Wiping her eyes again, Audrey followed Elli out the bathroom, through the sitting room, and into the hall where Tate stood with Shelli and Posey. Audrey’s heart could have exploded with the sight of him with the two little girls. He was at such ease with them in his arms.

“Give me my babies, Tate Odder,” Elli giggled.

Tate smiled as she took both her babies, kissing them both before saying, “Thank you”. Elli then looked between Audrey and Tate before pinning Audrey with a look.

“Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you. Don’t be blind Audrey, it isn’t attractive.”

With that Elli Adler was gone.

Audrey looked up to see Tate watching Elli walk away. When he turned to look at Audrey he shrugged his shoulders, “That was weird.”

Audrey giggled and Tate smiled before saying, “Are you okay, I’m sorry for….yeah I have no clue what I did.”

Audrey continued to giggle to the point of tears. Tate joined in, leaning against the wall as she held her stomach. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, good,” Tate said in a whoosh. “I was worried that saying you are beautiful was wrong, or something.”

Audrey shook her head while her face started to hurt from smiling so widely. It was weird how not ten minutes ago she was crying her eyes out. And now, out in the hall, being with Tate for only a minute, she was laughing her butt off. He was so easy to get along with when she allowed herself to enjoy him.

“It isn’t wrong,” she finally said when she stopped laughing.

“Well then, really Audrey,” he started, his voice dropping a few octaves, “you are simply gorgeous today, every day for that matter.”

Her laughing stopped as the air rushed out her.

God, his voice was orgasmic!

Audrey’s cheeks started to warm as she looked up at him through half lidded eyes, “I thought we were friends.”

Tate smiled, his grin wide, “We are. I can think my friend is hot, can’t I?”

Audrey giggled, “I guess.”

“What, you don’t think I’m hot?” he asked with a wounded look. “It’s my beard, huh?”

Audrey was full out laughing again. If only he knew how much she wanted to lick that beard of his. “Jeez, I thought only girls fished for compliments.”

Tate chuckled loudly, “I am just curious to what you think.”

Audrey rolled her eyes. He was fishing and he knew it. Without thinking, Audrey moved off the wall onto her tippy toes so she was closer to him. Her lips only inches from his jaw, she whispered, “I slept with you didn’t I? I think that says something.”

Tate ran his tongue along his bottom lip, his gaze holding hers, “Sure it does, but you ran out the next morning, what does that say?”

Audrey knew she was wrong. She was flirting and she had no intent of moving forward with him. She couldn’t help it though; she was so attracted to him. All thoughts of Levi were gone when Tate was around. It was different and it felt good not to be sad over an asshat.

Taking in a shuddering breath, she whispered, “That I was stupid?”

Tate took in a quick breath, and Audrey’s gaze fell to his lips. They were so full, so inviting. Audrey wanted nothing more than to get lost in his kisses, but she knew it was wrong. Even if she felt good around him, he wasn’t the guy for her. Audrey thought back to what Elli said, but Elli didn’t know what she was talking about when she said that ‘what Audrey was looking for could be standing in front of her’. Elli didn’t know, hell, no one knew, that Audrey would never be able to give Tate what he wanted. She had seen him with the Adler babies; it was obvious he wanted little babies of his own.

Ones with his DNA.

Tate was frozen against the wall as he watched every move that Audrey made. She started to move away, she had to, or she was going to ignore all the reasons she couldn’t kiss him and do it anyway.

“Flirting is against friends rules,” she said as she backed away down the hall.

“But it’s fun,” he said with a grin.

Audrey nodded, “It sure is.”

And it was fun even if it could be considered another epic mistake, because Audrey felt that their friendship wasn’t going to last long. Either they wouldn’t be able to be friends, or they were going to end up in bed.

She didn’t know which one was worse.

Audrey was lying on the couch, recapping how great Shelli’s party had been while she looked mindlessly through the Facebook app on her phone. Aiden was upstairs asleep, but Audrey wasn’t tired yet, so she decided to take time off instead of work. She needed to check in on work stuff but she had no desire to do that. She much rather play on Facebook.

Being the nosy girl she was, she typed in Tate’s name and waited for his timeline to come up. Tate had posted a new status 16 minutes before and Audrey couldn’t help but laugh when she read it.

Friendship is harder than I thought.

She hit the ‘like’ button and rolled her eyes. Little did he know that she was thinking the same thing. She was starting to rethink her reasons for wanting to be with him. She had no clue what he wanted in a relationship, hell, she didn’t even know if he wanted a relationship. He just wanted to get to know her. What if he did and didn’t like who she was? But what if he did and she really liked him. Next thing you know they are in love and Audrey has to tell him she can’t have his children. Then what? Would he understand? Would he want to adopt a baby? Or would he leave her? Could she really put herself on the path to potential rejection?