Page 15

FOURTEEN

ELI

I watch her sleep. She did cover up, but not before I kissed every inch of her body and told her just how beautiful it was. And it is stunning, every fucking part of her. She is gorgeous. I’m not sure how the hell some guy didn’t snap her up, but I’m glad he didn’t.

She lets out a sigh as she curls closer to my side, wearing my T-shirt. Biting the corner of my lip, I glide my fingers up and down her arm. She’s breathing peacefully, her body completely relaxed, and that’s when I really use this quiet moment to take her in.

This woman is not just beautiful, but she’s strong. So fucking strong. She left college, went home, had my baby, and put herself through school with the support of just her father. I don’t know if I would have been able to do that.

She also came here, alone, to tell a stranger that he was the father of said child. That takes serious fucking guts. I don’t care who the hell you are. She had zero clue how I would respond, yet she did it anyway.

I slip out of bed and quietly move through the room and into the hallway, closing the door silently behind me. I move toward the guest bedroom and stop at the doorway, my eyes searching the darkness for Ryan.

He’s easy to spot.

His playpen is in the middle of the room. He’s lying on his back, his hands balled into fists above his head. He’s perfect. Absolutely perfect. I don’t know how long I stand in the doorway and watch him, but it’s long enough that I feel a hand at the small of my back.

Tearing my gaze away from Ryan, I look over my shoulder and down. Wrenly is standing at my side. Pushing off the wall, I step back slightly and reach for her hand. She laces her fingers through mine as I gently tug her behind me and walk us back to the bedroom.

“He’s perfect,” I whisper as I turn to face Wrenly, releasing her hand.

Her eyes connect with mine. I search her gaze, wondering how this is my new world, my new life. Lifting my hands, I cup her cheeks as my thumbs slide beneath her eyes. “He’s so perfect,” I whisper. “And it’s all you.”

She smiles. “He’s yours, too,” she murmurs.

I almost laugh but decide against it. “I had nothing to do with the level of perfection of that boy. That’s all on you, baby.”

She shakes her head a couple of times. “It’s not,” she breathes. “He’s still half you.”

Lowering my head, I touch my mouth to hers. “Perfect, just like his mother.”

Releasing one of her cheeks, I grip the fabric of the shirt she’s wearing tightly. She lifts her hands, placing her palms against my chest as she tips her head back slightly so she can look up into my eyes.

“I wish it could always be this way,” Wrenly whispers.

“It can, baby,” I rasp. “No, that’s not right,” I say. Dipping my chin, I touch my mouth to hers again, but I don’t deepen the kiss. It’s just my lips touching hers. Chastely. “It can’t be right because I don’t want it to always be this way.”

“You don’t?” she breathes against my mouth.

“Nope,” I state. “I want it to be better. Each and every fucking day. Just like tonight is infinitely better than last night.”

Then I press my lips against her hard, and I kiss her—owning her.

Wrenly is mine. When I break the kiss, I shift back slightly, my gaze never leaving hers, and I give her a small smile. “Better every day,” I whisper.

“This feels like a fairy tale,” she breathes.

Humming, I release her face and scoop her up into my arms before I carry her to bed. Placing her down on the mattress, I crawl in behind her, wrapping my arms around her and touching my lips to the top of her shoulder. I decide that I need to get to know her better.

“Tell me something,” I say.

She laughs softly, then lets out a yawn. “I’m not sure there’s much more to tell.”

“If you could eat any dessert in the whole world, and it was your last day to eat dessert ever again, what would it be?”

“Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting, where every single bite contains a rose.”

“That’s very specific,” I say with a laugh.

She smiles, her cheeks tinting pink as she searches my gaze with her own. “I take my dessert very seriously,” she exhales.

I hum. “I am sensing that you do. Far too seriously maybe.”

Her body shifts, and I feel her hands press against my chest as she pushes herself up. Looking down at me, her eyes are wide as she watches me for a moment.

“Dessert is possibly one of the most serious food choices to ever be taken,” she states.

“Good quality meat? Potatoes?” I ask, trying to keep from laughing.

I’ve never had a conversation like this before, and I like it. So much. It’s different from pumping and dumping with women like I’ve done in the past. I never made it a priority to get to know anyone.

But Wrenly isn’t someone who is trying to be overly sexy and over the top in everything. Even if she is sexy as fuck—it’s effortless. She isn’t trying at all. Honestly, she’s not over the top in anything that I’ve seen so far, and maybe that’s what draws me to her.

She’s so fucking subtle unless it has to do with Ryan. When it comes to him. When she’s talking about him. Looking at him. Thinking about him. She is, without a doubt, over the top, but only because she’s head over heels in love with him.

WRENLY

The late-night conversation with Eli is something I’ve never done with a man before. I’ve never dated and only ever flirted with him the one night he slid into my DMs two years ago. But then I ran, terrified. There’s no more running, though. Not when it comes to Ryan and his happiness.

As much as I have wanted to just get the hell out of Ohio a few times since I arrived, Ryan deserves better than a mom who runs away. I know what that is like, except mine didn’t take me with her.

I’m not sure what time we doze off, but it’s with a smile on my lips. I am falling for him. In my head, I’d already done that a million times, but this is real. This isn’t fantasy or my dreams. This is reality, and so far, he’s everything that I dreamed he could be.

And more.

Gone is the embarrassment of waking up alone the morning after. Gone is the majority of the guilt that I felt for keeping Ryan from him, although I will always harbor some of that guilt. There is no way it will ever just vanish because Eli missed so much, and it’s because of me that he missed it.

My eyes are open, although they feel tired and achy, along with my head. I lie in bed thinking of the conversation of last night slash this morning. Reaching for my phone, I check the time, and when it registers that it’s eight in the morning, my entire body jolts straight up.

Ryan.

He wakes up at five o’clock on the dot without failure every single morning. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I spring out of bed and hurry toward the guest bedroom. The pack-n-play is empty.

My heart races. It beats so hard and so fast that it’s slamming into my eardrums, pounding as I walk down the hallway in search of my son. But then everything goes silent the moment I step out of the hall and into the living room.

It goes silent because Eli is sitting on the sofa, a bowl of cereal in his hand, and Ryan is sitting on his lap, his head resting on Eli’s shoulder. They’re watching television. Shifting my gaze to the TV, I see one of Ryan’s favorite cartoons playing.

Eli turns his head, and his eyes find mine. His lips curve up into a grin. “I didn’t know what he would want to eat. He had no issue showing me. He had a banana and toast with butter. I was thinking of making some eggs, too, but I wasn’t sure.”

My heart flutters.

It absolutely flutters at this entire moment.

“Eggs are good,” I whisper. “He loves scrambled eggs.”

Eli’s lips curve up into a grin, and for a moment, I am lost. Or maybe I’m actually lost to the moment. This is a version of perfection that I didn’t realize even existed. I stay where I am, rooted in my spot as I watch them together.

Maybe Eli is right. Maybe I should move here and give this a real honest-to-god try.

Maybe it just might work out.