I swatted his shoulder. “How sad is it that as moms we think a shower is self-care?”
“Seriously, take a bath. Read a book. Go for a walk. Go have dinner alone if you want.”
Kaylee climbed onto a kitchen chair, helping herself to pizza, and I tensed at the inevitable mess created by a three-and-a-half-year-old serving herself. Jace noticed and stepped in, immediately picking up her paper plate and holding it closer to the box for her.
“How long isFrozen?” he asked Kaylee.
She shrugged, focused on the pizza as she brought it straight to her lips, bypassing the plate.
“An hour and forty-five minutes,” I said.
“Prefect. Olivia,” he said sternly, “I don’t want to see you for an hour and forty-five minutes. Kaylee and I have a movie date, right, Peanut?”
“Yeah!” she yelled, pizza spilling out of her mouth.
A bath does sound nice. Really nice. I haven’t taken a bath in…gosh, at least three and a half years.
I opened my mouth to ask if he was sure, but he held a hand up to stop me. He took a paper plate off the table, plopped two pieces of pizza on it, and held it out to me. “Bye, Liv.”
I sighed and walked down the hall to my bedroom and started a bath in the ensuite bathroom. I found some bath salts under the sink and tossed those in, the room quickly filling with the scent of lavender. I walked into the bedroom and grabbed my e-reader—the one that sat there and reminded me that I never had time to read anymore—off the nightstand and went back into the bathroom to strip my clothes off. I had just gotten naked when there was a soft knock at the door and I startled.
“Hey, it’s me,” Jace’s smooth voice carried through the door. “I poured you a glass of wine. I can leave it out here or close my eyes and hand it to you if you want.”
I scoffed. “You’re too considerate for your own good.” I grabbed my towel off the rack on the wall, wrapped it around my body, and opened the door.
He stood leaning against the door frame, smiling, with a glass of white wine in his hand. His green eyes sparkled and all I really wanted was to turn this into a two-person bath. His smile was charming as hell, and it made me melt—as if his kindness alone hadn’t made me melt enough for one night.
I took the wine from him and brought the glass to my lips, taking a long sip while he remained rooted in place, staring at me as if he couldn’t take his eyes off my face for fear of where they’d roam.
“Thank you,” I said, feeling my body warm under his gaze.
Tell me you feel it, Jace. There’s something amazing here and I know you feel it too.
He blinked twice and shook his head slightly. “Enjoy,” he said before turning and walking away.
I shut the bathroom door and wondered if I was actually delusional or not.
Chapter Seven
Jace
“Jace, I wanna watchthe movie,” Kaylee yelled to me from her spot on the couch.
“Be right there,” I said.
Frozenwas queued up and ready to go, but I was standing in the kitchen, pretending I needed to send an email on my phone, when really, I was mindlessly scrolling through social media while I waited patiently for the erection in my jeans to deflate.
When I’d noticed the wine on the counter I’d instantly regretted not getting Olivia a glass before she went into the bathroom. I’d had zero intention of trying to corner her naked when I brought her a glass, but I hadn’t expected her to open the door in a towel. Her dark hair was draped over her shoulders and hit the top of the towel in a way that made me wonder how it would look against her bare breasts instead.
I’d frozen, watched her wrap her lips around the edge of the glass and take a sip, felt my cock thicken, then bolted before she could see how turned on I was.Friends don’t get erections with friends, Jace, that’s creepy.
After a few more minutes, my problem subsided. I plated another piece of pizza, picked up my glass of wine, and joined Kaylee on the couch. I tossed one arm around her, using Liv’s little couch shelf for my wine, and prepared for my fourteenth viewing—give or take—of Kaylee’s favorite movie.
Olivia must have taken my request to heart because the next time she stepped into the living room—in a pair of satin pajamas that hugged her body in all the right places—the credits were rolling and Kaylee could barely keep her eyes open.
Olivia stopped in front of us and smiled, looking at her daughter curled up against me. My heart soared.Thisis what we could have if I stop being too scared to tell her that I want to be more than friends. Kaylee spotted her mother and shifted herself off me.
“Is it bedtime?” she asked.
