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Wren
“Mommy...”
One soft whisper in my ear, and my eyes flew open. I immediately regretted it, though. I wasn’t hungover, but my room was way too bright, and the sunlight stung my tired eyes. I’d gone to bed with closed curtains, but they hadn’t stayed that way.
“Mommy!” Tiny hands gently patted my cheeks, and I opened my eyes more carefully. Round, amber eyes—a shade lighter than mine—and an upturned, button nose filled my vision. My favorite way to wake up.
“Hi, baby buddy.” I smoothed my hand over my son’s wild, copper curls. “Is it time for me to wake up?”
“Wake up time,” he replied, tugging on my blankets. “Come on!”
“Are you hungry?”
He shook his head. “No. I ate already.”
“Did you?” I grabbed his hand, which was still just a bit sticky from his breakfast, and nibbled on his finger. “Can I eat you then? I’m starving.”
He dissolved into giggles and denial. I pulled his thirty-pound body into bed with me so I could tickle his tummy and grab a few snuggles before he ran away. Ezra was sweeter than most freshly turned three-year-olds I’d met, but he still contained a fully charged battery run by miniature Tasmanian devils. He would lie next to me and give me the cuddles both of us required to start our day right, but only for so long. Then he’d be out of here, charging up and down the stairs, running in circles around Aunt Jenny’s cats, Lyle and Lovett, and cooking up plans to overthrow kingdoms and governments. That was, until seven thirty every night, when he passed out as soon as his head hit his pillow.
“Ezra! I told you to let Mommy sleep.” Great-Aunt Jenny rushed into the room, her cheeks rosy. “Sorry, Birdie-girl. Your child is a slippery one. I figured you could use some extra sleep after your exciting night, but the second I turned around to wash some dishes, little Houdini made his great escape.”
Ezra climbed onto my chest and tucked his head under my chin. “I missed you,” he cooed. This kid could’ve broken my favorite vase right in front of me and gotten away with it if he used that voice. The most dangerous part of him was he knew he had me wrapped around his pudgy finger. Three-year-olds should never wield that much power.
When I was nineteen and pregnant, alone, depressed, and so distraught, some days, I didn’t think I’d survive to see the next sunrise, it would have helped more than anything to view a snippet of what life would be like as a mother. Not that it was easy. It wasn’t, and that was okay. Loving this boy,myboy, made those early days fade away. I lost a lot when I got pregnant with Ezra, but none of them were more monumental than what I gained. It took me a while to see that, but once I realized it, that sureness seeped into my bones, and I never doubted it once.
“It’s okay.” My fingertips trailed up and down his back. “I’m not that tired. I should get up anyway.”
Jenny leaned against the doorframe. At fifty-four, she hardly fit the image of a great-aunt, but she was the youngest of my great-grandparents’ children by ten years. A true ‘oops’ baby. She was my mom’s aunt, but they were only six years apart, so they grew up more like cousins.
When I was a kid, and I guess even now, I wished Jenny had been my mom. She was the cool aunt who traveled and dated and always wore beautiful clothes. She’d been married young to a police officer who was killed in the line of duty before their second anniversary. She never had children, but she’d taken a special shine to me from the start. She said it was because I was the only one of her nieces and nephews who’d inherited the Macallan copper hair like her.
Whatever the reason, she took me in, no questions asked, when I was pregnant with Ezra, and had supported me in almost every way since. Thanks to money from her late husband, I’d been able to attend college too.
She still traveled and dated and wore beautiful clothes, but now, she had a twenty-two-year-old and a preschooler to come home to.
“Good, get up and tell me every single detail.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “You don’t look much worse for wear, so it couldn’t have been too fun.”
Ezra was beginning to get restless, but he stayed put when I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a gentle squeeze.
“It was interesting. We’ll have to talk during n-a-p time.”
Jenny’s eyebrows popped up. “Oh boy. If something happened that’s not appropriate for little ears, it must be delicious.”
Ezra raised his head. “What’s delicious?”
I grinned at his parted rosebud lips and excited eyes. This kid didn’t miss a single thing. “Your cheeks are what’s delicious.” I growled against his cheeks, giving him a gentle nibble. That got him going, flailing to get off me and dart from the room.
Jenny slowed him by grabbing his arm. “Go take a shower. I’ll guard this miscreant with my life.” Her voice faded as my son pulled her down the hallway and rattled on about the castle he wanted her to build for him with his wooden blocks.
After I rolled myself out of bed, I ducked into the shower. Under the warm water, I turned my mind back to last night. It hadn’t been a dream, even though it had felt like I’d been in a trance. The whole evening had been otherworldly, but the moment Callum Rose tugged me into his lap, I was someone else.
I was seventeen again, breathless with excitement after witnessing a stunning performance by the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I was eighteen and enthralled by the man behind the screen. I was nineteen and so head over heels, I would have given myself to Callum Rose if he’d asked.
The reality was, I was a twenty-two-year-old single mom who’d dry humped my teenage fantasy in front of a lot of people. I cringed at myself, but only a little. I’d been at a sex party after all. If anything, I probably should have been embarrassed I didn’t get naked and swing from a chandelier. Dry humping had to be considered tame in that crowd.
I scrubbed my scalp hard in hopes I could cleanse my brain a little too. My mind was far too jumbled to even attempt to make sense of what had happened last night.
Once I dried off, I threw on an oversized sweater and a pair of leggings and made my way downstairs with a basket of laundry tucked under my arm. Ezra leaped up from his place on the carpet with Jenny and dashed to the basement door.
