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I hardly believed I uttered the words even as I heard them leave my mouth. Being with her was easy. No games, no guessing. I wanted more of her.
After the second night, I gave her a key.
“You’re free to be here even if I’m not.”
“Isn’t it a bit early?”
At my sharp look, she zipped an imaginary zipper at her lips and nodded at me with big eyes.
The next day, she slapped a copy of her housekey on the counter. “All in, old man.”
During the day, I worked from home while she went to the office. Returning to me at the end of the day, playing with Sia, making dinner, watching movies, making her pay for her sass under the cover of the night.
An idyllic bubble.
One I imagined might have been the foundation of my childhood had my mother survived.
Wednesday evening, she insisted Sia and I join her at Lucky and Minty’s for dinner.
Not a fan in general of meeting new people, but I could not pass up the opportunity to meet Lucky. Before I got any deeper, I needed to see their relationship for myself. I needed to determine for myself what thatI love youmeant.
Surprisingly, Minty was just as cool and reserved as I was while Hope and Lucky fairly vibrated, behaving like a couple of teenage boys half the night. Including seeing who could shove more timbits into their mouth.
Hope won.
Brayleigh was an enchanting miniature of her mother. At first, she side-eyed me. Refused to come closer. She kept looking at my hair. I wondered what she thought of this black-haired mongrel in her family of purebreds.
We gathered in their family room before dinner where Minty had platters of appetizers ready for us.
Brayleigh wanted to pass out the plates but made Hope give me mine.
“Ah, are you shy, Tweetie?” she asked.
“Him big,” she answered, her eyes on me. “Him got poppy seeds on him’s cheeks.”
Lucky burst out laughing while Brayleigh turned an offended look on him.
“Those aren’t poppy seeds, Tweetie.” Hope’s voice shook with the effort to contain her laughter. “See how Daddy’s hair is blond? And the hair on Daddy’s cheeks is blond?”
“Like mine hair. Like Mama’s hair. Like Sparky’s hair.”
“That’s right!” Hope enthused. “Ares has black hair. So the hair on his face is black, too.”
Brayleigh nodded slowly. “I like poppy seeds.”
Hope cast me a wicked look. “Me, too, baby. Me, too.”
Sitting across from Minty at the dinner table, I watched her lips curl in amusement at their antics. More than once she caught my eye in commiseration.
“Are they always like this?” I asked.
She cocked her head to the side, her cool brown eyes assessing. “I’ve never seen Hope quite so excitable.”
“Is that a good thing?”
She took a sip of her wine. “I hope so.”
Hope’s elbow nudged me as she shared the latest joke with me and cracked up laughing.
