Read Online Summer I Found You by Jolene Perry - Free Book Online Page A

long am I supposed to give him to put the baby to sleep?
    Great. It’s not like he can yell out when he’s ready for help.
    “Tico!!” The little boy points to the TV and laughs. And then the little girl laughs, squirms, and contorts into these tiny giggles. This show is like a huge blast from my childhood.
    Now that I’m here, on the couch, knowing I’m stuck, it’s not so bad. Their little bodies are warm and soft. I actually like this a little. Maybe.
    By the time the show’s over, I’m ready for bed. I’m all cozy on the couch and warm.
    “Time for bed.” The little girl stands up and takes my hand.
    Wait. “Don’t kids hate to go to bed?”
    “We share!” The little boy runs ahead and through a doorway, the little girl follows.
    I stand in the door.
    “Now you read us books.”
    “Me?” I ask. Which is a stupid thing to ask because of course me .
    I sit and we read. More Dora. She’s sort of numbing my brain after thirty minutes. No wonder Aidan’s mom was teary when we came to watch her kids.
    “Uh-oh…” the little girl says.
    “Uh-oh, what?” I ask.
    “My gum.”
    Gum? Are little kids allowed gum ? I sit up off the bed and look around. Gum lying somewhere is not a good thing.
    “Is there…” She points at me.
    Oh. Great. On me. This is perfect. I look on the front of my shirt, and my shoulders, but I don’t see anything.
    Now they’re both looking at me with their large blue eyes and smiling.
    “Hair!” the boy says.
    My stomach drops. Not in my hair. Please not in my hair. I run my hands down my head, and yep, about three inches up from the bottom is a knot of hair and gum. Great.
    “Okay, you two.” Now what? “Um…you can stay up as late as you want, but if I hear anything, I come in and turn out the light, okay?”
    They both grin.
    Guess this is okay.
    My heart’s going all panicky as I step out of their room and feel my hair again. This is not good. I flick on the bathroom light, and yeah, it’s even worse than I thought. I can’t tell where my hair begins and the gum ends, it’s all smashed in together.
    And it’s not like I have the best hair or anything, it’s that…gum.
    In my hair.
    Oh. Aidan. I flick off the bathroom light, head still spinning over the stupid hair situation. I take a few slow breaths before slowly turning the doorknob on the baby’s room.
    “Bout time you showed up,” Aidan whispers.
    I stop. His hair is a little longer each time we get together, and I would have noticed sooner, but the whole babysitting thing sort of threw me. His blue eyes shine, even in the dark, and my stomach tightens at the way he’s looking at me.
    “Kate?” he asks because I’ve probably been staring at him too long.
    “My hair.” I pull the side forward to show him.
    He tries to give me a sympathetic frown, but I can tell he’s trying not to laugh. “Can you slide him in his bed?”
    Oh. Right. Baby.
    Now that I’ve leaned over, the warmth of him hits me, and we’re close. Really close. Aidan’s breath hits my face, and I slide my arms over his toned stomach and down his muscular arm to get my arms around the baby. And for the first time, I’m touching a guy who I’d really, really like to see with his shirt off. Our eyes catch, and his breath blows across my face. Whoa. Butterflies are running circuits through my insides, over a guy who’s two years older, and only wants to hang with me so I can babysit with him.
    What’s wrong with me? I’m like all hormonal or something. Even making out with Shelton didn’t make me all breathless like this. I scoop up the bundled baby, and lay him down in his bed, relieved I didn’t break him or wake him or something.
    I back away from the crib and run into the stomach and chest I was just thinking about.
    “Sorry.” My cheeks heat up and I stare at the floor, as if he’ll somehow know what I’m thinking just by looking at him.
    “Excuse me.” He jumps back a step and holds the door for me to walk