“Hey, Miss Bossy, let Lucas finish his lunch.” Bella’s face fell, and she sat back down.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to make him mad.” My insides twisted. She was expecting Lucas to push her off and yell at her like her father used to. Marc had been gone for almost six months but was still in her head.
“Nope, I’m all done; we can go wherever you want. I’d love to go on the monorail. Can we go on that?”
Bella’s face lit up. “I love the monorail. There are new animals there! We never get to go because Daddy hates to walk.”
Marc hated the zoo and anything else that involved spending time with his wife and daughter.
“Then we’ll go on the monorail right after the Butterfly Garden! Come on, Bella!”
Lucas and Bella walked away hand in hand, and neither looked back at me. I’d never been so happy to be ignored.
“Remember, you can’t touch them, only look,” Bella warned Lucas as they walked into the garden.
Lucas turned around and gave me a wink. I was overwhelmed with joy and relief that they were getting along so well.
The three of us climbed into a car on the monorail. Bella sat between us and pointed out all the animals she saw.
I put my arm around Lucas’s shoulder, and he turned to face me.
“Thank you.” Lucas rubbed my arm and shook his head.
“No need to thank me. It means a lot to me that you invited me today. I know why it took you this long to introduce me to Bella. You wanted to protect her. I didn't need to see you in action to know you're an amazing mother. But the fact that you wanted me to meet her, it shows that you want me all the way in your life—that maybe you like me or something.” He gave me a playful shrug, making me laugh. He was turning out to be the guy I’d hoped he was—and so much more.
“Yeah.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek and whispered in his ear, “Definitelyor something.” He laughed and turned his head to kiss my lips. I let him since Bella wasn’t watching and it was only a chaste peck. I wanted today to be fun—not confusing—for her.
After we saw everything there was to see, we exited the zoo and made our way to the parking lot.
“I had so much fun with you guys today!” Lucas knelt down next to Bella. “Can I come to the zoo with you again?” She nodded with a big smile and gave him an unexpected hug.
Lucas stood and gave me a lingering kiss on the cheek. He whispered in my ear, “Thank you again for inviting me. I’m going to miss you so much tonight.”
“Me too.” The words caught in my throat. Seeing how good he was with Bella, and how much he looked like he wanted to be here, was all too much to take. I was in a definite danger zone and falling hard for this guy.
“I’ll call you later,” Lucas said before we turned to walk our separate ways.
“He’s so nice, Mommy.” Bella beamed, and a comfortable warmth surrounded my heart. Lucas was turning out to be an unexpected kind of wonderful.
“Yes, baby. He sure is.”
Seventeen
Lucas
“You sure you’renot going to get sick of me? I’m usually not here this early.” Sam teased as we traipsed around Union Square.
Bella’s grandparents wanted to take her on Friday night instead of Saturday morning, so Sam came over earlier than usual. We shopped at the Farmers Market on Fourteenth Street for a dinner she wanted to cook for us tonight. I shook my head, like I could ever get sick of her. Whenever she’d stayed at my apartment, I hated when she had to go home.
I pulled her towards me and wrapped my arms around her.
“Now I’mreallygoing to hate when you leave on Sunday. You’re spoiling me with all this extra Sam time.” She giggled at me as I gave her a soft peck on the lips.
“Don’t distract me! I have a list!” Sam yanked me by the hand to all the different booths, collecting a huge assortment of vegetables. It was cute how she always liked to be healthy, but I hoped we’d be stopping for some kind of meat somewhere.
We never came out and said we were exclusive, but she was all I wanted—and there was no way in hell I would ever share her. Technically, she was still married—and I hated it. As we strolled around hand in hand like a normal couple, I didn’t need any kind of a label for what we were doing. As long as we were together, that was enough for me.
“O’Rourke? Is that you?” I turned and spotted an olive skinned muscle head running towards Sam.
