Page 38 of Worth the Try
“Ansel?”
“Hi, Jennifer.”
“What’s up? You only call me when things are going to shit.”
My laugh is strained. “Yeah, well, youaremy lawyer. No need to call you when things are rosy.”
“Fair enough,” she concedes. “But it’s been years.”
“Five years, in fact.”
She hums. “You’re lucky I still have your contact in my cell. Must mean I like you. Tell me what’s going on.”
I hesitate. The second I say the next words, this whole thing gets very, very real.
“Listen, if it’s a criminal defense lawyer that you need, I’m not your woman,” Jennifer says, “so if that’s what this is about, spit it out and I’ll get you a name.”
I turn the air conditioner to Arctic. “It’s Rosalie’s mother. She’s back.”
Chapter 13
Elodie
I’M STILL OUTSIDE, sitting beneath the pool’s lone umbrella in my bathing suit and preparing to judge what might literally be the fiftieth cannonball of the day when Ansel appears, the screen door clacking shut behind him.
“Daddy, watch!” Rosalie bounces up and down on the diving board, her little face scrunched in concentration.
“I’m watching,” Ansel reassures her, hands on hips and eyes firmly locked on her tiny form.
I study him. He’s wearing an Atlanta Granite T-shirt and black mesh shorts that, praise the Lord, rise well above his knee. I don’t know when shorter hems came back into style for men, but I am absolutely one hundred percent here for it. I will never get over the man’s legs. His thighs flex as he shifts position, bringing my attention to the rose tattoo that adorns the outside of his upper thigh. I haven’t seen all of it—I might pass out from excitement if I did—but the glimpses I get are enough to make me salivate. The tattoo works with his leg, the deep red of the roses seeming to highlight the way his muscles move.
“Tell me what else you like, Elodie.”Holy fireballs, that was hot. It’s all I can think about.
Well, that and how I told him I wanted to eat him. My Lord. I can’t believe I said that. Honestly, it might be those thighs. They muddle my brain.
A giant splash draws my attention back to Rosie, who pops through the surface of the water and grins like a maniac at her dad.
“Well?”
“A solid ten out of ten.”
“Yay! Elodienevergives me a ten.”
He flashes me a mischievous grin, his eyes dragging down my body as he walks to the edge of the pool and kneels down beside it. To Rosie, he says, “Get over here, you.”
She swims to him and holds her arms out. He pulls her to him, standing as she wraps around him and absolutely soaks him. His grip on her is tight, and his eyes are shut as he turns from the pool, taking a few slow steps.
I blink and look away, feeling like an outsider as I swallow the emotion down.
Rosie giggles. “I’m getting you all wet, Daddy.”
“Doesn’t matter, Rosie Posie,” he says. “Wanna know what we’re having for dinner?”
Her face lights up. “Pizza?”
He smiles. “Pizza.” Then he finally looks over at me, giving me his attention for the first time since arriving home. His brown eyes are warm as they settle on me. “Stay?”
The request is impossible to resist. “I’d like that.” I stand and jerk my thumb to the guesthouse behind me. “I’m gonna shower and change first.”
