“Because the last time I slept with you, you disappeared, and I ... I ended up having a baby. Alone.”
“And that’s because? You what, didn’t tell me?”
“Forget it, forget I said anything. I was lost back then, feeling dejected. I thought I was doing you a favor. I knew the score. I’m just worried about now.”
She thought she could blow off my questions, and I let her believe it.
“Well, this time I’m not going to disappear. I’m going to be back again and again until I’m with you all the time. You won’t be lost ever again.”
“Aston, I’m a big girl now, a grown-up. I can’t afford to get lost with two kids.”
“I get it, but I’ll be damned if you do anything alone ever again.”
Ignoring my threats, she walked out of the room without asking me to clarify what I meant, which was good. I didn’t know what I was threatening. Or promising.
Stumbling down the stairs, I followed Bexley to the front door.
“I don’t think we should say or do anything radical until you get your life cleared up,” she said as I stood in the threshold.
“More bull. I’m not waiting much longer.”
“We’ve slept together once, Aston. It hardly gives you reason to boss me around.”
“Go have some coffee,” I told her.
“Don’t change the subject.” She tried to look at me defiantly, her eyes squinting, her hair a wild mess all around her face. Instead, she looked ethereal.
“You fell asleep in my arms, Bexley. Felt like you hadn’t slept that hard or content in a long time. You did that with me, and I’m pretty sure you haven’t done that with anyone else. So I’ll tell you again, go have some coffee.”
She scowled and stared out the window.
“You know I’m right, so I’ll gladly take charge of what I should’ve done a long time ago. You hear me?”
Her head swung back toward me. “What about your kids?”
“They’ll adjust. All of them. I told you, kids are resilient.”
“What does that mean? Were you?”
“It means exactly what I said. All the kids will be fine. And yeah, I was. I was just stupid.”
“Go,” she said, lightly shutting the door in my face.
Yeah, she wanted to slam it, but the kids were sleeping.Thank fuck.
Bexley
Much like the summer of my eighteenth birthday, Aston stealthily crept into my heart and my bed with little to no coercing. Despite my attempts to be strong, to stick to my firm resolve, he enraptured me ... mind, body, and soul.
Or perhaps I never let him go.
Inside this older man—slightly more distinguished, complete with laugh lines—was the same younger man I fell for. Yes, he was still bruised from his parents’ divorce, beholden to his mom in some ridiculous sense of duty, but this version was trying to allow himself to love fully, something he didn’t let himself do way back when.
We lay in my bed, our bodies twisted and spooned together, our limbs tangled as weak moonlight seeped through the window. His fingers walked down my back, touching each of my vertebrae, sending chills down my spine.
“You need to get over this Seth thing,” I said, feeling the need to clear the air. For me, and for Piper.
Aston pushed up against the headboard. “Um, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to bring up a strange man when you’re in bed with a different one. This one, may I remind you, being the one. The only one.”
