the kitchen, the
chair scraped across the floor. “Spinkews….nummy.”

“
I imagine
that’ll keep him busy for a few minutes.
”

“Tate.”

“
Relax,
Coop. We’re not going full out here.” With a sharp yank, he tugged
the blankets over us and recommenced his trail down my throat. His
hand moved contrariwise, first lifting my shirt out of the way and
then lifting my breast to his mouth. I bit my lip, holding back a
moan. My hands moved to his shoulders, nails biting into his
skin.

Tate’s other
hand dipped down between my thighs, circling and then sinking
in.
I garbled a low moan
of
pleasure
, my eyes fluttering. I meant to
utter something indelicate like
, “
Fuck
,” but it came out, “Mumph.”

“Oh? So it’s incredible now?”
His eyes crinkled at the corners, smiling in jest. “I don’t know
which I like better. The
Incredible
Tate Watkins or the
Amazing
Tate Watkins.”

I wished I knew how he could
converse while performing this kind of
mental
calisthenics.
He was
right; my brain stopped functioning during sex.
“Ungh.
Mumph.”

Laughing softly, Tate leaned in
close to my ear
, nibbled
at the lobe.
“Better be careful. You might give me a god complex with all those
little noises you make.”

“Tate?” I managed. It wasn’t
without effort.

“What, did you want to add
prodigious to the list?”

“No, I…wanted…to
say…
shut up
.”
I
couldn’t relax enough to lose myself with his teasing, and I needed
to finish quickly. I heard Levy turn the television on, which meant
that he was finished with his donut or was eating it on the
sofa.

“
Geez, Coop,
that’s cold.
”

“And kiss me…I wasn’t…finished.”

Beaming that crooked smile my
way, he crushed his mouth to mine, picking up his pace. All of
those little sounds I made were muffled by his lips.

A
s promised,
a
few minutes
—and by this I mean sixty
seconds—
later
,
I
lay
shuddering
.
We might’ve gone a few rounds the night before,
but it’d still been a long time since I’d been touched, and he was
Tate Watkins.

Gathering our attention,
however, Levy
gasped.
“I
spiwed it!
”
The patter of
footsteps whispered against the carpet. He appeared at the door,
his face smeared with chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles, his
khaki shorts a shade darker. “I spiwed my chocowit
miwk.”

“Oh man,” Tate breathed, falling still.

“You ate at the table, right Lev?” I knew
it. Even Tate couldn’t distract me from my maternal instincts.

Levy’s finger went to his mouth, curling
uncomfortably. He looked up from under his fringe of blond lashes.
“I dunno.”

Oh, this so
wasn’t good. “Were you on the sofa?” I could hear the cartoons
filtering from the television. On the other hand, Levy remained
silent.
I shrouded my eyes, conscious of the full
implications.
If his face was any indication of
the mess he made, then my sofa was toast.

“
Coop,” Tate
said hesitantly, “you’re not gonna, like…
punish
him or anything,
right?”

“
Are you
kidding?” I whispered with feigned solemnity. “He ate a chocolate
donut and spilled chocolate milk on the sofa. I’m gonna give him
the belt and stick him in the corner.”

“You’re kidding.” Watching Tate’s frown
deepen, my mouth curled into a smile. I couldn’t hold a straight
face if I wanted to. “Oh, God, you’re a terrible, terrible person.
You should be ashamed of yourself. I thought you were serious. I
was getting ready to defend the kid and take the beating for
him.”

“He’s two, Tate. He doesn’t know any better.
Besides, it was my fault. I should’ve been watching him.”

“
I’m really
sorry
.”

“It’s fine
,
but
I need to get up.” Tate rolled off me and out of the
bed. I pulled my tee down and slid out behind him, grabb
ed
my sweats from the
floor
.
I tugged them over my ankles as I
made my way into the living room, winced at what I
found.

“Holy—wow—yeah,” Tate stammered behind me.
“That’s pretty bad.”

Streaks and
fingerprints of chocolate covered the right sofa cushion and arm,
along with a small, oblong, brown stain that marred the crevice
between. A paper plate with the remains of the donut sat on the
center cushion, crumbs surrounding it. Levy had eaten the top half
of the donut and, more importantly, the icing, leaving the bottom
ring intact.

“
That’s
nothing. Do you know the rule behind
the
size of ice bergs?”

“
The largest
percent of it is below water?”

“
Exactly.
The largest percent of the chocolate milk is probably soaked into
that cushion. That small stain there is just the tip.”

“What can I do?”

“
Thanks, but
I don’t expect you to clean my sofa.”

“Do you think I’m going to stand here and
watch while you do it by yourself?”

“
No, I think
you should get dressed and I’ll drive you back to your
hotel.
I’m going to be
spending the day
at the
Laundromat
washing the covers to
this thing
.”

“
This is my
fault, Coop. It’s only fair that I
help.”

“Tate—”

“Coop.” He gave me a look that
told me it was pointless to argue, but I did anyway.

“I don’t—”

“Coop.”

“
Look,
last
night
was
—”

“Cooper.”
Annoyed
and suppressing a growl, I gave up. Tate bit
back a grin, watching m
y frustration
surface
.
“
I want to spend the day
with you
,
and the night
,
too
, if you’ll let me
.
If that means hanging out at the Laundromat, so
be it.”

“You’re going to sit at the Laundromat with
me while I wash the slipcover to my sofa and chase my son around
the machines.”

“
I could
take it myself while you’re at work tonight. I’ll just need to use
your car. What?” he asked when I gawked at him. He was certifiably
insane. “I know how to use a laundry machine, Coop. I do laundry
all the time. It’s part of life on the road.”

Sighing, I
pushed
the hair from my face. “I don’t think it’s a
good idea.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,
Coop. I know I’m going back on the road, but I have time
, about three weeks
before I have to move on. Until
that day comes, I want to spend time with you. What happens after
that? I don’t know. We’ll play it by ear. See where things go.
Isn’t that how all relationships start out?”

This wasn’t what I had planned. What
happened between us was supposed to be quick and clean, no strings
attached. I was trying to stick to the plan, but he was making it
impossible.

Hell, who was I fooling? I wanted to spend
time with him too. I liked him. I liked him a lot. He was exciting
and funny, and boisterous and carefree. He made me feel my age
again.

“I meant
borrowing
my car, Tate. I need it in one piece.”

A wide smile spread across
Tate’s face. “Is that a yes?”

I rolled my eyes, feigning
indifference. “Yes, yes you can do my laundry.”

“I’m going to be the best house
bitch ever.”
Lifting me off my feet
, he
spun me in a circle. Levy squealed from the floor, caught up in the
excitement. “Go get dressed. We’ll go out and have some fun.
Do they have one of those places around, you
know, the ones with the ball pits and moon bounces
?”

The smile
fell from my face. There was the true problem. Hanging with Tate
Watkins wasn’t exactly low key.

“
Cooper?”
Tate prompted, noting my reluctance.

“It’s fine.”

“You’re worried about people recognizing
me.”

“A little, yeah.”

“
Most don’t.
You didn’t. It’s not as if we’re walking into a guitar shop. The
last place anyone would expect to see me is at a
playground.”

“Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Ok.”

An
hour later,
the foam sofa cushion was rinsed and
sitting on the porch to dry. The removable cotton cover was
pretreated and waiting in the laundry basket.
I had my teeth
brushed and my hair pulled back. Levy clung to my hip. My diaper
bag hung over the opposite shoulder. I took one last look around
the room to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. After going
through my mental checklist, I closed the door.

“Can I drive again?”

“
Um,
no
.”

“Seriously? You really won’t
let me drive?”

“The only thing I value more
than
my
car is Levy, and since he’s going
to be a passenger, I’d like to do the driving myself.”

“Come on. I’ll behave. Swear.
Besides, you can peruse the scenery. Just think about it. How often
do you get sit back and stare out the window?”

“Never.”

“Well, I do it all the time on
the bus, so it’ll be a treat for both of us.”

“I’m sure,” I said, dropping
the keys into Tate’s hand. Like the night before, he ran off like a
child on Christmas morning, sliding behind the wheel. I buckled
Levy into his
car
seat, checking and
double-checking the seat belt. Then did the same for myself.

Tate being Tate, started the
car and inched up the driveway at a snail’s pace. Until I glared
and swatted his arm. “He’s the
fruit
of
my loins,” I justified. “I’m protective over him.”

“I think I’m jealous.”

“Shut up.”

“What? He’s gotten to spend
nine months nestled in the cradle of those loins. I’ve only gotten
to spend minutes there. I think he’s the luckier of us two.”

“Your brain is seriously
warped.”