9. Sutton #2
“Of course they won’t,” I said, still holding in a laugh as Sophie patted my face. His eyes cut to me with an eyebrow raised. This was his confused face. It was only subtly different from his hurry-up-and-tell-me face, or his please-leave-me-alone face. “You seriously don’t know?”
“I don’t get approached.”
This time I did let out a laugh. Sophie joined in only as a reaction to me.
But her giggle made me laugh a little harder, like it always did when she found something funny.
Asher’s eyes bounced between me and my daughter, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth as I got myself back under control.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”
He didn’t look at all bothered, but the confusion was still there. “Explain.”
“I mean, normally you probably look too unapproachable for women to come up to you. You’re kind of intimidating.”
“No different today.”
I shot him a look but his eyebrow was still up.
I shook my head with an amused eye roll.
“Come on, Asher. With the tall, dark, and handsome thing you have going on, accompanied by the tattoos visible on your hands and muscular forearms when you have your sleeves rolled up like that, you look like a bad boy shoved into a suit. You probably get approached once in a while, normally when someone is feeling brave, but add all of that with my sweet baby on your hip, you’re bait.
She softened you too much, made you seem more approachable. ”
He tilted his head and looked at me for a moment. “You think I’m handsome?” He took a step closer to me.
“Of course that was all you heard,” I replied. “I think the more important—” Sophie’s cry cut me off. I looked down at her red face, the tears starting to come out as her bottom lip quivered.
Classic. She’d been fine moments ago.
“What’s wrong?” Asher asked sharply as he closed in on us. The small smile was gone from his face and his brow was furrowed. He was close enough that we were practically pressed against his chest, like he was trying to circle us, his eyes locked on Sophie.
“She’s fine.” I took a step to move around him, to give myself a little space.
Because being that close to him cut off my ability to think.
He had some sort of intoxicating smoky, woodsy scent.
I’d noticed it that day in the office, then again in his car.
The smell seemed to linger but I didn’t mind; it wasn’t overpowering.
“She’s crying,” he said in an accusatory voice like we both weren’t hearing her.
I kept walking with him close behind me. “She just needs her diaper changed.” I grabbed my bag from behind the table that Quinn had let me use to stow our stuff.
“Are you sure that’s it?” He was still following behind me as I let out a laugh.
“Yes, Asher, I’m sure. I promise she’s okay.” I made it to the hallway, happy to find a large single bathroom. I reached for the handle, but Asher’s hand was already there pushing it open for me. “Thanks, I’ll be right—”
“Do you want help?” he asked, looking down at me as I came to a pause in front of him.
“You don’t have to—”
He cut me off. “Wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want to, sweetheart. You just tell me if you want help or not.”
My gut reaction was to say no. That this was something I could handle on my own, no problem.
It was the way I’d been doing things since she was born.
I wouldn’t have let Iris in to help if she hadn’t just barged her way in.
And, as she pointed out to me many times, I needed to work on letting others help me.
So instead of rejecting him like I’d started to do, I just nodded. He was offering, and this was small. I could let him stand there keeping me company while I did this.
He sent me a small smile as his hand landed on the diaper bag. I shifted Sophie in my arm so he could slide it off my shoulder and then he trailed in behind me.
I didn’t know what was wrong with me but I felt like I was going to cry as he passed me what I requested from the diaper bag.
I even had to clear my throat a few times.
I muttered to Sophie to keep her happy because while her tears had stopped, she was teetering on a fine line and it was written all over her face.
Asher wasn’t fazed by any of it, at least not now that her crying had stopped.
I couldn’t meet his eyes as he grabbed the dirty diaper off the change table where I had placed it and threw it out for me without me having to ask.
He stepped up beside me and scooped Sophie up the second I had her dressed.
I washed my hands, clearing my throat again and blinking to push the tears back down. He didn’t comment on it but I could feel him watching me closely. His eyes seemed locked on my face.
What he was watching for, I wasn’t sure.
Neither of us said anything as we left the bathroom, him holding my daughter with her diaper bag slung over his shoulder.
I was wringing my hands together nervously.
No one other than Iris had helped me with Sophie like this before and even that was rare since we both weren’t usually in the room and if we were I insisted on doing everything because of how much she did for me.
I didn’t know what to do with these feelings.
The event was winding down and the clean-up had started when we came back out, so we made our way over to where Quinn and Knight were standing off to the side of the room.
He had Quinn pulled against his chest and was looking down at her with a small smile as she talked to him, light animating her face.
“Hey,” Quinn said as we wandered up. She tried to pull away from Knight, but he just dropped one arm over her shoulder and pulled her into his side. I liked that they were always touching.
“What can I do?” I asked, looking around.
“Nothing,” Quinn replied. “You did great work today.”
“Are you sure? Because I can—”
“Go home.” She shook her head with a wave of her hand. “Although I’m a little annoyed I didn’t get any time with that sweet baby.” She made a face at Sophie who looked like she had no interest in leaving Asher’s arms. Quinn even reached out to her but Sophie just hid her face in his chest.
My girl was growing attached, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
Probably bad. He was nothing more than my boss’s fiancés friend.
“I can clean up the registration table while you—”
“You’re done, Sutton. Thank you for all your help today. Theo went and hired extra people for the event, so they’ve got it covered.” She rolled her eyes but Knight just smirked, looking pretty proud of himself.