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My eyes fell to where Abbie nibbled on her bottom lip, and my dick twitched.
“You’d defend him to everyone,” I added, voice a little husky, “even if you disagreed and even if you thought he was wrong, but when you were alone with him later, you’d let him have it.”
Abbie pressed her lips together, her eyes sparkled in the dark, and before I knew it, I was wriggling closer to the pillow wall.
“You’d do little things without him asking or even knowing about it, just to make his life easier. You’d believe in him even when he didn’t believe in himself. You’d never stop flirting with him in front of his friends because you’d know how good it made him feel. You’d live in yoga pants because you know they drive him wild. You’d kill him with your cooking”—I laughed when she lightly punched my chest—“but he’d love you enough to eat anything you put in front of him and tell you it was delicious.”
Abbie licked her lips, then whispered, “Would I be faithful?”
“Always.”
Her lips curved in a small smile as her lids grew heavy. “Thanks, Will.”
As I brushed hair back from Abbie’s face, her breathing shifted into the slow, even rhythm of sleep. My own pulse eased as exhaustion won against my arousal, and I drifted off, thinking about the kind of boyfriend Abbie thought I would be. Her version of me made me feel more like a man than no amount of sex with other women ever could. Her version was exactly who and what I wanted to be.
“Anytime, babe,” I murmured into the night. “Anytime.”
23
Abbie
Seb stirred before sixa.m., and I switched off the baby monitor and crept downstairs, leaving Will asleep behind me. He always took the morning shift while I did afternoons with the baby but, given that this was the first time in more than a week he’d slept in a real bed, he needed rest more than I did.
Seb’s cries cut off when I opened the door and let a little light flood in from the first glimmers of sunrise. When he saw me leaning in to unzip his sleep suit, his face brightened with his beautiful baby grin. This kid was sunshine in a onesie, all smiles and giggles—unless he was hungry, of course, and he’d be ravenous first thing in the morning. Working fast, I changed him and set him in his bouncy chair while I fixed a bottle and pulled a little pot of stewed fruit from the fridge to add to his baby breakfast cereal.
In the early morning quiet, it was impossible not to think about last night’s conversation. We had talked aboutmaybesandone daysandwhat ifs, but Seb had changed somethingin Will—or maybe the little boy had given Will a reason to embrace a different part of himself—and if I’d never let myself acknowledge that side of him before, I had no choice but to face it now. I’d always told myself Will wasn’t the kind of man who would commit to one woman, but I didn’t believe that anymore. Maybe I never had. Maybe it was a lie I told to protect myself, and it made me wonder if I’d been holding onto a version of me I’d outgrown.
I was snuggled up on the couch, giving Seb his bottle, when Will’s footsteps sounded on the stairs. He yawned as he pulled a hand through his hair, mussed from his pillow, and I ran my gaze over his hard, bare chest, the carved planes of his torso, the long lines of his shoulders and arms. He’d put on a pair of shorts, and I was disappointed he wasn’t still in the boxer briefs he wore to bed last night. Those left nothing to the imagination.
He came directly to us and leaned over the back of the couch, brushing Seb’s head with a light kiss. “Good morning, little guy.”
Seb smiled around the bottle’s plastic teat, and warm milk leaked out the sides of his mouth.
Will tugged a lock of my hair. “You didn’t have to get up this early. I would have woken for him.”
I shrugged one shoulder and smiled down at Seb. “You were due for a little more sleep, and I don’t mind.”
Will straightened and stretched his arms over his head, highlighting the tight, toned lines of his abdomen. “Coffee?”
“Hm?” I dragged my eyes up to his. “Oh, yeah. Thanks.”
He tweaked my nose with a smirk, and I rolled my eyes, but what point was there pretending I didn’t like looking at him? We’d well and truly crossed that line.
No, not crossed. Moved.
Ha. I didn’t know if I believed that anymore. Not after the conversation last night.
“Josh was at the bar last night, and he asked if I wanted to surf this morning.” Will’s glance darted to the wall clock. “They’re probably already out. Think this is a good morning for Seb’s first sandcastle?”
“Uh, yes!” Seb drained the last of his milk, and I set the bottle on the table before sitting him upright on my knees. “You hear that, little man? You’re going to see the ocean today.”
I beamed at Will, who approached me with a smile on his face and a cup of coffee in his outstretched hand. “I’ll pack a bag,” he said.
Twenty minutes later, we were walking along Main Street towards the beach, Will with his longboard under one arm, an umbrella in its carry case slung over the other shoulder, and towels in his hands, me with Seb in a little swimsuit and hat strapped to my chest plus a bulky bag of supplies on my back. It was a short distance from the loft to where the best swell was rolling in, but as we crossed the road and headed down the sand, the weight I carried grew heavier. Huffing and puffing as the warm sand slipped and squeaked underneath my bare feet, I threw a quick look at Will, burdened as much as I was, and burst out laughing.
He looked at me with a curious expression. “What?”
“Look at us! We’re loaded up like pack mules.”
