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He waited for me to climb into my car before taking off, and I followed right behind him.

One of Benny’s favorite songs started playing on the radio and I bopped my head, singing along, not paying attention to Reece running the yellow light.

I stopped because who had the money for a ticket, besides maybe Baker Reece?

Just before the light turned green, the lead car in a long funeral procession drove through the intersection forcing me to sit through another whole stoplight by the time they all passed by.

As I reached the complex parking, I turned into a spot right next to Reece’s truck, and opened my door to hear, “What the ever-loving-fuck?” I bit my lip to keep from laughing at the poor, disgruntled man, but he just kept going.

“Do you need a fucking Ph.D. in mechanical engineering to hook this thing?”

At that point, my mouth moved on its own accord, popping out a loud laugh.

He kind of wasn’t wrong. You had this hook that needed to be inserted just right in the space between the back and seat cushions, you know, the part only a small child could fit their hand into.

Then there was the latch at the top to keep the seat from tipping and the small, very thin area to weave the car’s seatbelt through in order to click it into place, that again, an adult hand had no business being near.

That didn’t even count the superhuman effort it took to pull the seatbelt tight enough to make it secure.

He grumbled something foul at my approach.

Whatever. Hissy fit neither welcomed nor necessary. “Go”—I tried pulling his hand away from the hook— “get Benny while I get it situated.”

Reece yanked the seat back so I lost the grip on the hook. “ You go get Benny and I’ll finish here.”

I yanked the seat from him in a power play that’d make any hockey player proud. “You ever install a car seat before?”

As the goalie, he deflected my hit. “I think I can handle it.”

Handle it? Not with my boy in that seat.

When I didn’t move to leave, the man-baby started grumbling again and making these faces where I knew he was contemplating how to end me and possibly make it look like an accident.

The look in his eyes made it hard to discern.

He could always make an insanity plea or go straight for IDGAF and accept the second-degree charge.

Oh, good lord.

Rather than waste any more time, I ran around to the opposite side, climbing in the back seat, and yanked Benny’s new car seat hard and fast, toward me.

Reece lost his grip, cursing up a storm, and ran around to my side to try to remove me, but that was all part of the plan.

I reached to the front door, clicking the lock.

Then I slid to the other side of the truck to pull the door closed.

The man was so shocked that he forgot that he had the keys in his pocket, giving me time to get the hook in place and start weaving the seatbelt through the back before he got the door open again.

I smiled sweetly up at him. “Now, how about you go get Benny and Miss Claudia?”

If looks could kill, I’d be dead on the floor.

Still, he turned, stomping off to get my boy.

Then I realized after maneuvering the seatbelt through the hellishly small slots, I had to unhook them to fix the latch at the top into place first. If you didn’t fix the latch first, there was no fixing that damn latch.

By the time he returned, holding Benny’s hand, I might add, with Miss Claudia carrying Benny’s bag, I had the seatbelt secured.

“You want me to show you how to hook him in?” I asked.

“Are you trying to be insulting?” Then he dropped his voice for only me to hear. “Because naughty girls get punished and I know exactly how to do it.”

I sucked in my bottom lip as my heart sped up and my damn nipples betrayed my every thought.

How did I know? “ Noted ,” he said, then he kissed me as he set me away from the truck.

And I might’ve sighed, but it was hard to tell, given the way my pulse pounded in my ears along with my lady bits.

I’d never had a man do it for me the way Baker Reece did.

And if that weren’t embarrassing enough, Miss Claudia stepped to my side saying, “Reminds me of Mr. Grazia” as she handed me Benny’s bag.

Maybe she meant my reaction to his kiss because other than that, there was nothing about this situation that looked anything like her romance-filled life with Mr. Grazia.

Their story made a disillusioned woman believe in soulmates.

Whereas I already knew Reece’s and my story ended very differently.

We were blissfully in business arrangement and both content to be so.

But rather than argue, I smiled politely at the woman before heading around the front of the truck to heft myself into the front seat.

Good to his word, Reece helped Benny into his seat.

I watched carefully to make sure he had a good handle on the tightness of the belts securing Benny’s little body into place.

After finishing with my boy, he helped Miss Claudia up into the seat next to Benny.

“What store?” he asked Miss Claudia.

“Aldi, if you don’t mind.”

“Perfect,” he said, cranking the engine and pointing the truck toward the exit of the complex.

That was how we ended up looking like one little happy family with the best goalie in the league.

Yeah, well… it sounded just as odd to me.

Benny seemed to enjoy himself. Miss Claudia sang him songs while I sat quietly looking between Reece, my boy, and Miss Claudia wondering if we’d jumped timelines because that was the only explanation to any of this.