Page 10 of Never Too Late

God.

If just him saying my name gave me such a reaction, would I even survive a kiss from him?

“I will,” Dylan answered to whatever Mrs. McConnell said to him, and then he turned to me. I got lost in his brown eyes. “See you around, Sophie?”

Another shockwave, another knee-weakening pulse.

“See you around, Dylan,” I answered breathlessly. His look changed for a second. The dark blue circle that was on the outer side of his irises expanded for a millisecond before he shook his head and turned. I could swear there was even a hint of hunger in it, but the look was so fleeting I couldn’t tell for sure.

As I watched him walk away, his movements almost graceful, I heard whispered in my ear, “You can stop drooling, darling.”

The two of them walked away cackling at my expense. They were good at that. But I didn’t move.

I stayed where I was and watched Dylan walk away.

And I couldn’t help myself. The whole time I wished he was mine.

4

Dylan

I could still feel the taste of rage in my mouth. Even days after laying my eyes on her.

Fuck!

Stopping my car, I leaned my head a little and could see a long line of cars, all waiting to pick up their kid. It was probably the first time ever I was grateful for the eager soccer mommies who have probably waited an hour already so they could be one of the first cars in the line and be able to give smug and judgmental looks to all other parents. It gave me the time to try to temper down the anger that only seeing Sophie was able to send sailing through me.

Fuck, not even a call from my ex the day before was anything close to doing that.

And she was testing my patience for months now.

I had to tamp it all down. Zara didn’t deserve to be on the other end of it.

But no matter how hard I tried, Sophie’s stunned face kept popping back out in my mind and I would be on the rage road all over again.

Fuck, the woman was beautiful. When we were kids, she was stunning, and I knew that beauty would only increase with age. I wasn’t wrong. And that too made me mad. I wanted to know if there was a man who enjoyed all that beauty and the one that only Sophie could give. And that too raged within me.

It was like I was on a merry-go-round. Just spinning in a circle, thinking about her and what could be and what was. The only constant was the taste that all that left in my mouth.

I needed to cool the fuck down.

I couldn't believe Sophie decided to stay in Hopeful.

Come here and say goodbye to her only remaining relative, her grandmother, yeah. Hell, even I felt the sting of losing Evelyn Moore, she was a grandmother to me almost as much as she was to Sophie. And just thinking about how ravaged Sophie looked at the funeral made my knees buckle and burn in my gut to intensify. But she was supposed to leave after it.

Maybe take some time to sort the things that needed sorting.

But fucking open up a practice the moment Mrs. McConnell made sure she heard that Hopeful lost its only doctor? No fucking way in hell.

And I knew it was Mrs. McConnell that was behind that little stunt. When she got something in her head, there was no stopping her, and she was on me for years to fly out and “Get our girl back where she belonged”. She wouldn’t listen to any reason. I lost count of how many times I tried to explain to her why things ended up like they did. And toward the end, even Evelyn got on her bandwagon and went after me. It was only when I had Zara with me, that I got any relief from their nagging. It didn’t sit well with me when Evelyn started hounding me, saying it was time to get my head out of my ass, but it was none of my business. Sophie and I were over for almost two decades and there was no turning back.

It took me years to get my shit well enough together and to try to live at least a semblance of a normal life. And it took me more years to meet a woman and settle down, make a family with.

With my luck, it was the wrong woman I chose, again. This one, great in bed but wasn’t all that interested in having a family. I did get my daughter Zara out of that mess, though, so I couldn’t regret even a single moment I spent with Cindy, my ex-wife.

Cindy, damn.

She was gorgeous, long legs, big tits, and fucking great hair. We dated six months before we got married and another two years before she decided that whole “gig” just wasn’t for her. It was just after Zara turned one that one day, when I got back from work, I found all her stuff gone and a note saying that Zara was at Mrs. McConnell’s.