“Mommy, will you put lotion on my back?” Addison asked.
“Of course I will. I want to hear more about your day.”
“I got to help hand out the crayons. And we both got stickers for sharing because we shared with Marlin and Seth. They’re our new friends. They sit at our table.”
“New friends and stickers. That sounds like a great day.”
“Seth is having a birthday party and he invited the whole class. Can we go?”
“Of course you can.”
“Can we have a party for the class for our birthday? I asked Rafe, but he said we had to ask you,” Avery said.
Rafe saw the horror in Sloan’s eyes as she scrambled to come up with a quick answer. He knew the standard, invite one kid you gotta invite them all, but he also knew what Sloan was picturing. Twenty-some odd kids and their parents filling up her house, testing the safety of her pool deck. He’d be there to help out though, and maybe he could kick Gracie a few bucks to pitch in. “Uh, I guess. Sure. That should be fun.”
Rafe hung around through story time, then said his goodnights, leaving Sloan to get a little extra cuddle time in with her girls. He cleaned up the bathroom, threw in a load of laundry and started the dinner dishes when Sloan came into the kitchen. She’d changed into a loose pair of sweatpants and one of those skin-tight tank tops with the thin straps. She’d twisted her braids up in a pile on top of her head. A real casual look, but Rafe wanted to rip her clothes off.
It didn’t help his hard-on that her tits looked fucking amazing under the dark pink fabric. It showed off the outline of her hard nipples perfectly. He held back a sigh of relief when she walked right over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He’d spent the whole day working real fucking hardnotto pine after her like a teenager. He’d failed, but there was an attempt. Leaning down, he kissed her on the temple. She smelled like citrus. She nuzzled closer and sighed.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all day.”
“You hungry?” he asked.
“Did you cook?”
“Shit yeah, I did. Spinach lasagna.”
“Oh, that sounds so good. It’s in the fridge?” she asked, heading in that direction.
“Middle shelf.”
“Score.” Sloan fixed herself a plate while Rafe cleared out the sink, then they both grabbed a seat at the island.
“How was your day?” Rafe asked as she washed down her first bite with some water.
“It was...hard.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“We’re operating on this girl tomorrow. She’s twenty-two. We’re doing a valve replacement. It’s gonna be fine, but she is terrified. We walk her and her parents through the procedure, answer all of their questions and she just loses it. Not screaming, but so many tears. Like tears just leaking out of her face and it wasn’t so much jarring as it was sad. I could see how genuinely scared she was in her eyes. It’s—there’s this thing there where people fear something worse than death.”
“Yeah, that fear of the unknown.”
“Yes! People generally aren’t excited to be operated on, but I just felt awful because she was so, like, distressed. I guess I just have to make sure I don’t fuck up royally.”
“You won’t.”
“I know. I’m that good.”
“See.”
“No, I work with a dream team. We’ve got it under control. Also, work kept my mind off thinking about how I can install cameras in Mrs. Brown’s classroom. I was freaking out so bad I called my mom after you dropped me off.”
“See, that fear of the unknown hits us all. When I went for pickup, Mrs. Brown said they had a great day.”
“How was your day?” she asked.
“Good. Hit the market. Hit the gym—” Rafe looked down at Sloan’s hand as it moved to his forearm, tracing the the biomech tattoo that covered his skin. His muscles twitched at her touch, but he kept still.
