“Oh yes, I do.”
“Shane sure seemed happy.”
“He’s a good kid,” said Josh’s dad.
His mom said, “Lenore really put on a great party. Allthe children seemed to be having a ball. And Shane—oh, Joshua, he’s not only a good boy. He’s a happy child, too. You’ve done well with him.”
He loved them both so much at that moment. They were the best, and they always tried really hard not to butt in or make judgments about his life or his choices. But he hadn’t invited himself to dinner to talk about Shane or his own challenging interactions with his ex-wife. He was there because his mom and dad had the kind of marriage he aspired to.
He liked to watch them together. They seemed to have long conversations with each other in the space of a shared glance. They were…intimate. Connected. But not in a way that cut out the rest of the world.
His dad was fifteen years older than his mom. Cash had been there the day that Abby was born. Everyone said that back in the day, Cash was like a big brother to Abby. But then, to everyone’s initial surprise, they had married suddenly. Ty was born about seven months later.
“Whatareyou staring at, Joshua?” his mom asked with a hint of a smile.
He answered honestly. “Just thinking that you guys always look so happy together. If I ever get married again, I want that, what you have.”
His mom and dad shared another of those speaking glances, and then his mom said in a tender tone, “I hope you find the right person, Joshua.”
He thought of Riley then, of how much he liked her. How completely he trusted her. How he loved spending time with her—in or out of bed.
Yeah, he’d promised himself that if he ever got married again it would be for true love and true love alone. Not becausehe’d somehow managed to get another woman accidentally pregnant.
Well, that was then.
Now he really couldn’t imagine himself falling for some woman he hadn’t even met yet. He wanted Riley. He’d wanted her for months now, couldn’t get enough of her. He’d kept waiting for the powerful attraction between them to fade. But it hadn’t faded. On the contrary, his physical desire for her just seemed to keep getting stronger. Their friendship seemed to grow deeper, too.
Could this be true love? And did she feel the same way? They should talk about that…
“Josh?” His mother stood at his elbow with the coffeepot.
He blinked. “Sorry. Just…thinking—and yeah. I would love some coffee.”
She patted his shoulder and refilled his cup.
* * *
Riley was brushing her teeth at nine thirty that night when her phone chimed with a text from Josh.
How are you feeling?
She rinsed out her mouth and called him.
“Well?” he asked.
“Josh. I’m pregnant, not ill.”
“Yeah, but what about morning sickness and all that?”
“It’s been minor, and I really am feeling just fine.”
“Mind if I come over? We have a whole lot to talk about.”
“Right now? I’m getting ready to climb into bed—and Dillon’s here.”
“Just to talk, I promise…”
She studied herself in the bathroom mirror. “I’m wearing my ratty snowman pajama pants and no bra. Plus, there’sa hole in my sleep shirt. Not to mention, I already washed my face and put on my night cream.”
