AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s Nigel. I need to take this.”
She wandered off with Penelope and answered her phone, needing a reminder of where and what her life was.
In New York.
With Nigel.
Chapter6
Sullivan watched the new puppy tumble over the grass at Rick and Sloane’s, trying to keep up with their dogs. The female he’d fallen in love with was a black Labrador and he and Finn had already settled on the name Licorice.
It was impulsive to get a dog. Very impulsive.
But he felt like he’d been ignoring his gut for a long while now. His gutandhis feelings.
He’d been afraid to open up emotionally, to feel anything, for fear of getting hurt. He hadn’t processed his grief, he knew that. It was time to stop trying to look away every time it rose up from his gut and squeezed him by the throat.
He felt better and lighter and more optimistic than he had in a very long time.
Eddie was on her knees in the grass beside all the dogs, enticing them with a pull toy and smiling and laughing. Her clothes looked far too sophisticated and expensive for playing with slobbery dogs, but she looked like she was having a great time. That origami shirt definitely both confused him and turned him on, but he was working hard on tamping down all of his lustful thoughts.
He was only half successful fifty percent of the time.
She had spent the entire day with him and Finn, eating kettle corn, climbing on the fire truck with Finn, going shopping for supplies for Licorice. She did tap away on her phone frequently, texting someone or multiple someones, but she didn’t retreat to the apartment to work like he’d suspected she would.
Sullivan had a feeling he wasn’t the only one who had refused to be honest with himself. He suspected Eddie wasn’t as happy as she proclaimed to be. Whether that was her relationship or her career, he had no idea. Or maybe it was just melancholy for the small town she’d spent her early years in. Whatever it was, he was enjoying seeing her let down her guard and have fun at Sloane and Rick’s cookout.
Sloane’s dog jumped on Eddie’s chest, knocking her backwards.
“Are you okay?” he asked, taking a few steps forward, a beer in one hand, the other outstretched to help her off the grass.
She was laughing as the dog licked her face. “I’m fine. Oh my goodness, stop. No kisses, please. I know where your tongue has been.”
Sullivan nearly bit his own tongue off in an effort to not say something flirtatious.
He would behave himself if it killed him. Which it might. Eddie had no idea how beautiful she looked right now, her long dark hair tumbling down her back, her pale skin taking on a hint of color after a day in the sun, her midriff exposed. He wanted to see and feel her naked body. He wanted to slide his tongue over every inch of her and coax moans of pleasure from her. He wanted to bury his—
“Hey, look what I found,” Sloane said, coming out the slider door from the kitchen, waving a framed photo in her hand. “Your old team photo.”
Sullivan drained his beer bottle and put the empty dew-covered glass to his forehead. The sun and his own dirty thoughts were going to give him a stroke.
“No,” Eddie groaned. “Please make that disappear. I look like a boy in that photo.”
“Let me see,” Sullivan said, curious. He had an image of Eddie in his head, and he wanted to see if his memory matched up with reality.
“Sullivan, no. Seriously.”
He took the photo from Sloane anyway and immediately spotted Eddie. She was taller than ninety percent of the players so she was in the back row, grinning widely. The other boys on the team were all trying to look rough and tough, faces solemn, but she was smiling like she couldn’t contain herself. Like she loved hockey and knew she kicked ass at it.
“You do not look like a boy. You look like a smug starter.”
“What’s that?” Finn asked, coming over with Licorice in his arms.
Finn tried to grab the photo out of Sullivan’s hands.
“Buddy, stop.” The many joys of parenthood. Children just approaching you and yanking anything and everything out of your grip because they wanted to be involved. “You can’t hold the dog and the picture. Just look at it while I hold it. It’s my old hockey team.”
“Oooh,” Finn said. “Where are you, Daddy?”
