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The cottage is starting to feel like home. In the kitchen, I go to the sink to rinse out Ivy’s milk bottle and as I wash it, I notice that the sink is filling up. I curse internally. It’s clogging. I try all sorts of tricks I’ve gathered over the years to get the water moving. No dice.
Ivy chooses that moment to wake up which pleases me as it means she won’t have a problem sleeping later tonight. Her little face is all scrunched up as I lift her from the crib and pepper kisses all over her.
“Hey, honey,” I coo and it’s not long before she’s grinning and exposing her toothless gums. “Let’s go and sit outside in the grass, it’s a beautiful day.” It’s four in the evening and we have an hour before we have to come back into the house to prepare dinner.
I carry a blanket to sit on and some toys for Ivy. I deliberately keep my gaze averted from Logan’s back door. Ivy and I get comfortable on the blanket, enjoying the warmth of the sun on our skin.
The hour goes by fast and it’s almost time for us to go back into the cottage. Then Logan’s back door opens, and I whip around and catch him strolling toward us with long, strong strides. I wasn’t mistaken that first time we met. He’s freaking gorgeous with a face that is impossible to look away from and hair that just begs to be touched.
He reaches where we are seated and smiles. My panties melt and a throbbing ache forms between my legs. I’m glad that I’m seated. Even Ivy stops playing with her toys to crane her neck at him.
“Hey, sorry I didn’t come around earlier to welcome you guys,” he says, his voice rich and throaty.
“It’s okay, we were fine,” I tell him and scramble to my feet. “We were just about to go back in.”
He glances at Ivy and then back at me. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah—” I start to say and then remember the clogged sink. “Just one thing. The kitchen sink was clogging earlier, and I wonder if—”
“I’ll check it out,” he says even before I finish talking. “I’ll just grab my tools from the house.”
I stare at his fine ass as he walks away, and I can’t help but wish that we had met earlier when I was single and careless. Those days when I was blissfully aware of how terrible a man could betray you.
Not that I’d ever been lucky in love. For years, I’d dated Miles, a guy who had zero ambitions in life and who was happy to survive on what I earned. Everyone saw it except me, and I know it drove my sister insane, but she never showed it. When I finally opened my eyes to what sort of a man he was, Lexi had been super encouraging without making me feel like an idiot for not seeing that Miles had been using me all that time.
“Let’s go get dinner started.” I carry Ivy on one side of my body and the blanket and toys with the other hand.
I move the playpen into the living room and leave Ivy playing there happily while I go to the kitchen to get dinner started. I’m tense knowing that any moment now, Logan will show up. It’s stupid for my heart to beat so fast and for my body to become so hot. He’s just a hot guy out of millions of hot guys walking the streets of LA right now. My life is full, rich, and busy with my daughter.
Okay, maybe not all the time. Sometimes I feel a longing for that elusive special love that everyone seems to find except me.
A knock comes on the door. I inhale sharply. “Come in, the door is unlocked.”
The door swings open and he steps in, holding a toolbox. He pauses at the entrance as if he’s not sure whether to enter or not.
“Come in,” I tell him.
“Thanks.” He walks by the playpen and gives Ivy a small wave. She giggles in response which makes him stare at her quizzically as if she’s a piece of a puzzle which he can’t figure out where it goes.
“You don’t like babies much,” I say when he comes into the kitchen space.
“No, I don’t have anything against them but I’ve never been around a baby,” he says.
“Don’t you have siblings?” I ask him.
“I do but none of them have kids yet,” he says and glances at the sink as if he can’t wait to get started and get out of the cottage.
I gesture at the sink. “Go ahead.”
I continue with my preparations for dinner. I pop the sliced potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and garlic into the oven and place a couple of pork chops on the grill. I’ve cooked more food than I would for myself even taking into account eating the leftovers tomorrow.
