Page 19

It doesn’t take me long to succumb to it. To her.

God, this isn’t going away.

And it refuses to leave me, to lift even an ounce of its weight from clawing at my back all weekend until she’s here on my doorstep. Sofia’s bright smile is a flame ready to devour me.

“Hey. Come on in. Birdie is in her room.”

Sofia pulls on a small arm beside her, and her son, Noah, steps out from behind her feet to look up at me. Once they’re both inside, she closes the door behind her, leaving us so, so close together. The shared moment of eye contact has me stuck in place. I desperately want to touch her. Just a gentle stroke up her neck, along her jaw. To tilt her face up so I can capture her mouth with mine…

I step back and bend down to offer my hand to her son. He’s got big blue eyes like hers, although his hair and complexion are darker.

“Hey, little man. I’m Braxton.”

He looks up at Sofia, who nods, and back to me before giving me his hand. “I’m Noah.”

“Nice to meet you, bud.” His smile is so much like Sofia’s, too, but a little softer and less sure of himself.

I stand, meeting Sofia’s gaze again. Her eyes sparkle at me, and that tension drenches me again.

“I’ll let you get to it. I’m just going to be in my office.” I point to the rear of the house behind the kitchen. “If you need me for anything.”

“What are you working on?” Sofia sets down her bag and ruffles Noah’s hair, watching and waiting for my answer.

“Grading, mostly. I have to build my slides for the presentation as well.” I sink my hands into my pockets. It’s the only way to keep from touching her.

“Mmm. I don’t envy you. I’d hate to be stuck behind a pile of grading, and I equally don’t like giving presentations.” She sighs. “Much to both of my parents’ extreme dissatisfaction.”

I know she’s joking. Charles is the most supportive person I’ve ever met. “I doubt that.”

Again, her grin appears in her eyes more than on her mouth. “I didn’t say they aren’t proud of my choices, but they hoped I would follow them into academia.”

I can feel my mouth quirk. “And there’s no future where you would teach people to do what you do?”

She must see that I’ve caught her a little bit because she’s already started with my daughter, who has been setting her phone up to film her painting process. Sofia shakes her head. “I see your game, Braxton. Don’t think that I don’t.”

Her finger points at me, and her son laughs. “Naughty finger.”

That cracks a laugh out of me. She must point at him when he’s naughty.

“Come on, Goblin, want to go meet Birdie?”

He nods enthusiastically, and she winks at me before she leads him upstairs.

I try not to watch those bare legs as she climbs. I fucking fail.

Forcing myself back to my office, I attack a small stack of design proposals for one of my sophomore classes. I make notes and offer questions for the next stage of their projects. It takes an hour to get through half of them.

I stand and stretch, and immediately, my mind falls to Sofia. This is quickly becoming an obsession that will get me in trouble. It pulls me out of the office, and I’m surprised to find the three of them in the kitchen.

Birdie’s never shown an interest in learning how to cook, but she used to love frosting cookies and baking brownies out of a box with her mom.

She’s scooping a chunk of something out of a bowl to stick in her mouth. The face she makes is pure joy.

Sofia turns to catch me leaning against the doorway behind the fridge. “I hope you don’t mind. We’re making chocolate chip cookies.”

“I don’t mind at all.” God, my voice comes out raspy and gruff. Birdie tilts her head at me like she’s caught it, even if she doesn’t understand what it means.

Sofia waves me closer and offers me a spoon with some dough on it. I laugh as I take it. It’s better than the store-bought stuff.