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He laughs. “Yeah...I was gonna change. I just thought I’d ask first.”
“Yes, we want to go,” Sophie says in her most polite voice. She glances up at me. “Thank you for extending the invitation.”
I have no idea where she got that from, but I think I’d better make sure my aunt’s books are hidden away.
“Yes,” I say with a smile. “Thank you for extending the invitation.”
Caleb turns to Henry. “I understand you’ve got something you want to build?”
My heart flutters as Henry nods, serious but hopeful.
“Should we start on it tomorrow?”
Henry nods again. A shadow of a smile graces the corners of his mouth. I’m pretty sure my heart is going to burst.
31
LUCIE
The next evening, Henry and Caleb start to build the robotic arm. I didn’t think it was possible for Caleb to become more attractive to me, but watching him work with my son so patiently is an unbelievable aphrodisiac.
“If you keep looking at me like that,” he says quietly, when the kids run down to the water, “I’m going to yank you off that chair and turn this into an uncomfortable evening for everyone.”
I laugh, pressing my palms to my suddenly warm face.
He gives a low groan. “Don’t blush either. You have no idea what it does to me when you blush like that.”
“I’m not sure I can control the blushing.”
“For the love of God,” he begs, “try.” The desperation and command in his voice has me clenching my thighs together...and wishing we didn’t have to wait for the weekend to be alone. I want to put the kids to bed tonight and pull him into my room seconds later. I want to wake up with him. I want everything, and I’ve wanted everything from him...since we began, but it’s too early to say it aloud. He hasn’t spent twodecades daydreaming about me the way I have him. He’s barely had two months.
He and Henry make good progress on the arm, and Henry starts putting the unfinished sections back in the box.
“Can you come to my show?” he asks Caleb.
I swallow a lump in my throat. I can’t think of another time in my life when I’ve heard Henry ask someone other than me and Sophie foranything. He refuses to speak up when he’s hungry, when he’s thirsty, when another kid cuts in line.
But now, with Caleb, he’s asking.
Caleb bites his lip as he looks at me. “When is it?”
“June twenty-second.”Please don’t say no to this, Caleb, I plead silently.Please. You can’t imagine how much it matters.
He nods, but his smile is slightly forced. “I’ll put it on the calendar.”
He still doesn’t want us to count on him, but maybe these are just growing pains. Maybe this is how he’ll learn it’s not as hard as it seems to balance work and family.
I really, really hope that’s what it is.
OVER MY LUNCH BREAK, I meet Molly at the BMW dealership, where she’s left her car to get the mirror fixed. I’ve somehow refrained from pointing out this was the perfect chance to ask her boss for a ride.
“We need to make a pit stop on the way to my office,” she says. “This lingerie store has a going-out-of-business sale. I need something for my first date with Michael.”
She has enough lingerie for the entire state to go on a first date with Michael at this point.
“You’ve got to make this fast,” I say, turning toward the store she pointed out. “Unlike you, I’m not such a valued member of my organization that I can leave for as long as I want.”
“Unlike me, however, youarefucking your boss. I bet that gives you all the long lunches you want.”
