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“Yes,” she said, leaning into him again. “I really want to.” She kissed him this time, and Blake decided she tasted better than any treat anyone, anywhere, could ever make, and that he was the luckiest man in the world that he got to kiss her.
* * *
“Lauren’s here, bud,”he called as he led her into the house. “She brought cookies.” That would get Tommy away from SquareSpaces, though Blake hoped simply having Lauren here would do that.
“Coming!” Tommy yelled from the bedroom. They’d moved his computer in there for now, until Blake could sort through where to put everything permanently. “Two minutes!”
Lauren slid the container of raisin cookies onto the counter and said, “I’ll go talk to him if you want to make coffee.” She lifted her perfectly sculpted eyebrows at him. She’d put on makeup, and she currently wore a pair of tight yoga pants and a sweater the color of bright Granny Smith apples. It hung low over her backside, and Blake pushed it up until his hand ran along the waistband of her pants and the warm strip of skin atop it.
“Mm, how about you kiss me first, and then I’ll make coffee while you go tell him you’re madly in love with me and we’re going to get married.”
Lauren laughed, but when he touched his mouth to hers, she silenced that and kissed him back. She was madly in love with him, and Blake had fallen completely for her too. He forgot about cookies, coffee, and his son until Lauren pulled away and said, “It’s been two minutes. Do you want him to catch us making out again?”
No, Blake didn’t. But he didn’t want to let Lauren get too far from him, physically or emotionally. “All right,” he said. “Decaf? Or do you want the original dark roast?”
“Original,” she said. “I’ll be okay.”
“I’m not working tomorrow,” he said. “Tommy’s not starting at the middle school until Monday.” He opened the cupboard where he kept the coffee filters. “So I can handle the original too.”
“You’re not working tomorrow?” she asked. “Do you want to come over and go over my new client with me?”
He swung his attention toward her. “You got a new client?”
“Just this morning,” she said. “Which is why I didn’t call you back. I had something going on too.” She smiled at him, but it was shy instead of her usual self-confident, gorgeous self. Blake knew her so much better now, and while she didn’t intimidate him, she was strong and opinionated. Some of what had scared him before he now knew to be a front Lauren put on so people didn’t get too close to her.
“That’s amazing, sweetheart.” He kissed her quickly again. “Yes, I’ll come over tomorrow to hear about your new client. I just need to figure out what to do with Tommy.”
“You don’t need to do anything with me, Dad.” Tommy walked toward them, and his frowning look of displeasure melted away as Lauren turned toward him. “Lauren.”
“My darling boy,” she said, and Blake blinked as she left him behind and went to embrace his son. Tommy wasn’t the huggy type, even for Blake and Jacinda, but he let Lauren wrap him right up into her arms and hold him tight. He returned the hug too, his smile wide and his face full of bliss as his eyes drifted closed.
Huh, Blake thought. Lauren was obviously more important to Tommy than Blake knew. Gladness overcame him and spread through him as she stepped back and took his face in her hands. “You’re okay? Your dad hasn’t told me everything, but I was very worried about you two.”
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay.” He looked over to Blake. “My dad took care of everything.” Tommy had thanked him for coming previously. He’d apologized for how things had gone. Blake had told him he didn’t need to do either of those things, not for him. “I’m glad you’re not mad at him. He would’ve been to your date if he could’ve been. He would’ve called if he could’ve.”
Blake turned away then, a vein of humility running through him. Even Tommy could see how much he cared about Lauren, and he remembered he wasn’t hiding it anymore. He loved her, and he didn’t care who knew. He wasn’t going to hold it to himself any longer, and he wanted to climb up onto the roof and shout about his love to the whole island.
“Is the pizza here?” he asked.
“No,” Tommy said. “Not that I know of.”
Right then, the doorbell rang, and everyone turned toward the front door. “I’ll get it,” Lauren said, and she strode in that direction. Blake went back to measuring coffee, everything in his life starting to settle again now that Lauren was back where she belonged—with him.
“Blake,” she said at the same time Tommy said, “Mom?”
He spun toward the door, beyond surprised to see Jacinda standing on the doorstep. She wasn’t crying, but Blake abandoned the coffee anyway, the way she wrung her hands concerning enough for him.
She never came here, and Blake was surprised she knew the address. “What are you doing here?” he asked as he reached Lauren’s side. They both looked at Jacinda, waiting for her to say something.
29
Lauren threaded her fingers through Blake’s as he looked at his ex-wife. “Jacinda,” he said, moving forward. Lauren let him go, a sudden wave of self-consciousness moving through her. She hadn’t recognized the woman, but how could she? Blake didn’t keep pictures of her on his mantle or anything.
It hadn’t been until Tommy had said, “Mom?” that Lauren had realized who she was. She’d been upset since the moment Lauren had opened the door, and she’d asked for Blake. That was what Lauren knew. She still didn’t know the full story of what had happened on Carter’s Cove two days ago, and she honestly wasn’t sure she needed to know.
Blake loved her; Tommy had hugged her. They wanted her in their lives, whether they were good, bad, or ugly, and Lauren wanted to be there.
For this too, she told herself.
