Page 164 of Falling Offsides

My eyes flick back to Ethan, then up to Auguste. The thought hits before I can stop it…

What would a mini Auguste look like now? Would he have his forest green eyes or maybe my blue ones?

Jesus, no.

Nope.

I have no right thinking about mini mes and hims. Especially when I know I’d probably never be a good mother. I’m not naturally affectionate and it’s not like I had the best example of how to be a mom.

Meanwhile Auguste knows exactly what a caring, nurturing mother is like. Auguste’s family is the kind people imagine with white picket fences and pastel colored homes, cluttered with family portraits and childhood keepsakes.

They’re the kind of perfect that doesn’t feel like performance. Simply love, unfiltered.

I’m pretty much soaked when Auguste walks the boys over to Sabrina. Her arms are open wide, coaxing them to run to her on shaky legs.

“You’re good with them,” Étienne says, sliding onto the deck chair beside me, alcohol free beer in hand.

This is the most he’s said to me since we arrived. I’ve felt him observing me, biding his time. This moment.

I look up, catching the weight in his expression. Protective and serious. The way Auguste looks anytime another man so much as breathes in my direction.

“I like kids,” I say, fishing the toys out of the paddling pool and shaking them dry.

He nods slowly. “Yeah. So does he. Always has.”

My stomach does a slow roll in time to the picture unraveling in my head. The image I can’t shake of Auguste and his babies.

Étienne takes a sip of his beer, then tilts it toward me. “You know he’s all in, right? Like, no brakes. This isn’t only a fun fling for him, he’s brought you into our family and he’s got you playing with my boys.”

I swallow. “Étienne?—”

“I’m not here to scare you off, Courtney,” he says, eyes softening. “I’m just… that’s my baby brother falling for you. I know he’s done some stupid shit, but it comes from a good place.”

“I know that and I would never use any of that against Auguste or intentionally hurt him.”

“Good,” Étienne says. “Then you understand why I have to say this. That if you’re not into Auggie like he’s into you… you need to walk. Cut him loose and be cruel to be kind. Before he gets any deeper.”

I nod in reply, but as he gets up, I say, “I care about him too.”

Étienne’s hazel eyes narrow on me. “Perfect. Because in our family, we stick no matter what.”

Before I can answer, Auguste appears with the disposable camera he bought at the gallery earlier in one hand, a sippy cup in the other, and an excited Elliot balanced on his hip.

“Look who’s ready for some daddy time,” he croons, handing the cutie to his father as he attempts to throw himself at me.

“Say cheese, buddy,” Auguste murmurs, raising the camera. “Smoosh in.”

The camera clicks on my soaked, bedraggled appearance right before he tugs me to him and leads me to the loungers where my kindle is waiting next to his iPad.

He sinks onto the empty sun bed and takes me down with him, seating me between his legs. As he hands me my kindle, he winds up the camera and clicks again.

“Why would you want a picture of this?”

He shrugs, pressing a kiss to my temple and snapping another photo. “Because you look perfect and you belong in my memories. You belong here.”

And just like that, my heart is free-falling again. Plummeting deeper into something and someone I had no idea existed for me.

Putting the camera down, Auguste picks up his iPad. I’m settling into his chest and into my book when I glance up and see the cover of mine and Delilah’s last read flash up on his reading app.