17
Pierce
I couldn’t focus with them out in the backyard, laughing and yelling and running around. It wasn’t that the noise was a distraction so much as I’d have rather been out there with them than stuck in my office, reading over briefs and documents until my vision began to blur.
Whatever they were doing back there, they were having a hell of a time, and envy was sinking its claws into my gut.
I glanced out the window, taking in the beautiful sunny day. Maybe it was all in my head, but the grass looked greener than usual, the sky a brighter blue. And here I was, missing it all.
At the sound of Marin’s shriek and, “Eli! You little tooter!” I couldn’t take it any longer. Slapping the file shut, I dropped it onto my desk and clicked save on my computer before pushing out of the chair and starting for the back door.
When I stepped outside, I saw Eli bouncing on the trampoline with the hose in his hand, pointing the spray right at Marin as she tried to run and avoid it.
“I’m gonna get you!” he shouted.
She squealed as he hit her with water. “You’re going to pay for that.” She laughed.
“What’s going on?” I barked, infusing my tone with annoyance. The two of them stopped in their tracks and turned to look at me with trepidation.
“I was getting Mar-Mar with the hose, Daddy.”
A waterlogged Marin pushed her damp hair out of her face. “Sorry. Were we being too loud? We’ll keep it down.”
With my face a hard mask, I stomped toward the trampoline and reached my arm through the opening of the safety enclosure net. “Give it to me,” I said to Eli.
He hesitated, his face falling as he bounced his way toward me and handed me the hose.
As soon as my fingers wrapped around it, I gave him a secretive smile. “If you want to get her good, you have to do it from out here. Watch.”
With that, I took off after Marin, putting my thumb over the stream so it sprayed harder and wider. Her momentary confusion was her downfall. Before she could figure out what was happening, I hit her square in the face with the water, soaking her to the bone.
She sputtered and coughed when I lowered the spray, swiping at her face.
“Get her again, Dad! Get her again!” Eli shrieked from the safety of the trampoline.
Marin narrowed her eyes at me and lifted a finger. “Don’t you dare.”
A slow, wicked smile stretched across my face. “Or what?”
“Or . . .” She took off running and I chased after her. She went straight for the trampoline, diving through the opening of the safety net and grabbing my boy around the waist, holding him in front of her like a shield as I drenched them both.
They were both a soggy mess by the time I was finished, and we’d laughed so hard the muscles in my stomach were tense and spasming.
“Truce, truce!” Marin shouted. “No more!”
“Say ‘Pierce is the best.’”
“Pierce is the best!”
“My dad’s the coolest!” Christ, I loved hearing that.
“All right. Truce. I’ll go shut off the water.”
I dropped the hose and started for the shut-off valve, realizing my mistake almost instantly. But it was too late.
“Eli now!” I heard just before a stream of icy cold water got me right in the back.
“Today was a lot of fun,” Eli said sleepily as he snuggled deeper into his pillow.
“Yeah, bud,” I said softly, brushing his hair back and pressing a kiss to his forehead. “It was, wasn’t it.”
After the impromptu water fight in the backyard, we’d gone inside and dried off. Marin had a change of clothes in the back of her car. The only problem was, they were rehearsal clothes, meaning the shorts were hardly longer than underwear. The only saving grace was the big black hoodie she wore up top. But those mile-long curvy legs were on full display, driving me out of my mind.
Dinner had gone off without a hitch, but when we’d moved into the living room, her legs once again became the only thing I could focus on. We put on one of Eli’s favorite movies, but while they stared at the screen, I’d stared at her legs from the corner of my eye. She’d been sitting against the arm of the sofa, curled up in a dainty little ball, and all I could think was: I wonder what she’d feel like if I pulled her against me. Would she feel as soft as I imagine? Would she fit against me as perfectly as I think she would?
Those thoughts were interrupted when it came time to get Eli showered and into bed for the night.
Before we headed upstairs, my son climbed into Marin’s lap to give her a hug goodnight.
“Night, Cool Guy. I’ll see you Monday, okay?”
I felt a sudden uncomfortable pang in my gut at the realization that I was about to go two days without seeing her. Today was Friday, meaning I’d be home for the weekend, so Eli wouldn’t need a sitter.
“Okay, Mar-Mar. Love you.”
I saw her eyes go wide for just one second before they squeezed closed and she held him even tighter. “I love you too, sweetheart,” she said, her voice taking on a throatiness alluding to the emotion she was feeling just then.
And I wasn’t immune. Not. At. Fucking. All.
There was a sensation in my chest, hearing my son tell this woman he loved her, that made it hard to breathe. A crushing weight rested there, creating a pressure I didn’t know what the hell to do about.
The only people who’d ever gotten that from him were me and my mother. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel about this, but I couldn’t help but love the fact that my boy had another person in his life to give that gift to.
Now he was lying beside me in his bed after I’d read through two books, sleeping like the dead, and the woman who now had a special place in my boy’s heart was downstairs, waiting for me just like she’d promised she would before I’d headed upstairs.
After that night on the deck, everything had changed. I’d come to a decision. I was done trying to ignore my attraction to her or will it away. To hell with Frank, and to hell with my mother’s opinion of her. Maybe if I just gave in, I could eventually work her out of my system.
I might not have it in me to give myself to another woman as completely as I had with my wife, but for as long as it worked for us, for as long as she’d let me, I could at least give Marin what I had left. That was, if she wanted it. And Christ, I prayed she wanted it.
As it was, I couldn’t get the woman out of my head. The other night was just the first of many times I’d jacked off with Marin’s face on the backs of my eyelids, and I was tired of fighting it.
I knew she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her. I’d seen it written on every inch of her face. Hope spread through my chest as I pressed a kiss to my boy’s forehead, whispering, “I love you all the way to the farthest darkest star in the galaxy and back,” before I headed back down toward the living room.
She was in the same place she’d been when I’d left her twenty minutes earlier, still curled into that ball, but I got the sense that it was now more for protection than comfort like it had been earlier.
At some point, Titan had commandeered my spot and was now stretched out across the other cushions with his head near Marin’s lap as she slowly dragged her fingers over his head.