Page 9

EIGHT

ELI

I still don’t know what I’m going to do. Even after talking to my stepdad, I feel almost as lost as I did the moment I saw Wrenly last night. He basically just told me to do what I feel is the right thing to do. I called him because I didn’t know what the fuck to do, and I wanted him to tell me.

There are so many variable outcomes to this scenario. It’s only within my control slightly. This is between the three of us, but there are also my family and Wrenly’s family to consider. I drive toward the park, and I see them the moment I pull in.

The park is deserted. They’re the only two people there, but that’s not what catches my attention. It’s them. They’re sitting at a table together, presumably eating food, because I can see some things in the middle of the table. It’s the most perfect picture.

In fact, at the sight, I lift my phone and open my camera, then take a picture to keep the image. Ryan’s little knees are on the bench as he reaches for something in the middle, and my heart swells.

His dark hair almost glitters in the sunlight. His smile is so fucking bright that I’m glad I have sunglasses on. And then there’s Wrenly. Again, there is a light that surrounds her. That draws me to her. I just don’t know if a light is enough.

Shifting the pickup into Park , I open the door and climb out of the driver’s seat. If she senses me, she doesn’t look at me as I approach, which is almost scary. But when I open my mouth to make myself known, she turns her head, her eyes bright and her lips curved up into a sexy smile.

“I was hoping that was you and not some creep,” she states.

My brows rise, and she continues. “I saw you drive in and sit there for a minute. I recognized your pickup from last night.”

Shifting my gaze over to the tabletop, I see crackers, cheese, strawberries, blueberries, and turkey meat. “He eats this?” I ask out of a mixture of shock and amazement.

Wrenly laughs. “He has his likes and dislikes, but yeah, he enjoys this stuff. I bought him a cookie from the bakery for a treat. He knows I have it, so he’s not fighting too much,” she says, then she continues. “Why don’t you sit down and join us?”

Sinking down beside her, I watch Ryan. His eyes lift to mine as he plops a blueberry in his mouth, and he smiles. “Dadda.”

“How does he know?” I ask.

Wrenly shifts uncomfortably in her seat. “I’ve shown him pictures from the internet. Pointed at you and told him that you were his daddy.”

That shit makes me happy. It makes it seem less like we’re strangers. Even though I didn’t know about him, I’m not some strange guy standing in front of him. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t understand the word. He just puts my face to it, but it still makes me feel something.

“I don’t know how to navigate this,” I confess. “But I would like you two to come over tonight. Maybe have some dinner and talk more?”

She nods once. “I would like that,” she murmurs.

The last thing I really want to do is talk. Because being this close to her again, being able to see her, smell her, and touch her, is making my cock stand at attention. I want her. Right here on this picnic table.

I know without a doubt that I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off her, especially with my own bed just a few feet away. Instead of throwing her over my shoulder and firemen carrying her to my truck so I can take her home and have my way with her, I stay at the park. And for the next two hours, I watch my son play.

My son— wow .

WRENLY

“You ready?” Eli asks after I’ve called Ryan over to me.

“I am, but I have to walk back. It’s about three miles, so it’ll be about an hour.”

Bending slightly, I pick Ryan up in my arms. He’s a hot, sweaty mess, but I know he’s going to sleep amazingly tonight. And maybe that’s what we need. So we can continue the conversation from last night and also have one about what the future might look like.

His eyes widen before his brows snap together. “You have to walk back?” he asks, his gaze flicking from his parked truck to us, confusion clearly written all over his face.

“I don’t have Ryan’s car seat,” I state. But when that doesn’t clear up his confused expression, I realize it’s because he gave us a ride last night. “Last night, we were only in the parking lot, and nobody was around at all.”

His lips part, and he makes an ahh sound. “It’s in your room?” he asks. I hum, and then he thrusts his arm out, his palm facing up. “Keys,” he demands.

“Keys?” I ask.

“Hotel key. I’m going to go and get the car seat.”

There is a moment of silence where I just stare at him. I stare and am unsure of what to say or do. Then he smirks, leaning down slightly, placing his hand on my hip, his fingers gripping me there, squeezing once. I can feel the heat from his hand break through my workout shorts, and I swear it feels like my whole body breaks out in a chill.

“Let me go and get the car seat, baby,” he whispers.

God, his voice is like pure honey. A memory of that night flashes before my eyes. When I was standing in that club waiting for him. When he walked straight up to me. When he was this close, and when my body was no longer my own but belonged solely to his.

I would give him anything.

Including my hotel room key—maybe especially that.

“Okay,” I breathe.

He squeezes my hip, then his hand falls from me and he takes a step backward. I hold in the sigh that wants to escape at the loss of his touch, turn toward the stroller, and bend slightly to get the key out of my bag.

My fingers shake as I unzip the pocket where the key card is. I don’t know why I’m so nervous, anxious, whatever it is. I shouldn’t be. But him being this close, the way his hand felt, I don’t know what to expect, but I know what I want.

And I want Eli.

I know that I shouldn’t because the last time I threw caution to the wind, I had a surprise nine months later.

So I need to cool it down—from the inside out.

A few minutes later, Eli has left to go to the car seat, and I am left sitting at the picnic table holding a sleepy Ryan. He won’t nap long before he will wake up hungry. Rocking him slightly, I can’t help but wonder what tonight is going to bring.

Hopefully nothing too dramatic. Although I’m pretty sure if anything dramatic was going to happen, it would have been last night. Picking my phone up, I send my dad a text letting him know that I’ve heard from Eli and he’s invited us over to his house for dinner.

DADDY-O: You be safe.

My dad has always been and will always be a man of few words unless he’s really got something to say. Then he’s going to say it, and it’s going to mean something—it always means something when he talks to me.

I love my dad.

Since my mom left, he’s been my constant, and I would have never been able to do anything that I’ve done without his help, especially when it comes to Ryan.

We will. We love you.

After I type my response and hit Send , then I go ahead and attach a selfie of the two of us. Me holding Ryan, who is sucking his thumb, halfway to dreamland. A few moments later, Eli’s pickup truck is back, and I watch as he jumps out of the driver’s seat.

He walks toward me, scratching the top of his head as he does. “I have no fucking clue what to do with that thing. I tried to hook it up for at least five minutes.”

I press my lips together, and my shoulders shake as I try to hold in my laughter. I fail. He rolls his eyes to the sky, then lowers them to meet mine again. Standing, I make my way over to him, my gaze searching his.

“Can you hold him? I can get it all hooked up.”

Tentatively, he reaches for Ryan, who doesn’t even try to move as he’s being switched from me to Eli’s hold. He’s exhausted. After the game last night and then playing all afternoon, he is really done for the day.

As I walk toward the pickup, I feel Eli’s gaze on me as I quickly lock the seat into place, then turn to him and hold out my arms. He shifts his gaze from the seat to my eyes and then frowns.

“You did that far too easily,” he announces.

I laugh. “Yeah, I’ve done it a few times.”

A few moments later, after I’ve shown him how to fold the stroller, he heaves it into the bed of the pickup, then I climb into the front seat, he does the same into the driver’s seat, and away we go.

This man is a complete stranger, yet he is tied to me in a way where we will be linked until the day we die. Sitting next to him, I have never felt more comfortable than I do right now. It could be a false sense of security, but I don’t care. I’m going to just accept it for what it is at this point.

All of it.

I’ll worry about any fallout later.