My features pinched as I focused on the screen, where one tiger chased another. “There’s always tomorrow, I guess.”

Nodding, Hayden stood and hovered there for a few moments. He raised his arms above his head and stretched like a cat would in the warm, baking sun. The pale-blue shirt he wore rode up his stomach, exposing a row of taut muscles.

I stared at him so long I felt my face flush. It seemed like such a natural reaction. My brain also chose that moment to remember how he’d looked shirtless. I turned back to the screen, wondering how I could ever look at him when I thought these kinds of things.

“Come on, let’s go to bed,” He bent down, and with surprising gentleness, picked up Olivia.

Immediately, blood rushed back to my legs and feet. “Thank you. Really, I mean it. I thought I’d be here all night.”

“No problem.” He cradled her in his arms. Olivia turned her head, drooling on the front of his shirt. “Uh, is that supposed to happen?”

I laughed, but was still unable to look him in the eye. “It means she likes you.”

“What can I say?” He started out of the room. “Girls are always drooling over me.”

“It must do wonders for your ego when it’s a five-year-old.” I trailed behind him, thinking Hayden was kind of drool-worthy. Okay. Not kind of. Definitely drool-worthy.

“They just can’t help themselves.” He sent me a grin over his shoulder as he went up the stairs.

Liz had prepared Olivia’s bedroom with startling foresight. Olivia loved all things pink, and her entire room looked like someone had dumped Pepto all over. From the curtains and walls to the carpet and furniture, everything was pink.

It wasn’t my thing.

Hayden carefully placed her on the bed while I searched for one of her stuffed animals. I came across a rabbit first and quickly decided against that one. After finding a stuffed monkey under the bed, I tucked it in with her. She wrapped one chubby arm around it and rolled onto her side.

I smiled faintly and left the room. “Thanks again.”

He eased the door shut. “What did you do before?”

“Before what?” We started up the stairs, side by side.

“Before you had someone to get her off of you.”

“I’d sit there until she woke up. Sometimes it would be like that all night, but I hated waking her up.” My hand trailed along the banister, the wood cool and smooth.

“You have a lot more patience than me.”

I lingered outside my bedroom door, drained but oddly awake. “It’s been a weird day, huh?”

He shoved his hands into the pocket of his worn jeans. “Yeah, how are you hanging in?”

“I really haven’t thought about it.” That was a lie. I’d been thinking about it all night.

“Well, I have, and you know what I think? It could’ve been a prank.”

“Stabbing a rabbit to death is a prank?” My voiced notched up.