Page 71 of I Wish You Were Mine

“No, Daddy, noooo!” She dissolves in a fit of giggles as I bring her down for a kiss.

Maren is at my side, smiling up at us. The wind sends Katie’s hair flying. My heart is full inside my chest.

I get this feeling. A weird, wonderful sense that I’m exactly where I should be. There is no anxiety here. No doubts. No bad news. Only a joyful sensation coursing through my body.

I lean into it. I set Katie down, and then Maren and I are taking off again, Katie a giggling mess on our heels. I let her catch me. Maren ducks and weaves, but Katie catches her too.

We play tag up and down the beach. When Katie gets tired of that, we search for seashells. When she gets hungry, we hop in the golf cart and hit up a little hot dog stand right off the beach for lunch.

On the drive home, Katie falls asleep in Maren’s lap. We decide to keep driving, the weather too perfect to go home. I drive to the marsh. Katie wakes up and the three of us head onto a dock where my dad sets out crab traps. We spot a bald eagle. An alligator. Several turtles, which of course has Katie asking us to go to the turtle conservancy here on the island.

“Why not?” Maren says with a shrug when I ask her if she’s up for it.

We do the conservancy. After that, it’s a quick trip to the grocery store. I buy the ingredients for pasta, figuring Maren could go for some comfort food. I could too.

At home, I make a big-ass tray of ziti while Maren and Katie do a puzzle on the family room floor. The smells of garlic and rosemary fill the house.

Pasta turns out great. I keep telling Maren she doesn’t have to stay, that she can go home and put her feet up if she needs to. But she stays. Insists on helping with bath time, and then bedtime too.

“Can we all snuggle in my bed?” Katie asks.

Clearing my throat, I pull the covers up to her chin. “I’ll snuggle with you.”

“No, I want Mare to snuggle too.”

“Katie—”

“It’s all right,” Maren says. “How about we make a Katie sandwich?”

That’s how the three of us end up smushed together on Katie’s twin bed. I’m uncomfortably close to Maren, our gazes meeting over Katie’s head on her pillow.

Sorry,I mouth.

Maren gives her head a little shake. Girl’s a fucking trooper. She’s gotta be exhausted after a very full day, but she still has the patience to indulge my daughter.

And Squish? She’s besides herself with both of us here. Glances from me to Maren and back again as I readGoodnight Moonfor the five hundredth time with a big smile on her face.

Can she smell Maren’s perfume? Does she notice the way Maren’s eyelids flutter as she fights sleep?

I’m dying.

I’m also . . . weirdly, absurdly content?

“Can we snuggle together every night?” Katie asks when I turn out the light.

I glance at Maren, but she keeps her gaze averted as she putsGoodnight Moonback on the bookshelf by the door.

I tell myself Katie just loves having the full attention of two adults. Any kid would. She’s not stuck on those adults being Maren and me, together.

Bullshit.

I lean in and kiss Katie’s forehead. “I love you.”

“Goodnight, Daddy. Goodnight, Mare. Goodnight, moon.”

“Can you even stand the cuteness?” Maren whispers after I shut the door behind us.

“I can’t.” Just like I can’t stand keeping my hands to myself right now. Maren’s ass looks biteable in those shorts. And the sleepy, sated look in her eyes... what I wouldn’t give to take her to my bed right now. I don’t want this day to end, so I’d fuck her slowly. Thoroughly. Make both of us forget the bomb that was dropped on our lives.

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