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After dinner, we all cleaned up and then my boy started yawning.

I picked him up to carry him to the bedroom to get his jammies on.

He wouldn’t feel ready to go to bed until Claudia was in the room with him.

This gave Reece time to blow up the air mattress—and surprisingly, he put the clean sheets and bedding on for him, too.

Char started a pot of coffee for us. One thing I could say for her was the woman loved her coffee creamers. Snickers, Twix, and Sugar Cookie.

“A woman after my own heart,” I said, holding up the bottle of Twix creamer.

“Baker loves them too, especially the Snickers flavor. I don’t know if he’s been trying to impress you, but if he tries to drink his coffee black, call him on it.”

“So far, he’s had milk and sugar because I’m typically on a pretty tight budget, but I’ll make sure to have the Snickers now.”

“Tight budget?” she asked. “My son?—”

“Knows that I take care of my family, so while we were not as together as we are now, I paid for my own things. Now it’s changed a little because we’re exclusive and it makes him feel better to pay for things, but I still won’t let him pay for everything. I’m not built that way.”

“Trust me, he’ll wear you down. I wasn’t built like that, either. I’m his mother. I’m supposed to take care of him .”

“Quit telling tales in here,” Reece said, walking into the kitchen to retrieve the tray.

“They’re not tales if they’re true, my son.”

He kissed his mother on the side of her head then left the kitchen, walking to where Claudia waited for us in the den. We followed him out, and while he set the tray on the coffee table, I dropped down onto the sofa.

Rather than take a seat, Char made her way over to a bookshelf, pulling what looked like a photo album from between a couple of other books.

“Ma, have a seat,” he ordered.

“Hush, Baker. I finally get to participate in the age-old, obligatory embarrassing your child rite of passage by showing baby pictures to your girlfriend.”

He didn’t look impressed. “You can’t embarrass me,” he challenged. “It’s a lost cause.”

“We’ll see.” She smiled this devilishly evil smile. I liked her.

I poured myself a cup of coffee, adding a big glug of the Twix creamer, and as I took my first sip, Char laid a baby book on my lap.

While she fixed herself a cup and one for Claudia, who had Benny’s head resting on her lap as he slept, I opened the book to the first page, where Char had taped baby Reece’s footprints.

“That’s a heck of a newborn footprint,” I said. “How much did he weigh?”

She dropped onto the sofa next to me, pointing to the next page opposite the one with the footprints.

“Nine pounds?” I gasped.

“And just shy of two feet long.”

“You gave birth to a three-month-old.”

“Best day of my life, but yes, I was blessed with a very healthy boy. Powerful lungs. He ate like a set of triplets.”

“No wonder you stuck to one. I wouldn’t want to repeat that torture, either.”

Laughing, she asked, “How big was Benny?”

“He was a tiny peanut. Six pounds. They measured him three times, but he kept pulling his legs up back into the fetal position. He was less than nineteen inches, but since they couldn’t get an accurate reading, they put nineteen inches on his birth certificate.”

“Most precious thing I ever saw,” Claudia said. “I never had children, so I got to dote on the both of them. I was the one who drove them home from the hospital, despite my aversion to driving.”

We would’ve been lost without Claudia. I smiled at her, reaching out to squeeze her hand resting on her knee. Most people couldn’t fathom how deeply my affection, appreciation, and loyalty flowed for that woman.

“Well, I thought you should know in case you and my son ever?—”

“Ma, stop.”

“What? A mother can hope.”

“Woman, you’re lucky I brought Bree here to visit. Don’t push your luck.”

All I could do was sit there and laugh uncomfortably, turning my attention back to the photos.

Then I got to laugh jovially at little, naked Reece in the tub or on a beach, and aside from that suggestion of he and I having a kid together, he’d been right, none of the photos fazed him.

Given his cuteness factor as a baby, he’d had no choice but to grow up into the irresistible stud machine I got to take into my bed now.

Eventually, the night caught up to me and I had to call it. Reece picked up a very-asleep Benny, carrying him to the air mattress, and we got him tucked in. After a kiss on the head for my son and a hug for Claudia, we excused ourselves, leaving the door open for Claudia to change in the bathroom.

“This has been such a fun day,” Char said and I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Thank you for being so welcoming,” I replied right before she hugged me. It felt good to get hugged by a mom and without thinking, I hugged her back. When I stepped away, Reece moved in. Then he let her go, leading me over to our room.

As I changed for bed, I started rehearsing the inevitable: the “No, we’re not having sex tonight” conversation. I could already picture Mr. Grabby-Hands trying something the second the lights went out. I had my speech locked and loaded—firm, reasonable, and maybe just a little smug.

But the second I crawled under the covers, Reece wrapped his arms around me, pulled me close, and kissed the top of my head.

“Thanks,” he said. “For today. She’s so happy.”

And that was it.

No groping. No sly moves. Just warmth, quiet, and a kind of tenderness that made my heart ache in places I hadn’t realized were still bruised.

He closed his eyes to get some sleep. It took me a few beats to realize that he had no intention of fucking me tonight, which helped my mind to settle.

I nuzzled in closer and closed my eyes, too, suddenly, forgetting every line of my imaginary argument.