I turned to him. “Because I was under the impression she wasn’t in your life.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, no, that’s my stepmother. My dad married Sandy when I was ten. She always treated me like her own, never like I was a burden. Even when she gave birth to my brother, Wyatt, she never treated me any differently. She’s my mom in all the ways that count.”
I remembered him mentioning his younger brother weeks ago when we had lunch. “So they’re still married?”
A smile lit up his face. “Still madly in love. Now, you’ve seen mine, so show me yours.”
“I think you saw mine last night. Intimately.”
He chuckled at that. “What were you like in high school?”
“Oh.” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. “Well, I can tell you we were in different crowds and probably wouldn’t have been friends.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I was an emo girl.”
His head tilted to the side as he stared at me, then straightened. “I don’t believe it. Proof is needed to believe this whopper.”
I picked my phone up from the counter and pulled up Facebook. After flipping through my photographs, I found the one I was looking for.
Black hair with pink highlights, lip ring, heavy black eyeliner, and black clothes.
“No way. That’s not you,” he said.
“It very much is an embarrassing part of my past.” I pulled the phone away.
After that Thane pulled me into the shower and made good on his number seven promise, and when I could barely stand after, he picked me up and pinned me to the shower wall. He used his cock to pull number eight out of me.
“You win.”
He chuckled against my throat. “I didn’t realize there was something to win.”
“You proved your manliness.”
Once we were dried off, I slipped my dress on but I couldn’t find my thong. My legs shook as I searched the floor.
“Have you seen—”
“You’re not getting it back,” Thane interrupted.
I quirked a brow at him. “A trophy?”
He shook his head. “A token. A reminder of the best night of my life.”
“Best night?”
His eyes were wide as he nodded adamantly. “And I can see each day we are together getting better and better.”
“Sounds like you want to see me again.”
He chuckled and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth as he yanked me against his chest. “Oh, I want there to be no doubt that this was just the beginning. I want to call you mine.” He leaned down and pressed his lips against my neck, working his way up until he was ghosting my lips. “So there is no misunderstanding, I’m going to pretend we are in high school—Roe Pierce, will you be my girlfriend?”
“Since you asked so nicely, I suppose so.”
My heart was beating double time and I was shocked at how easy it felt, how right, to agree. Still, inside the insecurity rumbled, and while I attempted to push it down, I also waited for the other shoe to drop. I wanted to bask in the warmth that filled me when we were together. That safety I’d only ever felt in his arms.
We walked down to my apartment where I changed into some black leggings, a flowing, long-sleeved dusty rose top, and some black booties before throwing my hair up into a ponytail. A quick swipe of some mascara and I topped the look off with an eclectic mix of the few bangle bracelets I had left.
I really wanted to go shopping for replacements.
“How do I look?” I asked, holding my arms out. It was definitely a casual look, and I knew he wasn’t used to seeing me with little to no makeup.
A grin broke out on his face, and he pulled me into his chest. “With every look I decide you can’t get more beautiful, and then you top it.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is barely caring casual.”
“And I love it.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.
The heat made me bow into him. Whenever he did that, I lost all thought.
“Ready?” he asked.
I blinked at him. “Huh?”
“Kinsey?”
I straightened and pulled away from him. “Yes! Now stop being so distracting.”
“Me? Distracting?”
I turned away from him and grabbed my purse. “Yes. With your hypnotizing eyes, your smell-so-good, too-gorgeous-for-your-own-good, sexy-as-fuck self.”
He leaned down and whispered against my ear, “The feeling is mutual, you know. You’ve been distracting me for over a month.”
I reached back, cupping his neck and holding him close, reveling in his presence and drowning in the warm emotions he filled me with.
When we arrived to lunch, an older version of Roe with brown eyes stood from a table. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at me, then back to her daughter.
“Mom, this is Thane. Thane, my mom.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I said, holding out my hand.
She swallowed, seemingly at a loss for words. “Please, call me Linda.”
Kinsey cooed from her stroller, and I leaned over to pick her up. When I straightened, Roe and her mom were whispering to each other, but I couldn’t make out their words due to the noise in the restaurant.
Whatever they said must not have been bad as Linda’s cheeks pinked when she looked back to me holding Kinsey.
Lunch was pleasant, with Linda sharing embarrassing moments of her eldest daughter, including the time she got caught trying to sneak out to see a boy when she was fifteen. She apparently yelled at her mom about having no idea what it was like to be in love.
Roe simply covered her face and shook her head while saying, “I was a teenager!”
Afterwards, we returned to Roe’s apartment and put Kinsey down for her afternoon nap. It was then that I got to see where Kinsey slept.
Roe’s apartment was small, her bedroom tight, and when I entered, there was no crib. I watched her walk through another doorway and followed, surprised to find a decent-sized walk-in closet. At the end, under a window, sat a white crib. The walls around were filled with Roe’s stuff, and I looked back into the bedroom to find she was using her dresser as a changing table. One drawer was partially open, and inside there were lots of tiny clothes.
It was tight, but she managed to make it work. But what happened when Kinsey got older?
A vision of one of my spare bedrooms flashed into my mind, but I pushed it back. We were way too early for that idea. Right?
Once she was down, Roe closed the door to the bedroom most of the way, and we moved out into the main room.
“What now?” she asked.
I took her into my arms and grinned down at her. “I can think of a few things.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped away, flinging herself onto the chaise end of her couch. She tugged at her shoes and tossed them onto the floor, then patted the space next to her.
“Talk? Movie? Game? Which reminds me—why did you get me a PS4?”
I sat down next to her, then pointed to the built-in hutch. “You have a couple of games.”
She nodded. “Good eye. Those are my games. The PlayStation was Pete’s.”
“It plays Blu-rays as well, so it seemed perfect. How long did he live here with you?” I asked. The curiosity had been burning ever since we bumped into him. Knowing Roe the way I did, I was a bit surprised to see who she dated before me. Maybe they were different when they met. After all, I was certain Roe had changed since she took in Kinsey, just as I knew I changed when I found out I was going to be a father—a loss that still hurt seven years later.