I swallow. “I did. I don’t want him back. He’s a manipulative ass—jerk.”
“We sayarseandassall the time at home,” Eddie says.
“But only at Dad’s house. And only so we learn to do it properly. We’re to mind our manners at Mum’s house, even if Dad thinks words shouldn’t be stalagnatized,” Charlie adds.
“Stigmatized,” Eddie corrects.
“Whatever.”
“Cussing is so much cooler than smoking weed,” I say to them.
“Not really,” Eddie says.
“Our dad got famous because of weed,” Charlie adds.
Simon winces. “And we really must be going, or we’ll miss all of the games.”
He climbs to his feet and offers me a hand, and I’m back in the bathroom last night with him lifting me off the toilet seat and cradling me in his arms like I’m the most precious package in the world.
Our fingers touch, and my hand is suddenly hot and cold at the same time. Tingling as if it’s coming back to life after I slept on it wrong.
I don’t need to tighten my grip on him to get to my feet, but I do anyway.
And when I’m on my feet, I realize we’re very, very close.
The heat radiating off his body permeates my space bubble. His breath fans over my face. I swear I can almost feel his heart beating, and mine starts racing.
This isI want to kiss youclose.
I’m hyperaware of the flick of his eyes behind his sunglasses, the blunt tips of individual hairs in his scruff, the way his lips tip up more on the left side than the right when he smiles.
“Do let me know if he attempts to win you back again,” Simon murmurs.
The right answer iswhat the hell is this? You told me you didn’t like me for using you against him.
But the right answer doesn’t come out of my mouth.
Instead, some guttural version ofokayis my body’s instinctive response.
“I only want to do the games where we can win food,” Charlie says.
“Duh,” Eddie answers.
Simon shifts away, and an electric current snaps hard between us, shocking me back to reality, where everyone around us is staring and my breath is coming too fast and my knees are just this side of wobbly.
“Are you two ever not hungry?” he asks his sons.
“Once, I wasn’t hungry, I was just tired, and then Mom said I grew two inches overnight,” Eddie replies.
“I’m just always hungry, but you knew that,” Charlie says. “Maybe someday I’ll sleep and then grow a few inches too.”
“Bea?” Simon glances at me again, but with his eyes shielded from the sunglasses and the distance between us now, I can’t tell if he’s looking at me or avoiding looking at me.
I’d like to avoid looking at him.
If I don’t, he might see how much I’m starting to like him.
“Yes?”Shit.
