I tried not to imagine lifting her onto the counter and kissing her senseless like I used to when she looked like that. Fuck, remembering those days was not helpful right now at all, so I cleared my throat and kept my eyes on hers instead of letting them roam all over her body.
“They finally crashed?” I asked.
“Barely,” she replied with a laugh. “Jennifer wanted to know if cows sleep standing up and Lu somehow turned the question into an existential crisis involving sharks, sheep, and the moon.”
“Wow.”
A soft, small smile appeared on her lips. “Yeah, bedtime is always a laugh a minute, but it’s still one of my favorite parts of the day.”
“It is?”
“There’s nothing quite like those few minutes when they’re finally relaxing after a long day and just talking about nothing and everything at once.”
I nodded like I knew what she was talking about, but honestly, I didn’t understand and wasn’t sure I ever would. To me, it’d seemed like it might be her favorite part of theday because she knew then that they’d be asleep soon, but apparently, it was about the periodbeforeshe finally got some peace and quiet.
Confusing much?
“Anyway,” she said as she drifted further into the kitchen. “Where did you put my suitcase? I was looking for it to change, but I wasn’t even sure where to start.”
“Right. Of course. It’s in the master bedroom. Last door on your left,” I said without thinking at all about what it was going to sound like, and by the time my brain caught up, Adeline was staring at me with wide eyes.
I nearly swallowed my own tongue before I started backtracking. “What I meant to say is thatyou’restaying in the master bedroom.I’min one of the guest rooms.”
Smooth, Zach. Real smooth. Excellent recovery.
“I just thought you should have the best room,” I said. “They’re all great. Of course. I didn’t put you in there because I wanted you sleeping in my be—” I finally cut myself off when a tiny smile tugged at her mouth. “You know what, never mind. Your suitcase is in the master. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Thank you,” she said, still looking way more amused than the situation called for.
If I was a blusher, I would have been beet red right about now, but instead, I tipped my head toward the fridge. “Wine?”
“Please.”
“That was the right answer.”
She laughed. “Was there a wrong one?”
“Yes, and it wasno.” I headed over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of white, filled two glasses, slid the cork back into the bottle, and pushed her glass across the counter. “Do the girls, uh, do they usually sleep through the night? Shit, I don’t even know at what age that stops being a thing.”
She pulled the glass closer and curled her fingers gracefully around the stem. Then she lifted it, sitting down on the stool across from me. “I don’t know if it ever stops being a thing. Obviously, it’s worse when they’re babies, but kids tend to wake up sometimes during the night anyway. They should be okay, though. They’re exhausted after today.”
I nodded slowly, taking a sip of my wine before I sat down too. “I suppose you couldn’t let them know where you’d be sleeping because you didn’t know either. I’m sorry. I should’ve thought about that.”
She smiled. “You can’t think of everything, Zach. As it is, you’ve thought of way more than anyone else would’ve.”
I shrugged. “Just doing what needs to be done.”
She gave me a look across the counter, and it dawned on me then that we were alone. Really alone. The girls were asleep upstairs. Amber was in the guest house. Even Bear had retired for the night.
Memories of the last time we’d been alone at this time of night crashed into me like a wave. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but there was no stopping it. I’d been crazy for this girl back then. Mentally. Emotionally. Physically.
I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off her.Okay, so maybe I would’ve been able to if I tried, but I didn’t.
That same tension was suddenly brewing between us again now, that insane electricity I’d never felt with anyone else. It was weird that it was still as familiar as it was, but it was very much there, alive and well as those blue eyes held mine like she was remembering all the same things.
Her nails digging into my shoulders. Those soft, needy little moans interspersed between gasps of my name. That furrow between her eyebrows when she came.
Snap the fuck out of it.
