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“Okay, but when I went in there this morning, your phone charger and ChapStick were still on the nightstand,” Cleo asked with a little frown.
“Yup. Yes.” Brody nodded. “That’s… that’s a good point. With an easy explanation…” He gave me a hopeful look.
“Because we haven’t had time to move things,” I interjected smoothly. “Simple as that. Brody’s so busy with his classes and your school, and I’ve been so busy at work, that we haven’t had time to go through the whole process of moving his, uh… ChapStick,” I finished uncertainly.
Jacey giggled behind her hand, and even Brody’s eyes were alight with laughter.
“Oh.” Mia sounded relieved. “So you’ll do it this weekend, then?”
Brody’s smile died, and he looked at me wide-eyed, but I didn’t have a single good excuse why we couldn’t…
My brain was far too full of all the reasons I really wished wecould.
“Yes. We will,” I agreed hoarsely. My lips tingled just from saying the words. “From now on, Brody and I will share a bedroom like other married couples. No problem at all.”
Now it was Brody’s turn to mouthSorryat me, which was almost comical. There was no world in which Brody Kelly needed to be sorry for coming to my bed.
“Oh, phew,” Cleo said with a relieved smile. “I thought maybe you were mad at Brody like the time you were mad at me for breaking Mia’s night-light and said I couldn’t sleep over in her room anymore.”
I met Brody’s eyes across the room. “No, sweetheart. I’m not mad at Brody. Quite the opposite, actually.” I tugged at my shirt collar, but remembering Gwen’s words earlier, I forced myself to meet his eyes and said decisively, “I’mhappyto have Brody share my room.”
Tension filled the room as the blush on Brody’s cheeks streaked down his neck. His eyes held mine for a beat, then two, giving me a look I couldn’t quite identify but which made my breath catch in my throat even so.
“S-same,” he said in a rough voice, and though he addressed himself to my daughter, his eyes never moved from my face. “I like your dad, Cleo. A lot. That’s why I married him. I’mveryhappy to share his room.”
Is he saying…? Does he mean…?
Had Gwen actually been correct about this? Did Brody want me the way I wanted him?
Christ, what was I prepared to do about it if he did?
I was terrible with relationships and emotions. That hadn’t changed. No one but Liza had ever put up with me for long, and in the end, she, too, had become so frustrated with me not being considerate enough, supportive enough, or emotionally aware enough as a partner that she’d been ready to end our marriage even before I’d begun exploring my sexuality.
But if Brody wanted to kiss me, was I going to refuse him?
One look at his face made my stomach clench with excitement and nerves, and I knew in that moment that I absolutely wouldn’t.
Mia hopped in place on her sofa cushion. “Yes, but do youlooooveeach other?”
“Mia!” Cleo groaned. “Gross!”
Mia giggled so hard she flopped onto her side and began chanting, “Brody and Daddy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” until Cleo bopped her over the head with a couch cushion.
Now Brody’s wasn’t the only face bright red with embarrassment. Thankfully, the girls were too distracted to ask any more questions.
“Hush,” I told them sternly. “Only one story left before it’s time to calm down and get in bed.”
They fell quiet eventually, and I kept reading, but I could feel Brody’s eyes on me the entire time, and I tried very hard not to think about how, shortly aftertheirbedtime, it would be time formeto get inmybed… and for the first time in years, I would not be going alone.
I could guarantee there would be nothing calm about that.
6
BRODY
He wants me. Oh god, he wants me.
Does he? Maybe I misread the situation.
