I try to forget that image of his dick that is suddenly very present. Help. Send help. I need to grab my vibrator tonight. That’s it. I’m going insane.
“You’re... reading,” he says, as if confirming what he’s seeing.
“The bear lost his hat,” I explain, hoping that my face doesn’t blush all over again. “It’s a whole thing.”
A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “I know. It’s her favorite.”
“Jenna made mac and cheese! And she helped me with math! And she let me use the purple soap for bathtime!”
Colton’s eyebrows rise. “Sounds like you two had a good time.”
“We did,” Livy says.
I stand, smoothing down my wrinkled suit pants. “Easy-peasy, I’d say.”
“Thank you,” he says, and the sincerity in his voice takes me aback. “I didn’t expect... I mean, I thought maybe you’d just let her watch something, or...”
“No. It was fun. Actually, it was...” I hesitate, not wanting to admit how much I enjoyed it. How much I actually wanted a family all these years. “You know I like kids.”
“I really like that about you,” he says and my heart does a stupid flick.
Livy beams at the praise. “What else do you like about her daddy? And you didn’t give her a kiss again!”
We both laugh at her response.
“Livy, I’m sweaty as hell, she’s too beautiful to be covered in stink, don’t you think?”
“There, you think she’s beautiful. What else?”
“What are you? Hitch the date doctor?” he says.
Livy draws her eyebrows together. “What is a hitch?”
Colton grins and looks at me as if he sometimes can’t help himself with her. “I forget she doesn’t know any pop cultural references yet.”
“Dad, stop babbling and give your wife a kiss. I want to keep her, so you need to be a gentleman. I knew I had to teach you how to be a husband but it’s getting annoying.”
“I think this little girl should sleep before she gets herself in trouble.”
“Your wife needs a kiss, Dad,” she repeats and wins the stare-off.
That’s when his expression shifts—just slightly, but enough that I notice it. Something softer. Something almost… sad.
She said, I want to keep her.
The thought lands, sharp enough to cut through everything else. In the middle of all this mess, I’ve somehow managed to forget the part where this isn’t real. The part where it’stemporary. The part where I’m supposed to leave and hurt Livy. What did I do?
A year. That’s it.
And she doesn’t know that.
I can’t do that to her. I can’t?—
Before I can spiral any further, Colton is suddenly all up in my space. Close. Too close. And then he just… kisses me. Like it’s nothing. Like it doesn’t rearrange my entire nervous system.
But my knees immediately betray me.
Of course, they do. They wobble and I trip over nothing.
