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“Cris!” I hear Jess’ voice as she runs to me. She stands in front of me and tries to pry me from Bo’s arms. “Oh my God, I saw the whole thing! Are you all right? That must have hurt!”
“Yup,” I sputter out, limping to the nearest bench. “Can… you… get… Mia?” I ask her. Poor Mia, she’s screaming bloody murder trying to get out and Clara isn’t strong enough to lift her out.
Bo sits with me on the bench and starts pulling large bits of the playground mulch out of my hair, then starts wiping at my boobs.
“Hey!” I swat his hands away.
“You’ve got some dirt there,cherè,” he says, but when I look down there’s nothing there. “You did, I promise. I dusted it all off.” He laughs in that wicked manner of his that makes me want him even when I know it’s a bad idea.
“What are you doing here anyway?” I ask him reproachfully.
“Came to get the kids for the weekend. Takin’ them to Carowinds. Thought I’d let them play here for a little while before we left.”
“The kids?” I ask just as I spot JB and Sammy playing with Jess’ children, and Mia, too. Sammy, being only a little older than Mia is running around with her. JB looking a little bored, stands leaning against the swing post. He’s a tall kid, and I think he’s probably going to be as tall as his father, while Sammy is actually a tiny little thing, shorter than Mia.
Jess is over by one of the slides with Caleb, throwing Bo and I suspicious glances every chance she gets.
“Your friend doesn’t like me anymore. I guess that means she knows about us?” he asks.
“She knows everything about me. Actually, she’s sort of what pushed me into going with you in the first place, even though she insists it wasn’t like that.”
“I think if looks could kill, I’d already be a spook.”
“You and your spooks!” I say laughing. He chuckles, too, and it rumbles through me all the way to my core, making me squirm in my seat because it’s so hard to be near him as it is. “So where does Laura live?”
“Right over there.” He points to a pretty white craftsman style house across the street from the park, and I see his black truck parked beside a red Jeep Cherokee.
“Pretty house.”
“It was in bad shape when we first bought it, which made it affordable in this neighborhood. Took us a few years to get it to what it is.”
My lip feels strange and when I touch my fingertip to it I wince from the sting. “How’s work? Have you been busy with the cold and all?”
“Yeah, actually. Lots of tile replacement. There’s almost an overload of work and I’ve had to get more hands on with some of the jobs. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. You know this used to be Dan’s line of work, right?”
“No, I had no idea. I thought he worked as a life insurance agent,” I say recalling the many morbid conversations Jess and I had with the older man where he tried to sell us insurance.
“Only because he refuses to retire. Anyway, I went to work for him after I left the Marines. Then I started my own business when I moved here. I think it makes him proud,” he says smiling, and I can’t help but smile back.
He leans closer. Though I don’t say anything, it’s almost impossible not to notice the arm he sets on the bench behind me. His hand rests on my back, his fingers gently circling my spine.
No, I don’t stop him. Instead, I melt into him a little. I can feel the ache between my legs the longer it goes on, that throb that I get from the mere thought of this man beside me.
But more than that, there’s another kind of ache in my chest that’s suffocating. Inhaling deeply, I let it go slowly in hopes of finding some relief. I bend over, taking deeper breaths and pushing into my stomach.
“Are you all right, darlin’?” he asks, bending over with me, his large hand at my shoulder now, pulling me closer to him.
“Mm, it’s heartburn. It will go away.” After a few minutes, it does, and I sit up, but he doesn’t take his hand away.
“Cris,” he almost whispers. “We need to talk.”
He doesn’t need to clarify; I know exactly what he wants.
“There’s nothing left to say.”
“That’s not true. If anything, there’s too much being left unsaid. Like how much I miss you and I know you miss me. That I need you. I want you with me, Cris.”
“You know my answer.”
