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ChapterOne
Ezra
“Don’t you dare back out,” Keith says when he answers the phone. “Muriel is a fox. You’re going to love her.”
“Who said I was calling to cancel?”
“Because you’re calling me when you should be on the road.”
“Who says I’m not calling to tell you I’m on the road?”
“Ezra, are you on the road?”
I rub a hand over my face. “No.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Don’t you think it’s weird to be set up for a date on New Year’s Eve?”
“If I thought that, I wouldn’t have set you up on a date. Come on, man. You’ve been single almost a year and you’ve only been on a handful of dates.”
“Dada,” Cole calls as he jumps up and down on the sofa cushion to get my attention.
I wrap my arm around him and lift him like a football. He squeals and instantly planks his body and spreads his arms like he’s Superman flying over the ground.
“Ezra,” Keith says.
“I’m not cancelling. I was calling to tell you that Cole’s babysitter is running late. There was a miscommunication, and she thought she was watching Cole at Sammy’s house since Sammy’s the one who asked her to babysit.”
“Don’t you mean Sammy forgot to tell her that?”
My ex-girlfriend and I are on good terms. But she can be a little absentminded about details, and that’s something Keith always teased her about. Still, she arranged for the college student who nannies for Cole to watch him tonight, so I’m grateful.
“Don’t make fun. If it wasn’t for Sammy’s babysitter being available, I wouldn’t be able to come tonight at all.”
I’m still flying Cole around the living room when the doorbell rings. I zoom him down the hall and pinch the phone between my cheek and my shoulder to free my hand so I can unlock the door.
“Wait until you see Muriel. It’ll all be worth it. Let me know when you’re on your way. We’ll wait at my place for you.”
“O…”
The words die on my tongue and change from a quick ‘Okay’ to ‘Oh my fucking god’ inside my head.
“Maggie!” Cole squirms until I have to set him down.
As soon as his feet hit the hardwood, he launches himself into the arms of the hottest woman I have ever seen. For the last four months, all Cole’s been talking about is Maggie, how pretty she is, how fun she is, how she makes the best dinosaur sounds, how she plays with him for hours. Even Sammy has nothing but good things to say about her.
I have Cole from Thursday night through Monday morning. Since I cut back to only half days on Friday, I take Cole to preschool, pick him up, then have him all weekend. I drop him off at preschool on Monday morning, then Maggie picks him up and takes him to Sammy’s. So we haven’t crossed paths until today.
For some reason, I pictured a girl with freckles and pigtails because, even though it’s only been a decade since I graduated from college, it seems a lifetime ago. I think Sammy told me that Maggie’s a freshman, which in my mind simply meant teenager. The Maggie on my doorstep is definitely a woman.
Her ebony hair is long and shiny, falling in loose waves to her waist. She has a delicate nose and a mouth that’s almost too plump and wide for her — almost. Her eyes are bright blue and slightly tilted up at the outer corners, reminding me of a fairy. There’s both happiness and possibly a bit of mischief in the sapphire blue depths.
The click of Keith disconnecting the call brings me back to reality. She cuddles Cole and gives him a little kiss on the top of his head. Then she straightens and looks up at me. When our eyes meet, my mouth dries up like a desert. And when her full lips curve up into a shy smile, my dick surprises me by surging to life with thoughts of what it would feel like to have her mouth stretched around me.
I take in the rest of her. Beneath her jacket she wears a white T-shirt with a green dinosaur on it that says ‘Roaring into the new year.’ I’d normally laugh at something like that, but the material is plastered to her like she’s had it for a few years, maybe since before she truly filled out. The head of the dinosaur stretches a little wide over her large breasts, so much so that I can see the intricate outline of a lace bra underneath. Her jeans hug her curves in the best possible way, highlighting her small waist, wide hips, and thick thighs.
“You wore a dinosaur too!” Cole says.
