Chapter 6
Winnie
Watching Jamie with Tali is something special. He’s never distracted by his phone or annoyed when she needs something. He’s always present and telling her about the various animals we’ve seen, even if she might not understand what he’s saying.
He’s laidback and in his element when Tali’s in his arms. It’s like she has this calming presence for him.
Jamie’s dressed in a pair of jeans with a black t-shirt stretched across his broad chest. His muscular arms are on full display and make me wonder if he puts in extra hours in the gym. He has a baseball cap pulled down low on his head. It has the Python’s logo on it, making me chuckle.
“Why are you wearing a Python’s hat?”
“Because if I wear a Pit Bull’s hat, someone could recognize me. Having a different sport on my hat throws people off.”
I nod my head because that kind of makes sense. Before I can think too hard about it, Tali drops her cup of water when a monkey jumps at the glass separating it from us, and scares her. It spills all over Jamie, soaking his chest and stomach.
“Jeez,” he murmurs under his breath. He doesn’t freak out or make a big scene. “Well, at least you stayed dry, Tali Girl… Do you mind holding her while I try to get slightly drier?”
“Of course not. We’ll have some fun making faces at the monkeys.”
As soon as Tali’s in my arms, Jamie rushes away to the bathroom. We turn back to the monkeys but when another one jumps at the glass, Tali buries her face in the crook of my neck and wraps her little arms around me. She’s holding onto me so tightly.
“It’s ok, sweetie.” I rub a soothing hand up and down her back, keeping her close to me. She’s so tiny and cuddly. I can't wait to spend more time with her.
I’d walk away from the monkeys and go somewhere else, but I want to make sure Jamie knows where we are. I'm fairly certain he’d panic if he couldn’t find us and I don’t want to do that to him.
“Thanks. I tried to use the hand driers, but I was getting some pretty weird looks.” He chuckles. “Is she ok?”
“A monkey scared her again. I didn’t want to leave this area. I wanted to make sure you could find us easily, so we’re just snuggling.”
“Tali’s a great snuggler. I can take her if you’d like.”
“Do you mind if I keep her? I'm soaking up all this baby love.”
“Not at all. As long as she’s happy, I'm happy.”
Though he says the words so nonchalant, I realize that’s exactly how Jamie feels. His happiness is directly related to Tali’s. He truly only cares about his little girl.
I swallow hard and shake my head. He’s my boss. No matter how adorable and sexy the man is, he’ll never be more and I need to remember that.
On our way home from the zoo, Jamie swings by my apartment so I can grab a few things. He loves the idea of me staying with him before I move. I think he’s just happy to see me interact with Tali more.
“Do you need me to come help you?” He shifts the car into park and glances my way.
“Nah, I'm just grabbing a few sets of clothing and my toiletries. I don’t need much.”
“Ok. Take your time. We’ll be fine.”
I roll my eyes because there’s no way I’ll spend too much time in my apartment. I’d feel bad making them wait.
I'm halfway up the stairs when my phone rings. I tug it out of my pocket and find Wheeler’s name flashing on the screen with an old picture of us with me in his arms. We look happy.
“Hey.”
“Hey, baby. What are you up to?”
“Uh, just grabbing a few things from my apartment.” I wince when I realize he’ll ask questions. I don’t want to tell him about Jamie yet.
“What do you mean?”
“I can move this weekend, but I want to start staying at my new place tonight. I need to spend more time with the little girl before the dad will be gone. I want her to be comfortable around me.”
“You’re a good nanny.”
“Thanks. What are you up to?”
“Well, I wanted you to come over. We could spend some time in the hot tub and then we’ll see where the night leads.” I don’t need to see him to know he’s smirking and wiggling his eyebrows. He’s so predictable.
He expects an easy lay when he calls me. I’d think I was just a booty call for him, except he likes to spend time with me outside of the bedroom too.
But I'm done with that. I'm not going to sleep with him when I don’t see a future for us. It was a mistake to ever let our relationship go that far in the first place, but we were young and dumb. I'm at the point in my life where I can’t blame my actions on being young and dumb anymore.
“I don’t think that will work. Sorry.”
“That sucks. Now, what am I going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I murmur as I search for the bag I'm looking for. It’s packed with a few days of clothes. I figured that way if I don’t get to unpack right away, I have a few days of things to wear.
“You should sleep here tonight.”
“Wheeler, I'm not being your booty call anymore. We’ve talked about this. Call someone else.”
“I don’t want anyone else,” he grumbles.
“You have a hand.”
“Seriously, Winnie?”
“What? I'm busy. I don’t work for you and I can't be at your beck and call.”
“Can I just hire you?”
“To do what? You don’t have a kid.”
“No, but your job could be to help me practice making a kid.”
“That’s called a prostitute and I'm not interested in being a prostitute.” I roll my eyes and finally find my bag.
I don’t know why he has such a hard time letting me go. I’ve tried so hard to make it clear I don’t want a relationship beyond friendship with him anymore.
Quickly stuffing my toiletries into it, I lock up my apartment and jog down the stairs. I want this conversation over before I get in the car. The last thing I need is Jamie listening to my conversation with Wheeler. There’s no telling what type of crap will come out of his mouth.
“Are you still a prostitute if you only sleep with one person?” He’s actually thinking about this. He can be such an idiot sometimes.
“If I'm getting paid, yes.”
“What if I don’t pay you, but I pay for all your things.”
“That’s called being a wife. Something you don’t want.”
“Yeah, no. Who would want one of those?”
And that right there is why Wheeler and I will never be anything more than friends.
“I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
“No, you won't. You say that all the time!”
I press end before he can complain even more about my lack of following through on my promises to call back. It’s not like I don’t want to call him back, it’s just that I forget… Or I don’t feel like dealing with him.
He can be quite dramatic and I don’t enjoy that.
“Do you need anything else?” Jamie asks as soon as I climb in the car.
“Not tonight.” I smile over at him. “Are you ready for a roomie?”
“More than you know.”