A Los Angeles Passion

Trey peeked into the room, noticing that almost all the cribs were full.

“And this is our main toddler room and activity center,” Kiara said as she walked down the hall. “This space also has two additional rooms and its own private bathroom. Infants and toddlers react best to any semblance of familiarity, so the warm colors and the type of cognitive and visual activities we provide at LA Little Ones will follow the child throughout their time in our program.”

As they walked through the day care and preschool, Kiara explained their nutritional program and showed him the preschool area in the second wing of the building. As she’d stated, he noticed consistency throughout the tour.

“Trey, I’d like for you to meet Monica,” Kiara said when they made their way back to the infant room. “Monica is the nursery director and my eyes and ears when I’m not here.”

Trey extended a hand. “Nice to meet you, Monica.”

“You as well,” she said, accepting his handshake.

Kiara waved over another woman. “Trey, I’d like for you to meet Penny. She’ll be the nurse assigned to Matthew during his time with us. We will be sending you live updates on Matthew throughout the day. At the end of the week, you’ll receive a detailed report on Matthew’s diet, health, sleeping patterns during naps and any additional findings we see fit to share.”

Trey greeted Penny as well, impressed by the professionalism of the staff and the entire operation.

“You can leave Matthew with Penny,” Kiara said. “And then we’ll head back to my office and discuss additional details.”

Trey did as Kiara suggested. Once they were in Kiara’s office, Trey finally let out an appreciative whistle.

“Wow. This is more like a luxury hotel for kids than a day-care center and preschool. I am thoroughly impressed and I can see why the wait to be a part of LA Little Ones is twelve months long.”

“Thank you.” Kiara smiled and motioned for Trey to take a seat, while she sat behind her desk. “I’ll admit that I was hoping the day care would be in high demand when I started the business, but I had no idea to what lengths some people would go to get their child placed here.”

“What do you mean?”

Kiara pointed to a locked file cabinet in the corner of her office. “That cabinet is filled with couples who are currently trying to conceive or have plans to try soon and want to leave deposits one to three years out for their future child to be accepted into our program.”

“Get out of here,” Trey said. “Although that’s surprising, you should be extremely proud of everything you’ve accomplished.”

Kiara glanced around her office. “I am, but it’s not just me. I have an amazing staff who believed in my vision and saw the potential before anyone else did. A lot of my staff have been with me since the beginning. Without them, I’m not sure I would have reached this level of success so soon.”

Trey observed Kiara as she went into more detail about how certain staff members contributed to the vision. She’d been such a maddening mix of friendly and aloof last night at the auction, he hadn’t been sure if he’d imagined her initial interest, or if she was just trying to appear to be indifferent.

“Have dinner with me at my place tonight,” he said, cutting her off.

Kiara’s eyes widened. “What? You want me to come by your place? But we just met last night.”

Okay, she has a point there. Trey wasn’t really the type to invite a woman whom he’d only just met to his house, but he wanted to get to know Kiara more. “I wouldn’t originally suggest my place so soon, but I have to babysit Matthew, so I can’t leave my home tonight. Plus, I could use your baby whisperer insight.”

“Oh,” she said, perking up in her chair. “So, you want me to come over to act as some sort of nanny informant for Matthew?”

“No, not at all. I just wanted to get to know you and figured learning more about how to care for my nephew would be a bonus.” Trey’s eyes briefly dropped to her lips. He had every intention of taking a quick peek, but noticed, for the first time since he’d arrived, that she was wearing light pink lipstick. By the time his eyes had ventured back to hers, he was sure she could feel the heat reflected in his gaze.

Just like last night, he couldn’t look away from her no matter how hard he tried. Kiara broke eye contact first. “I told you last night that I wasn’t interested.”

Trey chuckled. “I remember what you said. But there’s no harm in us getting to know one another better as friends, is there?” The last thing he wanted was to be Kiara’s friend. He had enough of those. However, he was willing to keep things PG if it meant she’d stop by his place tonight.

“You won’t try any funny business?” Kiara asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Nope.” Trey lifted his hand. “Scout’s honor.”

Kiara leaned a little closer, studying his eyes. He let her look her fill and tried his best to mask the real reason he wanted her to stop by his place. He’d known her less than twenty-four hours, and already, he feared he was slightly addicted to her company.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll stop by tonight for dinner.”

A grin crept onto Trey’s lips. “Perfect. I look forward to it.”

* * *

Girl, what are you doing? Don’t get out of your car! Kiara’s thoughts had been racksacking her brain for the past twenty minutes, reminding her that having dinner with Trey Moore was a very bad idea.

Even worse, she was randomly moving her lips to appear to be talking on the phone just in case Trey glanced outside his window and spotted her.

“It’s official,” she said to herself. “You’ve officially gone off the deep end.” It was one thing to avoid relationships based off the heartbreak she’d already experienced. However, she’d hit a new low by pretending to be on the phone to avoid going into a man’s home for dinner.

He’s not just any man,she thought. He’s a sexy man who spends more time looking deeply into your eyes than he actually spends talking to you. Kiara had never dated a man like Trey before. Granted, she didn’t really know what type of man he was, but she had a feeling that he was the type a girl could get addicted to. The type who noticed little things about you that others failed to see.

Dating Trey would consume me. Kiara sat upright in her seat as the thought crossed her mind. “Date him?” He’d invited her to one dinner, and already, she was thinking about dating him.

“This is crazy,” she said, getting out of her car. “You’re a smart and successful woman, so surely you can handle dinner with a man and not think it means you’re headed down the relationship road.”

Kiara rang the doorbell, mentally giving herself one more pep talk before Trey answered the door in black sweats and a white T-shirt. He had a screaming infant cradled in his arms.

“Come on in,” Trey said, stepping aside from the door. “M-dog was fine, and then ten minutes ago, he just started crying and hasn’t stopped since.”

Kiara briefly looked Trey up and down. Even in the chaos with his nephew, the man looked delicious. “When was the last time his diaper was changed?”