Page 27 of Earned Husband

Tipping my head up toward him, I narrowed my eyes. “What does that mean?”

“It means everything will be fine. I have it handled.”

One of my eyebrows arched. “What exactly are you handling?”

“Just the usual stuff,” he said calmly, providing the vaguest possible reassurance in the history of reassurance. “Just go to bed, honey. It’s been a long day.”

Behind him, Khaled appeared in the doorway once again, but with two cups of tea in his hands this time. Our dad nodded at him, then turned back to me, but I could see that his attention had already shifted. Physically, he might be in front of me, but mentally, he was already back at work.

“All will be well, Deja. Trust me.” He glanced at Ashanti too. “Sleep well, ladies.”

With that, both men disappeared down the hallway and shut themselves into the temporary office. When I turned toward Ashanti, she just gave me a shrug.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said. “I wasn’t in the room either. I have no idea what they said to him. Or what he said back.”

Something told me that she could find out, but my sister-in-law was already on her way upstairs, her own cup of tea steaming in her hands. I stood in the foyer for another minute before I shook my head and finally made my way up to my guest room. The fact that Colin and I had almost kissed was front and center in my mind again.

My father had been absolutely furious that he’d caught me, his fully grown daughter, about to kiss a fully grown man. Our argument about it had felt ridiculous, but that was life with Basel Saad. It was his way or the highway, and in this instance, his way seemed to be that even adults had no business getting close to each other unless they were already married.

I’d heard stories about him from when he’d been younger. Once upon a time, my father had been quite the charmer, a real ladies’ man if my aunts were to be believed. These days, however, he was as traditional as they came.

Although I didn’t remember him being quite so hotheaded about Khaled kissing Ashanti back when they’d been dating. On the other hand, they had actually been dating. Maybe Dad’s bigger problem was that he didn’t want me going around kissing just any man—especially one I wasn’t formally dating—but I didn’t do that, and even if I wanted to, it still wouldn’t have had anything to do with him.

After showering and changing into my pajamas, my mind drifted back to wondering about the strange sense of secrecy suddenly hanging over the house. My argument with Dad had only been about the almost kiss, but I doubted that was what’d kept Colin in that office with him for so long.

On the upside, Colin had lasted longer in there than any of the other boys I’d been interested in that had been summoned into Dad’s office. As I climbed into bed and flicked off the lamp on my nightstand, I felt an involuntary smile spread across my lips.

For the first time ever, a guy had emerged from Dad’s office afterthe talkand hadn’t practically run screaming from the house. In fact, he’d come out and immediately almost kissed me. Again. As if my father hadn’t terrified the pants off him after all.

That saida lotabout the kind of man he was.And the size of his… backbone.

The thought sent a pleasant flutter through my stomach. I’d known there was more to Colin than met the eye and today had proven that in several different ways. For starters, he was really fun to be around when it was just the two of us. Really easy to talk to.

At the same time, he clearly had a spine made of steel and balls the size of planets. It was a titillating combination that he was hot, funny, smart, not too full of himself,andable to face off with a man like my father without flinching.

I rolled onto my side, then onto my back, then onto my other side, but sleep remained elusive. Outside my windows, the city lights twinkled in the distance, but in here, it was dark and quiet, with only my memories of the day to keep me company.

After a while, I heard a door close somewhere downstairs, followed by muffled voices, but it was only for a minute before silence fell again. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep, but the next morning, I woke upstillsmiling.

Usually, I was practical and sensible enough to know that one great day did not mean I’d accidentally stumbled across the love of my life, but unfortunately, practicality offered little defense against the memory of Colin smiling at me, patiently teaching me how to play golf, or the way he’d looked at me on the front porch.

Groaning softly, I rolled over and buried my face in a pillow, trying to will myself into being less ridiculous, but it didn’t work, so instead, I just surrendered to the urge to start planning my next move instead. While I was aware that made me moreridiculous rather than less, I still picked up my phone when I got back into the room after brushing my teeth, a little disappointed when I didn’t find a message from him waiting for me.

Thankfully, phones worked both ways, so I unlocked mine and opened my messaging app, scrolling to his name and staring at the blank text box for a second before I began to type. All I wanted to do was thank him for what had truly been an amazing day—and apologize for the way it’d ended.

Khaled had been right that Colin would have to learn how to handle my father if we were all going to work together, but that didn’t mean they should’ve ambushed him the way they had. While I’d been shocked as anything when even my father had said Colin had held up well, I still felt a bit bad for how it’d all gone down.

A new text appeared before I could finish typing my own, my entire message vanishing beneath the notification. As soon as I saw Colin’s name attached to the text, sparks shot through me, joy erupting someplace deep inside.He’s not running. He’s really, truly not running. Dad and Khaled didn’t scare him away after all.

Colin Thayer: Would you like to have dinner with me later this week?

I stared at the screen, a grin spreading across my face as I read it. After all the casual boyfriends I’d lost to those exact intimidation tactics, this certainly was a breath of fresh air.Imagine that, a man who knows how to stand up for himself.

After deleting the paragraph I’d so painstakingly composed explaining my father’s tendency to be overprotective, I nixed the idea of apologizing. Clearly, he didn’t need me to.

Me: I’d love to.

Colin: Perfect. I’ll make reservations.