Page 48 of Playing With Forever

“You know, you’re the first woman of mine Lindy’s met. Sorry, baby, I have no idea the right way to play this. But I’m thinking we just walk out together and deal with whatever we find together.”

I nodded.

“We should do that dressed, baby, so hurry up before your boy comes back here and your door’s not locked.”

Fuck.

“Jeez, Mom, hurry up. I brought everything for buttermilk pancakes, and I’m starved.”

Evan smirked.

“Be right out!”

I was rushing toward the bathroom when Evan called my name. I glanced over my shoulder at him and waited for him to say more. “Breathe, Josie. He’s an adult, and he loves you.”

Both of those things were indeed correct. But Kane was at my house bright and early on a Saturday morning because he was freaked out about what had happened to Sam, which meant he was going to be on edge and short.

Not the best time to be meeting Mom’s new boyfriend.

Good Lord, I was fifty-two with a new boyfriend.

No, I was fifty-two with a smoking-hot new man who fucked like a freight train and made me feel beautiful.

And now he had me using filthy language in my head.

“Do you care that I’m two years older than you?” I asked.

Evan roared with laughter.

“Shhhh!!!!”

“Is there someone in there with you?” Kane yelled.

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “I’m going to kick you in the balls if you don’t⁠—”

“Yeah, Kane,” he called back. “We’ll be out in a minute.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kane angrily shot back.

“Language, Kane Matthew!”

“Seriously, mother, you’re scolding me about my language when I’m standing outside your bedroom door and you’re hiding a man in there?”

Now would be the perfect time for all of those end-of-the-world predictions to come true. Fire, flood, meteor, the second coming of Christ—all of them acceptable ways to end mankind. I wasn’t picky about how the world ended, just that it did—immediately.

“He’s got a point, baby.”

“I think I might vomit,” Kane declared.

“You know what would help with the nausea? Fresh air. Go take a walk around the block.”

“As hilarious as this is, how about you stop yelling at your son through the door and finish getting dressed so I can meet your kid?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna puke. It doesn’t matter the age of the son, hearing a strange man tell his mother to get dressed does bad shit to a man’s stomach.”

“Stop talking!”

“Me?” Kane shouted.