He wandered out into the living room and found Kara, bare feet propped up on the coffee table, typing away at the laptop in her lap. When she looked up at him, he smiled to see dark-rimmed glasses sitting on her face, framing her gorgeous eyes.
“Sexy,” he commented, settling beside her as she moved the pillow to make room for him. “How have I not seen those before?”
“Only for reading and computer work. I don’t often read in front of other people, so you wouldn’t have.” She continued typing, so he let her continue. But he did lean back against the cushion and tilt his head so he could watch. Some women might have been annoyed with that. Kara simply kept going. Her fingers—slender, graceful, unadorned by any rings or polish—flew over the keyboard.
“You’re fast.”
“Gotta be, when you don’t have a lot of time to write and your second job depends on it.” She clicked on the mouse, sighed, then smiled. “Done.”
“What’s this all about?”
“An article someone else wrote. I had to write the intro for it, and then do some work to hyperlink it. I’m actually not great at the whole technical blog aspect. It’s not my favorite part.”
He’d seen the blog, read it, considered it a lifesaver for when he had Zach over and needed to know if something was okay with his allergies or using her ever-updated list of foods on the OK list so parents didn’t have to spend as much time hunting up suggestions for brands to try. And it looked pretty solid to him. “So who runs the blog, then?”
“I do. I just had to teach myself basically everything from scratch. It ate up a lot of time to start with. Eats up more time, now that it’s growing—very slowly—and starting to get advertisers. I’ve had to contract out a few bits and pieces of web design, plus hire a lawyer for the advertising contracts. I’m hoping that breaks even soon, then makes money.”
“I could have helped with that. Next time, bring it to me.” When she looked at him, from behind slightly smudged lenses, his heart simply stopped for a moment. “What?”
She started to speak, then closed her mouth. Then opened it, and closed it again. She was doing a fantastic job of playing Charades . . . as long as the answer was “fish.”
“Kara. What?” He leaned closer and wrapped an arm around her. “What’s up?”
“I . . . where’s Zach?” She glanced at her watch, confirmed with the time on the laptop screen, then gasped. “Oh my God, it’s way past bedtime. He’ll be a nightmare tomorrow morning. How long have I been . . . never mind.” She closed the laptop and stood so fast he reached out in case the whole thing plummeted to the floor. But she caught it and set it on the coffee table.
“Hey, relax. He’s asleep.”
“He’s . . . what?” That had her frozen halfway to Zach’s bedroom door. “No, there’s no way. He was so hyped you were coming over. That’s impossible.”
“That’s totally the truth. Check.” Smugly, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited while Kara peeked in. She popped back out, mouth hanging open.
“He’s asleep.” Disbelief laced her words. “He’s still fully dressed.”
“So? Kids fall asleep in their clothes. Leave him.”
She debated for a moment. “He hasn’t brushed his teeth. You know what? Never mind. One night won’t kill him.”
Graham was pleased she could loosen up on the small things a little. Some moms were militant, like his had been. His mother would have marched in there, demanded he brush his teeth, floss, rinse, and comb his hair before putting on pajamas. At the end of it, he wouldn’t have even been tired any longer. Kara’s natural ability to see the forest for the trees was impressive.
She walked back to the couch and flopped. The natural cushion placement meant she rolled a bit toward him. He gave the couch some help by scooting over enough that she was tucked in against his side, knees bent and nudging against his thigh, head resting on his shoulder. In a word: perfect.
“We have to talk.” Her voice was quiet, but firm. “When you mentioned asking you for help . . .” She trailed off, but he knew she wasn’t falling asleep. He gave her time, letting his fingers run up and down her arm. If it took all night, he’d let her make the next move. “When you mentioned asking you for help with the contracts, it made me wonder if I could ask you for help with something else. Not that you’d be doing work, exactly. Just, maybe, advising?”