Jessica: I have to give you something.
Fuck.
I had a feeling I knew what it was.
Me: I can bring Chinese over.
Jessica: We’ll come to you.
Me: We? You’re bringing Ruthie?
Jessica: Is that okay?
Me: Yeah, more than okay. What time? Should I get you Orange Chicken?
Jessica: You remembered.
Me: I remember everything about you, Jess.
If she was about to serve me with divorce papers, I wasn’t going to make it easy for her.
Jessica: How about 6?
Me: See you then, babe.
Yeah, I called her babe.
No, I didn’t care that I wasn’t supposed to.
Chapter Eighty-One
Alan
The minivan was parked in the driveway when I came back from Golden Dragon with our dinner.
I pulled into the garage, and Jessica got out at the same time I got out of the rental.
She looked so damn beautiful. She had on a pair of dark jeans that I was sure she’d brought on our honeymoon—I recognized the design on the back pockets. Except they were a lot looser now.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I liked her curves.
“You could have gone in,” I called to her as she went around to the passenger side. “You didn’t have to wait in the van.”
She opened the rear sliding door. “I just got here.”
Instead of grabbing the bag of food from the backseat, I made my way to where she stood by the baby’s car seat. Ruthie was awake, and I gave her a big, expressive smile.
“Hi, pretty girl.”
Her big, toothless smile instantly turned me into a puddle of goo on the ground.
“You’ve gotten so big!”
She kicked her feet and squealed, and I wanted to kiss her chubby cheeks.
“Do you need help?”
Jess hoisted the diaper bag over her shoulder, then released the car seat from its base. “I’ve got it.”
