“We could do with a brush.” His hair is thick and dark and seems to grow more and more every day. It’s long enough to style just like mine. Taking the brush from the top of the dresser, I sit him on the bed and style it into perfection.
“You look good.” I smile down at him, holding out my fist which he grabs and tries to chew.
“Let’s go find Mummy, and hey!” I point at him. “You need to try that Mum, Mum thing again. I think I saw the Ice Queen melt a little.”
“Da Da Da Da.” He bounces in my arms, and I plant a kiss on his smooth head, inhaling the clean smell of his shampoo.
I don’t see Ellis anywhere near as much as I’d like, yet we have him fifty-fifty. I don’t know how other dads do it, especially every other weekend dads. I can’t think of anything more important than the precious hours I get with him during the week.
Before we go back out into the lounge, I pull on my jeans, the only things I saved from Ellis’s water onslaught. Nina is laying out the table when we enter the living area, and she can’t help her hungry eyes from roaming my body. If there was any doubt before now that I still did it for her, after today, I know for absolute certain that I do.
I can’t help but mess with her. It’s been too long. “Are you dribbling?”
“Shut up.” She glares. “Would you like to stay for tea?”
I can see her gnawing on the inside of her cheek, and I know it would have taken a lot for her to put aside her prideand ask me that. So instead of being smart with her, I simply tell her. “Yes. Thank you.”
“Maybe I could find you a top that will fit you.” She stares at my chest, and I almost feel bad. If roles were reversed, and she was standing naked in just a pair of jeans, commando, with her breasts on full display… yeah, I’m hard.
I readjust myself in my jeans, whilst Ellis looks puzzled between the two of us. He has never known us to be in the same room for so long before. This must be alien to him.
“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” she snaps as if she can’t hold it in any longer, shaking her head as she starts to turn away.
“What?”
“Tea won’t be long.”
“Did you ring that jackass and tell?—”
She turns on me, her face holding a warning. “Language.”
My eyes pinch in as I watch her. “Let him know not to come back tonight.”
“I already did.”
“Good.”
“Good,” she copies.
“You going to finish cooking my tea?” My lip tips up on one side. I know I’m winding her up, and I shouldn’t. But she needs to let her hair down a little. The Nina I once knew was never so uptight.
She must think better of it and doesn’t come back at me, instead she leaves us in the living room muttering her reply under her breath as she disappears to the kitchen.
“Is Mummy always this grumpy?”
Dinner is delicious, and I ask Nina after if she would mind me putting Ellis to bed. I’m being greedy with him, but I don’t care. When he was a newborn, I had to miss out because he couldn’t be away from Nina as often as he is now. It was hard, but she wasn’t ready to see me. I resented her for it at the time, but I understand how important that was for them to have that bond now.
Ellis goes down quickly and then I go and help clean up the last of the dishes with Nina. We don’t speak, but it isn’t awkward. Surprisingly, it’s been a good evening. It feels like we’ve turned a corner.
“I’ll check your clothes.”
I smile after her, watching her as she walks to the laundry room. I can hardly see her body with the oversized hoodie and leggings, but I know what’s underneath, and as she pads down the hall on her bare feet, I know how taut and smooth her legs are, how pert her sweet round ass is.
“Are you fucking kidding me!”
And then there’s that mouth.
“What’s the matter?” I ask, walking to the laundry room after her.
