“I don’t know.” Deek shrugged. “My father barely knew I existed while I was growing up. He only notices me now because I drop off a check when I visit him once a month to be sure he’s taking care of himself.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Lori gave his forearm a quick squeeze before putting her hand back in her lap where it belonged—in case it decided to explore that sexy forearm on its own. But that Deek grew up that way hurt her heart. “It’s an even greater testament that you’re such a great father, then, Deek. After having Asher here all day yesterday, I can tell you he’s very well behaved and polite… Wait! Is that why you volunteer so much at school? So you can see how he’s interacting with the other kids?”
“Busted.” He opened the cookie jar and grabbed another.
“Okay, all that volunteering in class and trying to be the perfect parent has to stop. Mostly because it makes all the other parents hate you a little for doing it so well.”
He grinned. “Now that you know my secret, I have to stop, or you’ll think I’m obsessive about it, right?” Deek finished off his cookie.
“Exactly. And maybe if you watched some of the movies, you’d see they’re pretty great.”
“Okay. I’ll try to have an open mind. Text me a list of the better ones, and I’ll preview them for Asher.”
“Will do. Ready to start Operation Get Annie Back?”
“Yes.” He reached for a piece of paper in his back pocket. “But before we start, I wanted to show you the mock-up of Princess Lori I drew this morning.”
She accepted the paper from Deek, and her jaw flopped open. “Geez, Princess Lori is much sexier than me.” The cartoon character looked very much like her in the face, but her boobs were two sizes bigger, her waist was teeny tiny, and her hips curved in a much more enticing way than Lori’s real ones did. Jessica Rabbit had nothing on Princess Lori. And she wore a very low-cut dress that showed off more cleavage than she could ever wish for. “Could I borrow that dress for my date next week?”
Deek slid his chair around and settled beside her as he studied the drawing. “I think this looks a lot like you. Just enhanced a tad to make it a good characterization. But sadly, I don’t think I could whip up that dress for you that soon.”
Lori turned her head and met his steady gaze. “If you tell me a guy with as many muscles as you have can sew too, I’ll have to smash my ‘Best Mommy in The World’ mug over your head.”
“Then for safety purposes, maybe I’d better not tell you about a certain person I knew in college who had to make his own medieval cosplay outfits because he was so broke.”
“Nope. Better not.” It made sense that a guy who designed video games would be into dressing in sexy leather and brandishing swords. The image in her head was making her have naughty thoughts about Deek again, so she picked up the cookie jar and put it back onto the kitchen counter to put some space between them.
She was starting to understand why her friend Shanan enjoyed gazing at Deek when they volunteered together. And like her friend, the spicy dream that would probably come to her that night would be torture. In it, he’d probably be wearing warrior gear while ravishing the much-sexier-than-her Princess Lori.
Brother. Even in her dreams, she wasn’t getting any action.
Her date with Jason couldn’t come soon enough.
Deek munched another cookie while having a hard time keeping his eyes off Lori’s ass. He wanted to win Annie back, that was the goal, but he couldn’t help where his mind had wandered while he drew Lori earlier. She had a body with real curves. He’d never had a girlfriend who’d been shaped like that. The few he’d had were always stick thin. Her figure intrigued him, that’s all. It wasn’t like he would ever be disloyal to Annie.
Like she’d been to him.
How could she have told him to sleep with other women without even a flicker of emotion crossing her face?
Yet those same carnal thoughts about Lori had come rushing back while he’d watched her check out her character a moment ago. It didn’t help that the yoga pants Lori wore made her rear end enticing enough that any guy would have a hard time not noticing it. He wished she’d sit back down, so he didn’t have to keep noticing it. “I went over the ideas to win Annie back you e-mailed to me earlier. I can’t decide which way I want to go. I really liked the going to virtual counseling together, but she’d never go for that.”
Lori turned around and leaned against the countertop. “Well, if that’s the case, I’d like to see you and Annie interact, to get a better idea of your relationship dynamic. Can you video chat on my computer? That way we can also transfer her image onto the TV in my bedroom. I can stay out of sight, but watch too.”