Page 24

I reached for his hand, threading my fingers through his. “You don’t have to fix it, Reece. Just being here, being with her, is enough. She knows you’re here now.”

His jaw tightened for a moment, then softened. “It means everything that you’re here too. You, Benny, Miss Claudia… you brought life back into this house. I don’t think I realized how quiet it had gotten until I brought you here.”

My heart tugged, warm and aching all at once.

“We’re not going anywhere.” Those were the words I let flow.

The ones I held back went something like: “until you’re done with us.

” We both knew this thing had a shelf life.

And it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t like talking with him so damn much.

And the sex. Good God, the sex. I’d mourn losing his cock for years to come.

He looked at me then, eyes searching mine, voice quieter. “Good. Because I can’t do this without you.” And for the briefest moment I thought we’d made some sort of breakthrough. BFFs and all that, until he finished, “Because she likes you. It’d be impossible to bring a new woman in now.”

That stung. Stung hardcore. Still, I smiled. “You’re not going to have to.”

The house smelled amazing, thus signaling that the dinner was done even before the timer went off. A perfect excuse to move on from this sinking conversation.

Before I brought the baking dish to the table, I mixed sour cream and cream together to thin it out a bit and drizzled it over the top of the cabbage rolls in a pretty zigzag pattern.

Char stood from her spot at the table, lifting her glass of iced tea that Reece brought to her.

He even sliced a wedge of lemon, securing it to the rim of the glass.

“I couldn’t have asked for more than you, Benny, and Claudia coming to spend the weekend with me, but then to have you openly embrace a tradition that Baker and I have held so dear his entire life, and to prepare us this beautiful meal…

” Her words trailed off as the emotion of the moment got to her.

She shook her head as if to clear it and finished, “Thank you!”

“Thank you for opening your home to us, Char. We’ve loved being here.” And I meant that, at least for me. Claudia looked to be having a good time, as did Benny, so I was pretty confident with my statement as a whole.

With the ‘thank you’s out of the way, the five of us dug into the meal with fervor. Reece placed four cabbage rolls onto his plate, cutting off a big bite with his fork before even spooning potatoes onto his plate or taking a dinner roll.

“Shit,” he said. “I’ve never had anything like it—it’s incredible. Feel free to make this anytime the spirit moves you.”

I smiled at him. “Try it with the potatoes. And get that butter spread on your dinner roll while the roll is still hot. It’s life-changing.”

The augmented tiramisu still wowed the table and I felt pretty proud of myself that I’d not only pulled off such an amazing spread, but that I’d given Reece and Char a dish they’d never tried before. Although, she’d only managed to get down a quarter of her plate.

After finishing dinner, we refrigerated the leftovers for Char to have during the week and got down to cleaning up the dishes. Unfortunately, this meant our weekend was coming to a close. We gathered up our bags because I had work tomorrow that I couldn’t miss.

“I hate that you have to leave so soon.” Char wiped at her eyes.

“We’ll be back if you want us around,” I replied in hopes of cheering her up some.

“Want you around? Yes , I want you around.”

“In that case, give me a hug.” I stepped into Char and she held me tightly in that motherly ‘ I’m going to miss you ’ way. God, I loved it. She’d only just met us but was going to miss us.

She squatted down to Benny’s level. “Bye, Benny. I can’t wait until you come back to visit me.”

On his own, without any prompting, he stepped close to her and touched her hand. That was a huge first step for him. He’d only just met her and already felt comfortable enough to touch her. My eyes got a little foggy seeing that.

Then after Char hugged Claudia, Reece stepped in to hug his mom, kissing the side of her head before taking a step back, signaling to us all that it was time to go.

“Love you, Ma,” he said and with how sad and thick those words came out, it was clear that he hated leaving her, which prompted me to do something unexpected. I dropped my hand to his lower back, the way he’d done for me, rubbing up and down as we walked out to the SUV.

I let Claudia help Benny into the car seat while I stayed with Reece loading our bags, giving him the time to be okay with us leaving.

When he climbed into the driver’s seat, I walked to my side, continuing to follow his lead. Char stood out on her stoop, waving us off. I waved back but rolled down my window, calling out, “Thank you again. We’ll be back.”

I didn’t realize how right that statement was until Reece reached over to squeeze my knee. But the thing was, I meant it more because I truly enjoyed Char’s company than because of this thing we were playing at. She was like a kinder, softer female version of Reece.

The way we’d started, I never imagined liking him so much, or really that I’d care for him at all, but here we were.

He drove us to the airport with about an hour to check in. Like on the way down, I turned the TSA stop into a game for Benny. The male agent snapped at us. Benny buried his face against my legs. Before Reece could get angry and cause a scene, another agent, a woman, played peekaboo with my son.

“Thank you,” I said as we moved on.

“This can be scary for some kids,” she replied and it felt good to see good people still existed in the world.

We found our seats near our gate and I set Benny up with my phone to watch a movie from my iTunes library. One that he’d watched a hundred times before.

I wanted to talk to Reece about how he was feeling having to leave his mom, but he sat down on the other side of my boy to watch the video and that told me everything.

Rather than push it, I just started talking with Claudia about how much I’d enjoyed the tiramisu at dinner.

Since I no longer needed to fit into a thong, I wanted dessert on our menu once a week. We all deserved a sweet treat now and then. Plus, I liked the idea of Sunday dinner and this gave me my excuse to implement it. Something positive to take away from our time with Reece. I liked that.

Speaking of Reece, he paid the extra for us to sit together on the flight.

He got a few head turns. Maybe because of the Copperheads, but probably because of how unbelievably rugged and handsome he was—the epitome of sexy, especially when so effortlessly paying attention to a preschooler.

Ovaries go boom. A woman didn’t have to want children to experience this phenomenon.

It wasn’t about Benny. It was about recognizing that the tender way he interacted with my son mirrored how he treated the women in his life.

A rough and tumble goalie on the ice, but a teddy bear, okay, a gruff teddy bear, off it.

People looked when Baker Reece walked into a room, but good to our arrangement, he never even winked at another woman, and not for lack of them trying.

That impressed me, given one particular woman, a gorgeous brunette, really wanted his attention.

When I got up to use the bathroom before take-off, she sat in my seat.

I thought to maybe get an autograph or snap a picture on her phone.

Turned out I was wrong. She refused to move when I got back.

Without bringing too much attention on us, he waved over the flight attendant and showed her our tickets saying, “Could you help this woman find her seat? This one is reserved for my girlfriend.”

The flight attendant asked to see the woman’s ticket, but rather than show it, Miss Gorgeous-Thought-She’d-Move-In- On-My-Man-Brunette huffed loudly and pushed up out of my seat.

She threw out a, “Your loss,” at Reece as she walked past him.

“Somehow, I’ll find a way to go on,” he said to me as he tugged me down to sit.

Even though she was the one in the wrong, I appreciated him not embarrassing her.

We taxied down the runway and just like during the first flight, my boy smiled, watching out the window.

When we landed one and a half hours later, I wanted my bed. With Benny in my arms, I carried our bag. Reece got his bag and the car seat. Seeing his truck in the long-term parking felt like a beacon calling me home.

By the time we made it to the apartment, my eyes had been drooping every five minutes for the last few miles and if I yawned any wider, I’d require some serious jaw surgery. Traveling took a lot out of a girl.

We got Claudia settled inside her apartment and then Reece helped me get Benny to bed, grabbing his Pull-Up and Buzz Lightyear pajamas for me.

Then he left me to get my boy situated. After Benny’s room, I walked to the living room to lock the front door, but Reece had already done it. The lights were off as well.

He waited for me in bed. I was too tired for sex tonight and he’d just have to understand that.

While he lay in bed watching, I changed into my comfortable sleep shirt and climbed into bed with him.

Reece looked good lying there with his hands tucked under his head, showing off those bulging muscles.

“How are you doing now that we’re back?” I asked.

He sighed. His sighs really spoke volumes.

Whole conversations without uttering a word, but I wanted the words.

And generously, he gave them. “Honestly, I want her here with me even more now. I want her to get to know Benny more. He’s the closest thing she’ll ever get to a grandkid.

I want her to have a friend in Claudia.”

“Well, we’ll have to work on her more. You’re very persuasive. I mean, look at all the things you’ve gotten me to try.”

“You wanted to try them. You just didn’t know it.”

“Keep telling yourself that, buddy.” I laughed, but it died quickly when he pulled me in for a kiss.

“Thank you,” he said. “This weekend meant a lot to me.”

Then, without letting me respond, he switched off the bedside lamp and settled down to sleep.

Of all the sides I thought this arrangement would bring out of Baker Reece, sensitive wasn’t on that list. Wow. I had a feeling life was about to get very interesting from here on out.