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“You could sit on my lap and lay a big wet one on me,” he suggested.
I laughed, hiccoughed. “You could throw me over your shoulder in a fireman’s pose and carry me off to your cave.”
His arms tightened and his eyebrows quirked. He liked that idea.
“You could flirt with me all day and we could watch their reactions,” he offered, smiling.
“We could sneak behind a tree and kiss and see if they catch us,” I replied.
He turned and started walking me backwards towards my bedroom. The area between my thighs warmed in anticipation.
“We could mail out an announcement and wait for them to open it,” he raised his eyebrows in question. I smiled.
We crossed the threshold to my room. Two more steps brought us to the side of my bed. He undressed me slowly, not breaking eye contact, daring me to stare into his beautiful eyes, to clearly see his care for me. I needed to see that. He gave it to me, and then he lay me down.
Barrett
Later, watching her sleep, he relived the moments where she was lost in her head, listening to that vile shit pouring from her answering machine. Anger boiled in his belly. He had no personal experience of that kind of mother, but hearing that message gave him a framework from which to understand Willa’s fractured view of herself, and her drive to cover her feelings.
He wouldn’t walk out on her again.
Chapter 23
Uncle Barrett
Willa
Olivia finished writing out the identification cards for the new intakes and we placed them in the display pockets of the appropriate enclosures. Afterwards, she curled up on the comfy chair in my office with her iPad. I went through several new applications and worked to finalize the volunteer and design requirements for the yearly autumn fundraiser.
“Auntie Willa?”
“Yes, birdy?”
“I like it when Barrett visits us.”
I froze in my chair, not sure where she was going with this. “I do, too. He’s a good man,” I replied.
“Is he my uncle?” she asked, her eyes still trained on her iPad.
I understood her confusion. Bex was her aunt who wasn’t really her aunt. Bex recently married Rhys who Olivia did not call uncle. Rhys’s twins called Mara and me aunt, when neither of us were their aunts, simply because we were Bex’s chosen family.
“Um, he’s kind of an uncle in the same way Rhys is an uncle to you and your daddy is an uncle to Amelie and Cole.”
“Why are you guys aunts and uncles when you’re not really aunts and uncles?”
I thought for a moment, how to explain in a way she’d understand and, more than that, accept.
“Okay, you know you’re born into a family, right?”
She nodded, her eyes following the path of the pen in her hand.
“Well, some people also have a chosen family. Your mommy and daddy chose each other to love, and Auntie Bex and your mommy chose each other to love, then Auntie Bex and Uncle Rhys chose each other to love. There’s a family we are born into, and there’s a family we choose. Does that make sense?”
She nodded again. “I wouldn’t mind if you chose Barrett.”
My mouth fell open. I stuttered to come up with a suitable reply.
“Well, um, I…”
