Maid to Fit by Rebecca Avery

gaze dropped to her mouth.
     Slowly, he reached out and touched her bottom lip with his index finger. He looked
     back into her eyes, still touching her lip. “Smile for me,” he said.
    Something like an electric current traveled from the gentle tug of his finger through
     her entire body. The feeling made her gasp. At the sound, his look changed from one
     of leisurely flirtation to one of raw hunger.
    He leaned closer, almost as though he meant to kiss her, when suddenly two boys walking
     past yelled, “Hey, Sergeant, where’s Sergeant Buck?”
    Ronnie jumped back from her as though he’d been caught stealing and smiled at the
     boys, who quickly took off with another group of kids. Ronnie cleared his throat and
     ran his hands down the length of his thighs. He sat up a little straighter and glanced
     guiltily at her.
    He smelled like soap…
and man
…and Kayla didn’t realize she was still staring at him until she jumped at the sound
     of Addie’s voice.
    “How was work, Mom?”
    Addie had returned, water bottle in hand. Kayla cleared her throat and turned to focus
     on her daughter. “It was good. How was your day, honey?”
    “Good. I’ll tell you more later. Halftime’s almost over,” Addie said cheerfully. With
     that, she bounded back down the bleacher stairs to join her teammates, who were all
     now sporting water bottles.
    “You didn’t have to spend your money on her,” Kayla said, looking back at Ronnie.
    “I’ve got this good-lookin’ woman that pays for my…
services.
So don’t worry. I can afford it,” he said with a lopsided grin.
    Oh, that grin.
    She turned away quickly as the second half of the game started and watched Addie and
     her friend look toward Ronnie before starting each new cheer. It didn’t take long
     for the other girls on the team to figure out what was going on and soon they would
     all look at him before starting a new cheer. The crowd responded well to their more
     effective cheers and the girls looked more and more excited and confident as the game
     went on.
    When the game ended, the man sitting next to Ronnie smacked him on the shoulder and
     said, “Well done, buddy.”
    The girls huddled together and then headed straight toward Ronnie and Kayla like a
     pack of overexcited puppies. Addie was right in the middle of the group and looked
     to be on cloud nine.
    “Mom, can they stay overnight? We need to work on cheers for next week. We’ll stay
     in the basement and try to keep it down,” Addie begged.
    For once the house was clean enough for guests, if only she hadn’t agreed to go into
     the office early tomorrow morning for a video conference with a client. Kayla hated
     to disappoint Addie just when her daughter finally seemed to be snapping out of her
     attitude and getting back to the girl Kayla knew and loved.
    “I’m sorry, but I have to work for a few hours really early in the morning and I am
     not about to leave a bunch of other people’s kids alone, even if you’re all still
     sleeping,” she said.
    “Couldn’t Ronnie come over and stay with us in the morning?” Addie begged. “Please,
     Ronnie?”
    “Addison, Ronnie doesn’t work weekends. That wasn’t part of the deal,” she admonished.
    “I need to spend some time with Sergeant Buck tomorrow, too,” Ronnie said.
    “Bring him with you then. Please, Mom? We need to start planning for competition,
     too.”
    She couldn’t remember the last time Addie had had a friend over and she hadn’t even
     asked since the
past
school year. But they had already eaten into Ronnie’s weekend. It was one thing for
     him to help out through the week, doing the extra little things that made him so special,
     but Ronnie having to bring friends to his job in order to spend time with them only
     made Kayla feel like
her
job was ruining not only her own life, but his as well. She glanced at Ronnie, and
     he gave her a look that said he didn’t care either way.
    “Are you sure you don’t mind?”