I laugh against my better judgment. God, he’s ridiculous.

“I don’t have a sitter until next weekend.” I stop and wait for him to connect the dots – I’ve already checked and next weekend is no good – he has a game. “You have a game, so…”

“Let me take care of the details.”

Unease settles in the pit of my stomach. I’m sure he thinks he can just ask some random person to watch Christian, but that’s not going to work. I can count on one hand the people I’d trust with Christian and most of them live too far to pop over for a date night.

“Don’t worry,” he says as if reading my thoughts. “I have someone in mind that I think you will approve of, but I don’t want to say until I check. In the meantime, show me what you’re wearing?”

He moves his head like he’s trying to see past the bottom of my screen. I laugh but angle it out and down so he can see the leggings and Valley basketball t-shirt I’m wearing.

“I’ve got team spirit,” I say and wave my hand around with an imaginary pom.

“Screw team spirit as long as you’ve got Joel Moreno spirit.”

God, the way he says it sounds so hot and dirty my sex clenches.

“What’d you do tonight?” he asks, leaning his head back on the headrest, his black hair still wet from showering.

“Christian and I watched the game and ate pizza. He crashed early because he missed his nap two days in a row, so I was working on stuff for the play.”

“How’s that coming along?”

“Good. I think the script is just about finalized. They’re letting me sit in on rehearsals which is amazing.”

He stifles a yawn.

“I think you’re tired.”

He shakes his head in protest.

“I should go anyway. Christian doesn’t understand weekends are for sleeping in.”

We hang up and I lie in bed watching thirty minutes pass, then an hour. Then two. I’m tossing and turning and just about to give up on sleep altogether when a text lights up my phone.

Joel: Open your front door.

My heart pounds quickly and I sit up and fling back the covers. He can’t be.

I move through the house quietly without turning on any lights. When I reach the front door, I look through the peephole and inhale sharply.

“Open the door, Kitty.”

I step back quickly and hear him chuckle. Taking a deep breath, I open the door and stare at him, certain the surprise is written all over my face. My eyes scan up and down taking in the way his athletic pants and long-sleeved t-shirt make him look like an athletic god. “What are you doing here?”

“I realized something, and I had to come see you.”

Wrapping my arms around myself, I stay firmly on my side of the doorway and don’t offer to let him in. I haven’t really thought this through, but I know I don’t want Christian to wake up to someone he doesn’t know in the apartment. “What’s that?”