Blake
I’m lying in Kim’s hotel room, running my hand lazily down her bare back as she presses against me in bed, my whole body satisfied in this soul-deep way it hasn’t been for years, and I’m sifting through memories I’d tried to forget.
“Do you remember when we used to do this?” I ask. “Back before we had the kids. Every once in a while, when we’d have the same days off, we’d just be naked in bed like this for hours and hours. Getting up only to get the delivery food and let the dogs and pig out.”
Kim smiles. “Mmm, I do. It was a day like that when I decided that if you asked me to marry you, I was going to say yes.”
I groan. “And then it took me almost two moreyearsto ask you, because I had no idea you’d already decided that.”
She shrugs. “I wanted you to ask when you were ready.”
I was ready a long time before I asked—which I did in the bathroom of the ChineseTheater with security outside to keep away the paparazzi who had just witnessed Kim vomit right in the center of the red carpet. We were sitting there, waiting for the results of a pregnancy test brought to us by my agent, because we had to know right then and couldn’t wait.That’s when I’d realized that this might be my very last chance to ask Kim to marry me before she’d think it was just because she was pregnant. And nothing could have been further from the truth.
She’s heard this before, but I’m about to tell her all over again, when a loud thump sounds through the adjoining door, and I hear Luke shouting, “Mom! We’re hoooooooome!”
“Shit.” Kim sits upright in bed and draws the covers up around her breasts as if the kids might burst through the door at any moment. From the sounds of pounding, it seems the kids have every intention of doing just that, but the door is locked from this side.
“Okay!” I hear Marguerite say. “Sounds like they’re not back from the set yet. You can practice your door drumming when they get back.”
There’s a loud groan from both of the kids and the squeak of springs as one or both of them flop on the couch.
“Party’s over,” I say to Kim, reaching over the side of the bed and retrieving my t-shirt. “Are you ready for this?”
Kim clutches the blanket with white knuckles. “Are you sure we should tell them?”
My throat constricts. I know I want this—I’ve always wanted to be with Kim, and if I’d known what she needed was for me to fight for her, I would have done it a long time ago.
But it’s been six years, and there’s all this hurt between us now. More than a decade’s worth.
“We don’t have to if you aren’t sure,” I say. “You can have time to think about it.”
She looks afraid. “Do you want to think about it?”
I reach over and tuck her hair back behind her ear, and this one motion calms me. “There’s nothing to think about for me. I want you. I’ve always wanted you. I wish I could turn back time, but if I can’t, then what I want is to not lose one more second of the time we still have.”
Kim’s blue eyes shine, and she loosens her grip on the blanket. “Really?”
“Really. So let’s do this.” I find my pants and my boxers and finish getting dressed while Kim fishes new clothes out of her suitcase and tosses the last set into a laundry bag hanging from the closet door. I use a comb and some product from Kim’s counter to tame my obvious sex-hair, and Kim does the same. I put on my socks and shoes for good measure, and Kim makes the bed. We do one final sweep for evidence—during which Kim has the forethought to throw away the condom sitting on the nightstand beside the phone.Then she walks to the hall door, cringes, and opens and closes it loudly, like she just walked in.
The knocking is back two seconds later. “Mom?” Luke yells through the door.
Kim wipes her hands on her pants, gives me one last concerned look and unlocks the door.
It flies open before she can get to the handle.
“Mom!” Luke shouts. “You’ll never believe what we saw at Legoland!They had a Death Star just like my Death Star but this one was the size of therealDeath Star!” Luke sees me standing in the room with his mother, but he doesn’t even pause, just begins bouncing back and forth between the two of us.
“There is norealDeath Star!” Ivy shouts from the other room. “Even if there was, this one wasn’t the size of arealDeath Star because therealDeath Star was the size of a planet—” She breaks off abruptly as she swings around the corner and sees me standing there with my hands in my pockets and probably looking guilty as hell. “What are you doing here?”
“And a dragon, Dad!” Luke yells. “A real life dragon!”
Ivy doesn’t even bother to tell Lukas that there’s no such thing as a real dragon, and that if there were, it would probably be larger than the Legoland statue. Instead, she’s looking between her mom and me, eyes narrowed.
Kim sighs. “Have a seat, Ivy. We’d like to talk to you about something.”
“I knew it,” Ivy says. “This is about my computer, isn’t it? Can I have it back yet?”
“Nope,” I say. “Not about your computer.”
