Maybe the sweet domestic scene and cartoon sheep antics erased romance from my mind. I snorted out a laugh before I could stop it. “Oh, really?”
Sam cracked a smile of his own. “Okay, that was bad. Can I have a kiss though?”
“Anytime, baby.” I pulled his slim body closer and brushed my lips over his. I kept my voice low, but Evie showed no signs of looking away from the movie. “There are few things I like better than kissing you.”
His hot tongue swiped over the seam of my lips before dipping inside for a quick taste. “Oh?” he repeated. “And what are those things?”
A few things I didn’t want to mention with Evie sitting on the other side of the room even if she couldn’t understand them yet. The last thing I needed was to get all worked up and have blue balls all evening until she went to bed. Still, I couldn’t deny that look on Sam’s face.
“Touching you.” My hands flowed down his back to settle on his round ass. I squeezed, and he sucked in a breath as I leaned forward to whisper hot into his ear. “Seeing you in those tight briefs.” The heat rushed downward through me, and I started to get hard against his hip.
With the last shred of propriety left in my mind, I stepped back and shifted my hands to his arms. “Spending time with you and Evie like this. It’s special, Sam.”
His eyes looked a bit glazed over, his lips open and slick, but he nodded and smiled. “Yeah, it is, Gil. I really like this, too. You have to know that.”
I was unsure about so many things. What would happen with Paige and the court date looming over our heads? Would I have to learn to share Evie with someone else? Could I manage to attract more wedding clients to my business and make it grow and prosper? With the extra expenses of an attorney and court fees, would I manage to hold onto my savings?
What about when Evie got bigger, and we needed a new place? In that split second, my mind wanted to fill in a vision of us living with Sam in a nice two-bedroom apartment or maybe a condo with a little yard. Maybe a house one day.
There were so very many things that filled my mind with worry and doubt. Some of it came naturally with being a parent. Tack on small business ownership, and there were a host of other concerns that I couldn’t escape.
Sam though? Maybe it was silly. In my practical moments when he wasn’t around, I told myself it was way too soon to feel so strongly about him. I shook my head and smiled at him. “I know that. If I hadn’t made it clear yet, I’m all in with you.” I hadn’t planned to make such a serious declaration at family movie night, but there it was.
He opened his mouth to say something, pretty eyes shining, but something uproarious apparently happened in the movie, and Evie started giggling her wild baby laugh. We turned to watch her bouncing and clapping, our arms slung around each other, and our heads tilted together. In such a messy life, at least I had one thing I could count on.
Sam and I had something special, the type of thing that could last. If we both believed that strongly enough, we could make forever happen.
“I think we’d better get back before she attacks the TV.” Sam stepped away to fetch two glasses from the upper cabinet.
I got the ice, we filled our cups, and headed back for the couch to share our perfect evening, all three of us together where we belonged.
Chapter 13
Sam
“You haven’t been here much lately, Sam. Everything cool?” Emilio slid an overflowing dish of baked ziti in the microwave to reheat it.
I turned around in time to see him scratching his balls through the thin boxer shorts he wore and immediately cast my gaze elsewhere. Men were gross sometimes. “Yeah, everything’s great. Really busy with school and work and stuff.”
He waggled his dark eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest. “Stuff, huh? You got yourself a nice boyfriend somewhere huh? Is he Italian? We’re the best lovers. Just ask my girl.” He chuckled and reached across the counter for the bread,thankfully not with the hand he used to scratch himself a moment earlier.
I shook my head with a smile, grabbed an orange, and headed back to my room. Gil definitely kept me busier than when I was single, but we hadn’t declared ourselves boyfriends or anything. The door swung shut behind me as I dropped orange peels in the garbage. I wasn’t super fond of the word, to be honest. It seemed silly to call grown men boyfriends, especially when one was a father already.
We were something, though, and it made my heart beat faster.
The orange kept my energy up as I typed up an assignment for my elementary education elective. A few clicks sent it off to my professor, and I turned to the next task on my busy list. I didn’t feel quite as confident about the outcome of this one.
The phone rang twice before Talisha picked up. “Hello, Sam. I don’t have you on the schedule for this week. What’s up?” My childcare coordinator always knew everything.
“Do you have a few minutes? There’s something I have to tell you.” I could imagine her lowering brow and pressed together lips over the phone.
“Go on.”
I’d spent an hour the night before reading the agency handbook and terms of service for any mention of personal relationships and clients. Other than some pointed language about inappropriate behavior, it didn’t seem like dating a former client broke any rules. No way I could move on and risk her hearing it from someone else, though. It was one of those ‘man up’ moments my dad always spoke about when I was growing up. Not quite with the same context, though. My family accepted my sexuality in an off-hand way, but this wasn’t the type of thing my father included in his arsenal of parenting advice.
Youth counseling job openings weren’t plentiful, though, and I might have to lean on the childcare side of things for a while after graduation. My anxiety ramped up when I thought of the next task on my to-do list: calling Prism House about the internship Dr. Endicott mentioned.
“You know the last client I worked with, Gilbert Barron? It was a two-week, full-time position for his ten-month-old daughter.”
