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So full of need, I beg him to fuck me. He makes a noise in his throat like he’s not done yet, but I tell him that I need him insideme,now. He looks joyfully dazed as he lifts his head up from between my legs, swipes a hand quickly over his mouth, and moves up over me.
His firm muscles kiss my curves as he settles against me, and when he reaches down and guides himself inside me, we both moan with pleasure and relief.Yes. This is right. This is how things are meant to be. As he rolls his hips, driving into me with deep strokes, he presses hot kisses to my lips and I revel in how good it all feels. My whole body feels so good. Myheartfeels so good.
I think we really might have a chance of making it after all.
9
THEO
SEVEN YEARS LATER
“Daddy, do you see any good seashells near you?”
I pull my attention away from the sandcastle that Bria and I are building, scanning the sand around me for any shells. All I see are a few broken ones, which are definitely not good enough for my little girl.
“Wait, never mind,” says Bria. “I just found one.”
I look up and watch as she presses the seashell she just found into place on one of the towers of our castle. I shake my head with amazement as I take in all of the details she’s added to her side.
“How did you even make that?” I ask my daughter, gesturing to the arches and spiraling steps she somehow constructed.
Bria giggles. “I don’t know. I just had fun.”
Six years ago, after Lindsey and I got married and were starting to talk about having kids, I was nervous that they might end up being more like me than her. And when Bria was born, I freakedout a little, worried that I was going to mess up the whole being-a-dad thing.
But what I soon learned about being a parent is that you just take it a day at a time. It’s okay to not have all the answers. No one does.
“Is that Mom?” Bria asks, squinting across the beach.
I follow my daughter’s gaze and grin. “Yep. Sure is.”
As Lindsey approaches, I feel gobsmacked, for the billionth time, by how beautiful she is. Sometimes I still pinch myself to make sure this isn’t all a dream.
“Here you go, sweetie,” Lindsey says as she hands Bria the sunglasses she asked for from the car.
“Thanks, Mom!”
“You’re welcome. Oh, wow. Look at how much more you’ve already built!” Lindsey sits down to get a closer look at the sandcastle, rubbing a hand over her pregnant belly as she gets settled. After checking out the sandcastle progress, she looks up and our eyes meet. “Did you see the drawbridge, Theo?”
I nod. “I know. Crazy.”
Bria announces that she’s going to get some water from the ocean and dances away with one of the bright plastic buckets in hand. I’m watching our daughter go, making sure she isn’t straying too far, when suddenly a panicked thought pops up in my head.
“Wait, what’s the date today?” I ask Lindsey.
“The fifteenth. Why?”
I let out a big sigh of relief. “For a second, I thought I missed our anniversary.”
Lindsey laughs and scoots over to cuddle up next to me. “Nope. Don’t worry, Theo. You didn’t.”
“Do you want to spend it here or up north?” I ask.
Our life is pretty sweet these days. We travel back and forth between Malibu and Peach Ridge so that we can continue to spend time in both places that we love. Lindsey raised her freelance rates and regularly takes time off. I’m a full-time dad, doing the best I can to raise our little girl. Although, honestly, it feels like Bria is the one teachingmethings all the time.
“Hmm.” Lindsey thinks for a moment. “You know what? It doesn’t even matter. As long as I’m with you, I’m happy.”
I grin and lean in to kiss her. “Ditto.”
She kisses me back, slower this time. “I love you, Theo.”
“I love you, too,” I say. “Like…alot.”
Lindsey laughs and kisses me one more time. Then we both look over at our daughter, who’s running back with a bucket full of sloshing water, a bright smile beaming on her face.
I don’t need to be a smart man to know how lucky I am.
