Page 59 of My Single Dad Biker

Holt sets his fork down. "You design it yet?"

"Yeah. I drew it. Want to see?"

"After you finish eating."

Louis shovels another bite in and I watch Holt watch him with that expression that still gets me sometimes. The one that says Louis is the most important thing in his world and always will be.

I'm part of that world now too. Have been for longer than eighteen months but some mornings it still feels new.

"Katherine, are you coming to the hardware store?" Louis asks.

I look at the stack of ungraded papers sitting on the dining room table. Then I look at Louis looking at me like he actually wants me there.

"Yeah," I say. "I'll come."

"Cool. You can help me pick the wood."

"I don't know anything about wood."

"That's okay. Dad does."

Holt's mouth twitches like he's trying not to smile. I kick him gently under the table and his hand finds my knee and stays there.

We finish breakfast and Louis runs upstairs to get his drawing. Holt starts loading the dishwasher and I stand to help but he shakes his head.

"I've got it."

"I can help."

"I know." He loads another plate. "Go get dressed. We'll leave in twenty."

I should argue but I don't. I head upstairs and I'm pulling on jeans when I hear Holt's footsteps in the hallway. He appears in the bedroom doorway and closes the door behind him.

"Louis is in his room," I say.

"I know where Louis is."

He crosses the room and backs me against the dresser and kisses me the way he couldn't downstairs. His hands slide under the t-shirt I'm wearing and I make a sound that's probably too loud.

"We don't have time for this," I say against his mouth.

"I know."

"Louis is going to wonder where you are."

"Let him wonder."

His mouth moves to my neck and I'm about to say something else when Louis yells from downstairs. "Dad! I can't find my drawing!"

Holt pulls back with a look on his face that makes me laugh. "Later," he says.

"Later."

He kisses me once more and then he's gone. I hear him heading downstairs telling Louis to check his desk. I finish getting dressed and look at myself in the mirror and my mouth is swollen and my face is flushed and I look exactly like someone who was just kissed by her husband in the middle of the morning.

I don't fix it.

Downstairs Louis has found his drawing and is showing it to Holt at the kitchen table. I grab my jacket from the hook by the door and Holt looks up.