Everybody's Hero

She whirled around. “What?”

“You don’t know what to do about this attraction between us, so you’re picking a fight with me.”

“I’m not picking a fight with you. And this has nothing to do with…that. I just asked you a simple question. How many hours a week do you work?”

“And how is this any of your business—?”

“Sixty? Seventy?”

Joe’s jaw tightened. “Somewhere in there, yeah.”

She turned, brows arched. “And you don’t think you’re a workaholic?”

“No, I think I’m somebody who can’t stand the thought of letting people down who depend on me.”

“And what the hell do you think you did when you didn’t pick Seth up on time tonight?”

Though spoken barely above a whisper, her words exploded around him like buckshot. And Joe wasn’t real partial to picking buckshot out of his butt. Man, if this was what she was like when she wasn’t picking a fight, he’d sure hate to be around her when she was.

“I didn’t have a choice, Taylor. You know that.”

“There’s always a choice! And right now, that kid needs you! Not what your paycheck can buy him!”

And what he didn’t need was this woman in his face about this, a fact the chili was only too vigorously corroborating. Direct was one thing; deranged was something else entirely. Except Joe was as ornery as she was. He’d never in his life walked away from a challenge, and he wasn’t about to start now. Even if he didn’t have a clue in hell what this one was even about. His manhood, maybe. His honor, definitely. But there was more going on here than a simple disagreement about lifestyle choice.

“Maybe I do have a choice. In theory. Doesn’t always pan out that way in practice, though.”

“You’re saying it’s not about the money?”

“Hell, yes, it’s about the money. You think I’d put Seth through this if it wasn’t about the money?”

That seemed to take the wind out of her sails for a moment. But only for a moment.

“Then what?”

Joe silently uttered a word he didn’t think Taylor would appreciate. What the hell had he gotten himself into? Baby-sitting and chili, that’s all this was supposed to be about, not a hot-and-heavy game of sexual dodgeball followed by his having to defend himself about stuff that had nothing to do with her. The last thing he wanted was to talk about his personal life, but God only knew what conclusions she’d come to on her own if he didn’t. Why he should care one way or the other what she thought about him, he had no idea. That he did was no small source of worry, but it was a worry he’d have to deal with later. Because right now, his choice was to bare his own soul, at least to a certain extent, or pry hers open. That, however, was an even less palatable option than door number one, since the tiny glimpse he’d already gotten into that soul had nearly undone him. A longer, deeper look could be disastrous. And Joe had all the disasters he could handle right now, thank you very much.

“Seth’s not my only responsibility,” he said with as little expression as he could manage. “Because, when my father walked out of my life and my mother’s, fifteen years ago, he also left behind a three-week-old baby girl with Down syndrome. My sister Kristen.”

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