Page 112 of The Homemaker

At the last second, she presses two fingers to my lips. “Say it,” she whispers.

It takes a few seconds to figure it out. Then I smile and murmur, “Hi,” against her fingers.

She mirrorsmy grin and drops her hand. It’s a slow kiss. One of her hands rests on my leg and the other slides along my neck until her fingers tease my nape.

Flick. Flick. Flick.

My irresponsibility threatens to ignite the fire that will burn my world to the ground.

After I pay the check, we find a side street to stroll down, hand-in-hand.

Callen who?

Blair who?

What marriage?

Nope. None of that. Just two lovers reuniting after years apart, falling into step once again in a secret affair. Reality is an afterthought when one’s heart speaks louder than the mind.

“Don’t pretend that doesn’t give you a hard-on,” she says, nodding to a pile of wood in the yard to our right where a recent storm took down a tree.

“I think you know what gives me a hard-on.”

She nudges me with her arm, and I right myself before stepping off the sidewalk. “I’m serious. Your father would be so disappointed in you for giving up on your art.”

“You never met my father. How do you know he’s not in Heaven still picking splinters out of his fingers, proud of me for coming to my senses and finding a different hobby?”

“Oh? What’s your new hobby?”

“I don’t know. Some of us don’t have natural talent ateverything.”

“I can only imagine.” She smirks, tucking her chin.

“Is that a humble brag?”

“No.” She giggles.

“I think it is.” I release her hand and wrap my armaround her neck, pulling her into my side, teasing my knuckles over her head like an older brother would torment his younger sibling. But, it doesn’t last long because, in the next breath, I slide all of my fingers into her hair and kiss her in the middle of the sidewalk.

Flick. Flick. Flick.

There’s smoke and heat. When we ignite, I won’t be able to stop.

Chapter Forty-Two

Alice

The past is always there.

It’s reliable and unchanging.

My least favorite role is “mistress.”

If I could really hate Blair, it might make it easier. Even when I try to focus on the two men she abandoned before Murphy, I still can’t reach the right level of disregard for her feelings.

But …

And this is a bigbut.