“I’m sorry I didn’t show up when Bo was born.”
I wasn’t a man. I couldn’t put my pride to the side, instead wallowing in what I didn’t have.
Summer adjusts her body again, and her fingers grip my jaw to guide my gaze to hers. “It’s okay. You showed up eventually.”
She isn’t mad at me now, but I know she was, and maybe now it’s just washed away.
Something has been stirring in me lately, and I should tell her. “I’m not here because I feel like I owe it to someone to be here for Bo. Iwantto be here for him.”
Her mouth shifts to a faint smile. “It seems you just went from a five to a six on the baby scale.”
“I need to work on my diaper changing, is that it? Is that why I’m not excelling at a faster rate to a ten?”
She chuckles faintly. “Probably. Now I think I need to leave this sofa purely because my side is beginning to ache. I’m impressed that we both fit here like this.”
“We’re kind of one body right now.” And it’s the only fit that will be the right size.
“True. Still, my hip is going to hate me tomorrow.”
That’s reasonable, which is why I shuffle with her to sitting up with the blanket carelessly covering her breasts. We both take a moment to stretch before Summer stands and gazes at me peculiarly. “Do you think you can sleep with me?”
My eyes grow big. “I was supposed to return to my room?” I’m teasing her because it probably was an option in her head.
“I shouldn’t answer that,” she admits right before she peers up with her eyes vulnerable. “I don’t want to sleep alone. Not tonight.”
“Then I’ll follow you.”
Her eyes gleam with appreciation.
I grab my boxer briefs and tell her to go on ahead. Picking up the beer bottle and wine glass, I bring them to the kitchen counter and will worry about them tomorrow. When I’m upstairs, I do a quick check through the door that’s ajar to Bo’s room, and I hear white noise and see the glow of the blue nightlight that projects stars. It’s cute. I head to my room, grab a shirt, and check myself in the bathroom. Settling in for the night sounds good right now.
Arriving at Summer’s room, I remember she mentioned the timeline of moving into the house which already erased one equation of this whole situation. Summer is on her side under the covers, now in a cotton t-shirt.
“Hey,” she greets me shyly.
I saunter to the bed and then slide under the blankets tojoin her. We face one another and lie on our sides. “You’re still warm,” she grins.
“Uh, should I be ice?” I wonder.
“No, it’s just I remember sleeping with you and you radiated so much body heat that you had no choice but to take your shirt off.”
My tongue runs along my bottom lip. “It will probably happen again, if that’s okay?”
Her hands rest under her cheek and her smile feels earnest. “It is. So just hold me,” she requests.
I scoop Summer close, encasing my body to hers. “You never need to ask.”
“Then maybe I never asked enough,” she states softly.
Quieting her, I seal her lips with a tender kiss, refusing to recall why she couldn’t ask.
Of course,I woke to a cold bed because Summer slipped out without detection this morning. I’m not surprised, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to confront it.
Which is exactly why I’m leaning against the front desk in the Dizzy Duck with my ankles crossed and snacking on a pumpkin-shaped sugar cookie, thankful that I didn’t get the ghost-shaped one because that would be too fucking relevant.
“I don’t know, I’m kind of thinking that the whole traditional Christmas gala has to return. It’s stuffy, and my parents loved it. It was kind of a competition with the Lake Spark Country Club, but the Dizzy Duck Inn had a bit more holiday festivity. You know? Like, a resemblance to the setting of that game Clue but with a holiday theme,” I explain to Stuart behind the front desk.
He listens with interest. “You mean, like a murder mystery kind of night?”
