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I smile. “Am I the asshole in this story?”
“Nope. I found out about another Crane brother,” she says jokingly, but I’m not amused.
“Too soon?” She elbows me.
“Who else would it be?”
With a rolls of her eyes, she falls onto the couch.
I sit down beside her and start examining her phone. It’s completely dark. There’s definitely no fixing it.
“I’m sorry. I’ll get you a new one. I’ll probably get one for Noah while I’m at it,” I muse.
“What? No! He doesn’t need a phone. He’s six years old.”
I give her a look. “I was using a phone by the time I was four.”
“What would a four-year-old need with a phone?” she questions, open-mouthed. “Did you even know how to operate it?”
I shrug. “I was a pretty smart kid.”
“Somehow, I doubt that. And I’m pretty sure we’re talking about a toy phone in your case.”
“It wasn’t a toy,” I insist with my jaw clenched.
Christine laughs. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.”
I glare at her.
“Regardless, I want to be able to reach Noah anytime I need to. I was really worried today when I couldn’t reach you. It would be better for him to have his own phone.”
Christine bites her bottom lip as she ponders my decision, and I find myself distracted by the motion. I wonder how she tastes. Her pink lips look really good right now. I fight back a groan.
She’s my son’s mother, but we are not a couple. I shouldn’t be thinking of her that way. If things go wrong, it will inevitably affect Noah. It’s why I’ve decided not to act on the revelations from Matthew. So what if, according to him, Christine used to have feelings for me? We were teenagers back then. Kids. We’re grown now and we have to deal with real life, maddening feelings aside.
“Okay,” Christine says. “You can get us both phones. I want the newest iPhone.”
A slow smile spreads on my face. “Look at you, being all materialistic.”
“Hey, my baby daddy’s loaded. I might as well enjoy an awesome new phone for all the crap he puts me through.”
“You won’t hear any complaints from me,” I assure her, getting to my feet.
“You’re leaving?” She stares up at me.
I nod. “Noah’s not here so I might as well head back home and catch up on work.”
“Oh,” she says quietly. She looks hesitant, like she’s not sure how to say what’s on her mind. “Don’t go.”
I’m not sure what’s more surprising, the words or her tone as she says them.
I swallow. “Christine,” I say in warning. This is a game we don’t want to play right now.
“No, chill.” She grabs my hand and pulls me back onto the couch. “At the gala, you asked me something. And I’m pretty sure you were about to tell me something important before we were interrupted.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I say gruffly.
“It matters to me.”
