Page 100 of Forbidden Kisses

I'd actually been by the house earlier and picked up his favorite toys as well as some puzzles. He liked to talk a lot, butsometimes he needed to keep his hands occupied too. And I enjoyed playing with him. We both liked puzzles.

The ice cream parlor looked exactly like it had in the pictures… and the prices were as exorbitant as they'd been online. Part of me thought that maybe they'd made a mistake and added a 1 in front of each price. Who in their right mind sold a scoop for fourteen bucks? Then again, what could I expect from an ice cream parlor that was close to a riding school?

But I was learning to be more at ease in Duncan's world and, by extension, Jeremy's. No more dragging him to other supermarkets because I thought a local grocery store was overpriced. So, Jeremy ordered a Mickey Mouse, which was a stunning $27, and I ordered one scoop of chocolate. That was the most I could get myself to spend in this place. We received the ice cream at the same time, and we both devoured it. Jeremy was so excited that he ate his whole Mickey Mouse in the time it took me to eat my measly portion.

Once he’d finished, he held his belly and said, "I'm so full."

I smiled. "So am I. Want to see what I brought for you from home?"

His eyes lit up. "Sure."

I got out his favorite penguin toy, and he squeezed it to his chest. "You're the best, Riley."

I also took out the puzzle we both loved.

"Want to see how fast we can do it and who puts together the most puzzle pieces?" I asked.

"Yes!"

While we assembled the puzzle, he scrunched his forehead in concentration. I was being deliberately slow; I didn't care a bit about winning.

At some point, Jeremy stopped putting pieces together.

I frowned. "Jeremy, are you okay? Do you feel sick?"

The puzzle wasn't that hard, and he'd done it a million times. No way could he not know what to do next.

He looked at me and abruptly asked, "Riley, would you like to be a mom?"

I jerked my head back, unsure if I’d heard him correctly, and stammered, "Um, well, I mean, yes. But?—"

He got the next words out so fast that I was sure I'd misunderstood him at first.

"Would you like to bemymom?"

My heart melted. I smiled, moving closer to him and putting a hand on his back.

"Jeremy, baby," I said, then chastised myself because he wasn't my baby, "you know this isn’t how it works. You have a mom."

"I know. But she's far away, and you do mom stuff with me. You play with me."

I frowned. "I'm sure Ms. Williams did too."

He shook his head. "No. She watched me play, or sometimes she showed me how to do things like a puzzle, but then I had to do it by myself. You're so young and pretty, and I would like you to be my mom."

My chest tightened. "I love spending time with you. You know I do."

"But you’re going to have another job, and then you won’t play with me anymore. But if you were my mom, you would have to. That's what moms do."

I smiled at him. "I'm sure we can arrange something so that we meet and play," I assured him. I wasn't simply saying this to calm him down. I genuinely wanted to see Jeremy once my job started.

I groaned inwardly, realizing I should probably discuss things like this with Duncan before I made any promises to Jeremy. But the little guy was inconsolable.

"But would you like to be my mom?" he insisted. "Because if you do, I can tell Dad."

That took me by complete surprise. I jerked my head back. "What?"

"I think Dad would like that."