“You’re not a mother,” she pointed out.
“I’m a father.”
“Not the same.”
I just looked at her. “All right. Well, you think this spiral is gonna last a while, or…”
She snickered and pushed her foot out of my hand so she could nudge my thigh with it again.
“As much as I wanna stay up with you, baby,” I said, soaking in her smile. “It’s been a long fuckin’ week, and we both need to get some rest before we run the gauntlet tomorrow.”
“You just told me it was going to be fine,” she shot back in exasperation, pushing up on her elbow.
Reaching out, I tugged her toward me. She made awoofnoise as she landed flat on the bed and looked up at me in surprise.
“It’s gonna be fine,” I reiterated slowly. “I was teasin’.”
“Okay.”
“Now, you wanna cuddle or do our own thing?”
“Does it matter?” she said dryly. “Even if we start out on our own edges, we keep ending up in the middle of the bed.”
My lips twitched. I thought she’d missed that since I’d been getting out of bed while she was still asleep in the mornings. I hadn’t even realized I was doing it, and I’d felt like shit the first morning, but then I’d realized that I hadn’t woken up on her side of the bed. We’dbothgravitated toward the middle.
“Well,” I said, gesturing for her to move.
There was something about the way she turned her back and waited for me to move in that hit me straight in the gut. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I fitted my body against hers, pushing my top leg forward so that it rested in the bent angle of her knee. It was the first time I’d done it deliberately, and it felt like a shift.
“Good?” I asked quietly.
“Good,” she replied, her voice barely audible.
I kissed the back of her head and closed my eyes, but I didn’t find sleep for a long time.
Chapter 8
Teddy
“Jesse,” I called,racing out of the bathroom and through the bedroom, “Did you find your shorts—oof!” I slammed into Curtis’s chest as we met in the doorway.
“Mellow,” Curtis ordered, his hands that had caught me at my hips moved to the sides of my neck. “We can show up whenever. There’s no rush.”
“I haven’t unpacked everything yet,” I replied, looking past him at the empty hallway beyond. “Finn got his sneakers soaked yesterday, and I had to go through all his stuff before I found his other pair this morning. He put on two different outfits that didn’t match, and I had to make him change. We washed Jesse’s hair last night, but we’re out of their curl cream, and three different stores didn’t have it, so we had to order online, and it won’t get here until tomorrow, but I don’t have time to braid it so I have no idea what they’re going to do—”
“Mellow,” Curtis said again, running his thumbs up the sides of my throat. “Jesse’s hair looks good. Finn is wearing blue shorts and a striped shirt that match fine. Everyone has their shoes on, and they’re all hangin’ out downstairs for you to finish up.”
“Oh,” I said, letting out a long breath. “Okay.”
“You always get like this when you’re stressed out?”
I pulled my head back in surprise. “No.”
Normally, if things were going sideways, I got laser-focused. I was usually the calm in the center of the disorganized, tardy,messy storm.Someonehad to be clearheaded, and since I was the grownup, that person was me.
“What do you still need to do?” he asked gently, looking me over.
“Find my black sandals and finish my makeup,” I replied. “Oh, and grab the pasta salad from the fridge.”
