Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret #8)(48)

"Do you want up on my shoulders?" he asked, knowing that Julie had been dying to see elephants more than any other animal. He wanted to make sure she had the best vantage and plenty of time to enjoy them. 

"Yes, please." She lifted her arms and leaned toward him.

He swooped her up and deposited her on his shoulders, holding onto her ankles so she didn't topple from her perch.

"Look, Daddy! She's eating hay."

"She certainly is." His body jerked involuntarily when Amanda stepped up behind him and slid her hand up his back. He was uncomfortably aware of her and had been all day. While Julie provided commentary about everything the elephant was doing, Amanda slipped a hand under his shirt to touch his bare skin. He squirmed and dropped his gaze to give her a look of warning. He did not want to become visibly aroused, and being around Amanda made it difficult to keep his shorts from tenting. She offered him a devilish grin and leaned closer to playfully nip the back of his arm.

"Are you almost ready to go home?" he asked Julie hoarsely. Please, he added silently. As wonderful a time as he was having being out and about in public with his two favorite ladies, he was very much looking forward to putting Julie to bed for a full night sleep so he could take her aunt to his bed and get no sleep at all.

"I want to see a kangaroo," Julie said, "but I like this lephalant. Where is her friends and family?"

"Beats me," Jacob said. "Maybe they're inside the elephant house."

Amanda read the story of Lucky the elephant from a nearby sign.

"So she's all alone?" Julie asked tremulously.

"She likes to be alone," Amanda said.

"I will be her friend," Julie said. "Hi, Lucky!" she called to the elephant, which took a step backward and swayed her massive trunk.

"She hears me," Julie insisted.

A woman with a pair of boys near Julie's age entered the observation area. Both boys climbed to stand on a ledge so they could get a better look into the exhibit.

"Put me down," Julie said. "I want to stand by myself."

Jacob lifted her over his head and set her on the ledge by the two boys. She smoothed her blond curls with both hands and said to the bigger of the two, "My name's Julie, what's yours?"

The boys stared at her as if she were an angel that had fallen from the sky. Jacob cringed as his brain automatically fast-forwarded ten years. There was no doubt she'd grow to be a stunner like her mother. Should he lock her in a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon now or wait until she hit puberty?

"She's already a little flirt," Amanda said with a chuckle.

Jacob shook his head in denial. "She's just saying hello." Though it wasn't lost on him that both boys were following her and mimicking her motions as if driven by instinct.

"She's adorable," the mother of the boys said. "How old?"

"Just turned four," Jacob said.

"She looks so much like you," she said to Amanda. "I'm still holding out for a daughter to spoil."

"Oh," Amanda said, "she's not mine. I'm just her crazy aunt." She smiled and patted her chest.

The woman glanced at Jacob. "You're so good with her, I thought for sure you were her father."

"Guilty as charged," Jacob said.

The woman glanced from Jacob to Amanda and back again. Based on her expression, he guessed she'd seen Amanda copping a feel earlier.

"Julie's mother and I are divorced," Jacob said, not that it was any of her business, but he didn't like the judgmental way she was looking at Amanda.



       
         
       
        

"I'm sorry to hear that. Jeffrey, Mitchell, let's go see the rhinoceros," she called to her sons who were listening in rapt attention to Julie's story about playing with the real Jojo. She used the stuffed version to demonstrate her interactions with the monkey.

"I want to see a monkey, Mama," the smaller boy said. "Julie got to hold one."

"That was at a different zoo," Amanda said helpfully. "In Austin."

"We're not driving all the way to Austin," she said as she ushered her sons away.

"Bye, Julie!" They both waved until they were out of sight.

"Daddy," Julie said, a slight pout on her sweet face. She stared at the ground and toed a pebble with the tip of her tennis shoe.

"Yeah, princess?"

"I want a little brother."

"Oh." That was not what he'd been expecting her to request. "I'll get right on that." Jacob glanced at Amanda and grinned. Her eyes widened and her face went white. She shook her head even as he imagined her pregnant with his son growing inside her.