“Too much?”
She laughed and dropped her head against my chest when I lifted a brow.
“Sorry,” I murmured into her hair and kissed the top of her head. “I’m here for you, however you want me to be.”
She lifted her head, her sweet smile killing me as she grabbed on to my T-shirt.
“And that means a lot to me. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Em. I was hoping a little company and cake would help.” I skimmed my hand down her back, noting the twitch of her muscles along the path of my touch.
“It does.” Her voice dipped low, a throaty, almost inaudible whisper. She chewed on her bottom lip, searching my gaze. “Jesse?—”
“Could we start reading now?”
I shut my eyes as Maddie shuffled in behind me.
“I think the soccer game made me tired, so if we don’t start now, I may get too sleepy to read a whole book, and I don’t want to waste Emily being here.”
“Sure.” Emily let go of my shirt and patted my chest, her eyes still pleading with mine, but I had no idea what she wanted or what she was about to say.
“Emily may be sleepy too, so just start with a couple of chapters tonight, okay?”
“Come on,” Maddie said, dragging Emily by her hand toward the stairs and most likely not hearing anything I’d just said.
I’d give Emily anything. All she had to do was say the word.
I had to figure out how to not lose my mind until then.
I gavethem a good twenty minutes before I headed upstairs and lingered by Maddie’s door, laughing to myself as the last line of whatever she read was cut off by her loud yawn.
“Okay, kiddo,” I said, padding to where she lounged next to Emily on the bed and slipping the book out of her hands. “I think it’s time to give up and go to sleep.”
“But we only have one more chapter,” she groaned, her eyelids already shrinking to tiny slits.
“But I think you’ll enjoy it more if you can remember it,” Emily said, patting her arm. “Maybe we can finish over breakfast.”
Maddie rolled over, peering up at Emily with a deep frown before she hugged her waist. Emily bent to wrap an arm around her, sneaking me a smile over Maddie’s head.
I wished I could find Emily’s ex-fiancé and punch his lights out for calling her a cold bitch and making her think she wouldn’t be a good mother. She’d be amazing, just like she was at everything else.
What would it be like if life was just like this? Emily here to stay, reading with Maddie, eating diner cake with us, and sleeping in my bed next to me.
I was getting entirely too ahead of myself, wishing for things so out of my reach, despite how clearly I could see them all.
Emily sat up gingerly as I pressed a kiss to Maddie’s head. She mumbled a defeated goodnight before she buried her face into her pillow and pulled her comforter up over her head.
“Thank you,” I mouthed to Emily as we stepped out of Maddie’s room and I shut the door. “I thought she’d be too excited to sleep with you here.”
“It was a longer book than I thought she’d get through. I know that just-one-more-chapter feeling.” Emily glanced back at Maddie’s door. “She’s a kid after my own heart.” Her grin shrank when she met my gaze. “Honestly, I can sleep anywhere?—”
“But you won’t. You had a long day too.” I eased closer, fighting with all I had not to grab the back of her neck andcover that beautiful mouth with mine. I kissed her cheek instead, running my nose along her jaw before I realized it and stepped back.
“Let me know if you need anything. Sweet dreams, Em.”
I shifted toward my spare room, keeping my gaze and my feet straight ahead to avoid any more temptation.
When it came to women, I’d never really planned for any kind of future. I’d tried, coming close with a few, but something always didn’t work out. Sometimes it was me. Sometimes it was her. I’d never given it too much thought.
