She gave me that typical look I associated with her—the laugh and shake of her head, but this time, it was mixed with her heavy breathing, and it was everything I wanted.
Before she could respond, a knock on the door broke the moment.
“One moment,” I called out. “It’s feeding time.”
“Okay. Be back later,” Jared called from the other side. He had two kids of his own, so he knew the drill.
I stood and took Audrey to burp her as Carina fixed her dress back up. My girl gave a completely unladylike belch and then went back to sucking her thumb.
“We should get going,” Carina said once she was all put together again.
“Okay,” I strapped Audrey into her seat before facing Carina who was trying to give me the proud, I’m-not-effected-by-you look. I shook my head, knowing she was trying to hide behind it, but I wasn’t going to let her anymore. “Let’s talk tonight. I’ll bring home some dinner,” I suggested as I opened the door.
Surprisingly, she nodded as she stepped outside. Jared and Hanna were standing by Laura’s desk, discreetly watching our goodbye. Nosy bastards.
Carina noticed but ignored them and faced me. “I’ll see you at home,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for this morning.”
I froze when she stepped closer, but naturally moved my hands to her waist when she raised on her toes to press a kiss to the corner of my mouth. I was so shocked or else I would have held her to me and taken more than that tiny peck. She stepped back and gave a shy smile, looking behind her to see Jared and Hanna gawking. She brushed them off, gave me one last smile and left.
I looked over to the two still staring. Hanna’s eyes were downcast, and Jared had a brow raised in question.
I adjusted my suit jacket and pulled my shoulders back, feeling about ten feet tall. I smiled like getting a kiss goodbye from Carina was the most natural thing in the world and headed back into my office where I could relive her lips pressed to mine for the rest of the day.
At least until I could get home and get a hell of a lot more than just a peck.
16 Carina
A few days later, I still couldn’t stop reliving every millisecond of my lips pressed to Ian’s. It wasn’t even his full lips, just the corner of his mouth and I was an overheated mess each time the memory slammed into me.
Somehow, I’d been able to avoid him and that conversation he’d wanted to have. I’d been pacing back and forth across my apartment that day waiting for him to come home and instead my phone had buzzed on the coffee table, letting me know he had a meeting he couldn’t miss and would be back late. Then we became ships passing in the night, or at least passing around Audrey’s sleep schedule, which had been extra rough the past couple of days. She’d been pissed about something and kept me up.
So, instead of talking about how I’d almost dissolved into a puddle of lust when he touched me or how I kissed him, he let me sleep while he took some baby shifts.
I knew it had been wrong to kiss him, but I’d seen Hanna watching, and I remembered the fiery burn of jealousy that had consumed me when I’d walked into his office to find them laughing and her holding my baby. I’d needed to make a point.
A laugh tried to bubble up as I realized how damaged I was from Jake leaving me for another person—his friend. Hanna was Ian’s friend. Did he like her more than me?
This time, I did laugh. Could I have sounded any more like an immature girl in high school?
“Carina, what’s so funny?” my Aunt Virginia asked.
I blinked, snapping out of a daze and looked at her tilted head across the table. My aunts had called and suggested we get some lunch out so they could see Audrey and have mimosas.
“She’s probably thinking about the delicious man-meat waiting for her at home,” Aunt Vivian muttered.
“Oh, my goodness, Vivian,” Violet scolded. I gave her a smile of thanks, but she made me want to take it back immediately. “Don’t call her out on her dirty daydreams we all know she’s having. She’s blushing now. If she wants to fantasize in the middle of a restaurant, let the girl have a moment.”
“Nah,” Vivian responded, resting her chin on her hand. “Carina, why don’t you tell us all about your daydreams about Mr. tall, dark, and sexy.”
Virginia shook her head, smiling down at the table, not stopping them, but thankfully, not joining.
“Hell, we know how committed I am to Gloria, and even I find myself wanting to daydream about him,” Vera chimed in.
“Come on, details,” Vivian pleaded. “Just one. How big is he?”
I coughed and did my best to glare at her. She shrugged and finished off her second mimosa.
“All right, you old hags. That’s enough,” Virginia finally stepped in.
“Thank you, Aunt Virginia.” I could always count on her to save me.
However, I could also count on her to call me out on the serious topics. “All jokes aside, what’s going on with you two?” she asked.
Keeping my eyes glued to my plate, I went for innocence. “Nothing.” It wasn’t a lie. Nothing was going on between us. We were surviving together, but the more accustomed we became to our situation, the more opportunities arose.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “What do you want going on between you two?”
I peeked up from under my lashes at four sets of blue eyes staring back at me, and I knew I wasn’t getting out of this.
“I don’t know. Honestly. Audrey’s all I can focus on right now.”
“Do you want more than the partner you have now?” Violet asked. “Do you care for him?”
“Of course, he’s Audrey’s father.”
“Listen,” Vivian cut in. “You can have a kid with someone, and not care about them, trust me.” Vivian had a son from her first marriage, and he was kind of a douche—like his dad, Vivian’s ex-husband.
I took a deep breath, letting my frustration bubble up. If I could admit my feelings anywhere, it was with these women who helped raise me. “Yes,” I confessed, and once I started, it all boiled out. “We bicker all the time, but it’s like a weird version of foreplay. He provokes me because he likes my bossiness. And he’s so caring and, oh my god, he’s so hot,” I groaned, my hands fisting on the table. “And the further I get from this pregnancy, the more I remember how amazing it was between us, and I swear to god it’s all I can think about some nights.”
Silence met the end of my verbal vomit, and I hesitantly lifted my eyes to find some smirks and smiles.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Vivian gloated.
My shoulders dropped in defeat. Saying it out loud didn’t make it any better than when it was floating around in my head.
“You need to talk to him,” the always sensible Virginia said.
They all nodded, and I wanted to take back the last five minutes so I could keep avoiding the talk Ian and I were barreling toward.
Audrey took that moment to make her presence known from the car seat propped on a highchair, and there was no build-up. She was pissed and wasn’t giving any warning about it. I lifted her out and tried to bounce her. I checked her pants, and nothing was there. We tried to eat, and she wasn’t having it.