“Andrea,corazon, have you not seen how he looks at you? He isn’t fine with five days. And you need to… what do they call it?Baby traphim. Have his child now, so he can’t leave.”
This time, I laugh at her shamelessness. “I’m not doing that, you old bat. I don’t need it to know he’ll stay with me forever.”
She doesn’t believe me and mumbles, “If this family loses him, Iwillblame you.”
“I’ll blame myself enough, don’t worry.”
She shakes her head, still disapproving. “If not to baby trap him, do it for people like me who haven’t had any hot action in almost ten years, you ungrateful girl.”
After a quick moment of perplexity, I say, “Wait, Abuelo died twenty-two years ago.”
“I said what I said. Now, finish getting ready. I need you to do some peeling for me.” My jaw hangs as I watch her walk away, discovering a new side of her. She’s an absolute riot, and I love her so much for it.
I help MC in the kitchen most of the morning while Mom and Dad clean. Lex alternates between helping them and us, and I seek him out before lunch, eager to spend some alone time with him after our busy morning.
I find him in my father’s home office, and as I come closer, I see a script open on the screen. He pulls his chair back as I approach, and I don’t hesitate to prop myself on his lap, needing the closeness.
“Coleman, we have to do something about your addiction to work. What will I do if you drop dead from working too hard?”
“The same but without me.”
“But then Jensen and Idris would also die from overworking,” I tease.
His low chuckle combined with his lopsided smirk have butterflies fluttering in my stomach, and then lower. Ah, fuck, maybe we are animals, after all.
“This isn’t work. Your father created an app for your mom for their anniversary, and he wanted me to look at it and ensure everything’s okay.”
“Oh? What does it do?”
“He gathered three hundred and sixty-five pictures and videos of their thirty years of marriage, with captions and dates as well as personal notes. Every day for the next year, your mom will get a notification that another one of those memories has unlocked.”
Wow… This is incredibly romantic and an insane amount of work. As Lex shows me a few of the pictures and clips, I can’t help but feel emotional. There are pictures of holidays, birthdays, Christmases, parties, and simple moments enjoying a road trip or a board game.
Lex stops on a picture of a Christmas morning where my parents are embracing and smiling at the camera, while an eight-year-old me chases an eleven-year-old Rafael in the background to get my brand-new doll back.
“Everything runs smoothly, so I’m fairly confident he asked for my help to show me how high the bar is,” Lex explains. “And I hope I’ll make you this happy for thirty years and more, Andrea. You deserve everything, and I’ll do my best to give it to you.”
“Lex, I have no doubt we can be even happier than my parents were. But we have to take more pictures because we’re severely lacking in that department.”
Reassured, his hand clasps my nape to kiss me. When he lets go of me, I gaze at him lovingly. “What is certain is that I can never be happier with anyone else. So even if we don’t have three hundred and sixty-five good moments on film in three decades, I’ll still be the happiest I can ever be.”
He nods gravely, and I give him another longing peck. Because I’ve been missing him all morning and am a little slex deprived, I let it turn into more. Then he makes it even worse by running his tempting hands all over me, under my knitted sweater, over my jean-clad ass… I’m not even sure how I end up straddling his lap, but here I am, pressed onto the familiar hardness of his dick.
“Is that an erection in your pocket, or are you carrying a banana for emergency potassium?” I murmur into our kiss.
His surprised laugh forces us away, and he looks at me with sparkly eyes. “My God, you’re ridiculous.”
“I know, but you’re stuck with me.”
“Not yet. I can still back out of this.”
“Don’t make me act on my abuela’s suggestion to baby trap you, Alexander.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “She suggested what, now?”
“The woman was practically volunteering to rip my IUD out. She isreadyfor great-grandbabies. Especially if they’re half you.”
His big hands slither under my sweater again, warm and tender. “And we’ll give her some, I’m confident about it, my love. But I’ve been meaning to—”
