“Well, this isn’t Holly Creek.”
“Have you ever thought about living anywhere other than the city?” Something in her tone made me pause.
“No,” I said automatically. “Why?”
“Look at Richard and Rex. Brooks and Archer. They’ve all made the transition to small town life. “
“Jessa.” I turned her stool so she faced me fully. “Let’s just keep ourselves grounded in the city and the situation at hand. And please don’t encourage his questions about having a sibling. Okay?” I shut it down, trying to recall any clause in our agreement preventing procreation. “Have some breakfast. Want me to make you some granola?”
“No.” She wrinkled her nose, hand on her belly. “I think I’ll stick with dry toast this morning.”
“Are you okay?” I frowned.
She hesitated, like she had something to tell me but wasn’t sure how.
“What is it?” I asked.
Her mouth opened. Then closed. Finally she asked, “How should I dress for Central Park?”
“It’ll be chilly. Jeans, sweater, walking shoes. We’ll all need jackets and scarves.” I took the bowls to the sink and leaned against the counter. “I thought we’d take a horse and carriage ride first. Theo loves those, and they give a good overview of the park. Then we’ll see what he wants to do. Maybe the zoo, or the carousel.”
“Sounds lovely.” She began making her toast when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out. “I need to take this. It’s Tokyo calling,” I muttered, already swiping to answer. “West here?—”
Before I could get another word out, Jessa plucked the phone from my hand, turned it off, and dropped it into the kitchen drawer.
“Hey,” I said, half a laugh, half a growl. “That call’s been a moving target all week. Tokyo isn’t?—”
“Perception, remember?” She stepped into me, arms looped at my waist, chin tipped up. She used my words against me, and damn if it didn’t work. “If you want to be a family man, act like it. Give Theo this one day, please.”
“So you’ve put my phone in time-out?” I arched a brow. “I could easily reach for it.”
“Not if you want more of the best pussy in the state,” she said, deadpan, eyes dancing.
Heat slammed through me; humor chased it. “In that case, I’m an excellent rule follower.”
“Good.” She slyly smiled. “Fast learner, too.”
I kissed her slow until the kitchen, the city, the IPO—all of it—blurred out. For a minute, there was only her.
When we broke apart, I admitted I needed this, to set the spreadsheets aside, and the phone down, and be a person who wasn’t always chasing the next number.
I’d missed that from the start with Elsa—chaos from day one, her storms, her leaving, the custody grind, a parade of nannies.
Completely different from my ex, Jessa had a way of making hard things look simple. Even if none of it was, and we had an expiration date stamped in legal ink. For one afternoon, I could let the pretending take hold, be with my son, and fill my soul.
“Go get ready. We have a park to conquer.” I tucked a strand behind her ear. “Together.”
She headed down the hall, and my eyes strayed to the drawer where my phone called to me like a heartbeat. It might as well have been another organ in my body these days—always vibrating, always hungry. I hated admitting it, but a Sunday unplugged would do me more than good.
I opened the drawer, turned the phone back on only long enough to text Sam:Offline. Family day. Handle it.Then I shut it again.
Of course, I owned a successful company. Nobody could fire me for taking one day off.
Leave it to Jessa to see right through me, right to the core of what I needed. For one Sunday, I wasn’t a CEO or a headline; I was a man taking his family to the park.
Chapter Fifteen
