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Despite how messy of a child Jamey was, Jenny always did a spectacular job of cleaning up after him and making sure he helped her with his messes, so as I found myself pacing the kitchen, there wasn’t much to do. The dishes were done and put away, a final load running in the dishwasher. In the distance, I could hear the laundry tumbling in the dryer. The countertops were spotless, save for the plate with half-eaten carrots and dipping pot of ranch, so I figured I’d start there.
Wiping the soggy carrots into the hidden trash can, I noticed it was almost full to the brim. Perfect. Another job I could do.
I left the plate and the dipping pot in the sink and tugged the strings of the trash bag until it closed. “Jamey!” I shouted, lifting the bag out. “I’m just taking the trash out, I’ll be back in a minute!”
“Okay!”
As I stepped out the front door, I noticed that the sky had turned mostly dark, with only a low-level blue light remaining. Soon, it’d be pitch-black and the streetlights would come on, casting the neighborhood in a warm glow that could only be described as suburban.
Lifting the lid of the trash can, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. I followed it, tracking the movement as a head of brown hair bobbed behind the blue Nissan Altima, heading toward the mailbox at the end of her driveway.
She appeared behind the back of her car, keys in hand, not even giving me a passing glance. That must be the new neighbor, I thought to myself. Her long hair swayed behind her as she walked, moving back and forth along the small of her back. She was of average height, her slender frame covered only by a pair of lounging shorts and a tank top, definitely not the right clothes for the slight chill in the air, but my god, she looked like heaven in them.
I watched as she unlocked her mailbox and sorted through the letters, her bare feet planted on the asphalt of the road. She was almost mesmerizing to look at—stark blue eyes that I could see even from where I stood, a button nose, full lips. She didn’t seem to notice me, and somehow, that made her all the more enticing. My blood pressure dipped, my mind getting the better of me and sending blood where it didn’t belong. My cock twitched to life as my eyes followed her, zeroing in on that pretty mouth and the perfect body beneath it. What I would give…
No. You don’t want to go down that road again.
I truly didn’t. I didn’t need the stress of that in my life. But from what I’d heard, she worked from home. Someone in the Facebook group had said she ran her own business and had recently started after a string of babysitting jobs as well.
No. That would be insane, right? I didn’t even know her. I couldn’t imagine a stranger watching after my son. But she was next door, and she was beautiful, though that shouldn’t matter. That couldn’t matter. I could keep that separate if she agreed.
She looked up from her handful of mail as she came up the driveway, her bright blue eyes catching on me. She stopped dead in her tracks, as if she could sense every ounce of attraction I already felt for her.
Salvation.
Chapter 2
Sophie
Friday
The drive to want something you don’t have can be absolutely fucking maddening. Hence why I had a glass of Chardonnay clutched between my fingers, a lipstick stain already smeared across the edge of the rim.
The back of my heel slid on and off, clacking against the floor as I tapped my foot along to the beat of the pop song playing over the speakers of the bar. “I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” I mumble, staining the glass once more.
“You don’t? What? How?” Lisa’s brown eyes narrowed, her bobbed, blonde tresses flying about her head as she shook it. “Sophie. You’re twenty-six. And single. And hot.”
I rolled my eyes and glanced around the room, no longer feeling entirely comfortable looking at her. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I can’t believe you want to throw that all away by having a goddamn baby,” she scoffed, the ice in her glass tinkling as she stirred her mixed drink.
“Having a child doesn’t negate any of that.”
“Oh, it absolutely does,” she refuted, that tiny bit of venom hiding just beneath the surface of her words. God, I loved her, but she could be so intense sometimes. “Who am I supposed to go out with if you have a crying, shitting, bundle of ‘joy’ in your arms? You’ll leave me behind.”
I looked back at her, my gaze flat. She was so dramatic. “Don’t be absurd, Lisa. Babysitters exist.”
“For newborns?”
Another annoyed stare from her, another stain on my glass as I sipped. “I mean, yeah. I wouldn’t use one right away but…”
Lisa groaned as she leaned back in her seat, her tiny frame slipping down the leather booth, her lower lip pouting. Was she really using the puppy dog look on me? She hadn’t done that since we were kids.
“I know you’re not as annoyed as you seem,” I cooed, the edge of my lips tilting up in a smirk.
She sighed exasperatedly. “Well yeah, I am annoyed. I know you’ve always wanted to be a mom, but now? Really? We’re in our mid-twenties, for Christ’s sake!”
I reached across the table and took her perfectly manicured hands into mine. “I’ve thought about it a lot, dingus. I know what I want. I’m ready. I’m successful, I have a home, stable income… I’m ready. I don’t need a man to make it the perfect time.” It was true. I had given it a lot of thought. In fact, I’d been thinking about it since I graduated college, and it wasn’t until the last few months that I really felt like I could do it. I ran my own business, I worked from home, it all added up.
