My lips twitch and even though she’s notmymother, hearing Dottie’s voice brings a certain kind of comfort I didn’t know I needed. Placing my hand on Jensen’s forearm, I give him a reassuring smile.
“Hi Dottie, it’s Nessa.”
“Hi, sweet girl, how are you holding up?”
“We’re all right. But I was up most of the night with Remi. She has a low-grade fever and we don’t know what to do. Is this something you call the pediatrician for, or will they think we’re overreacting?”
“What is it now?” she asks, and I rattle off the temperature hovering just above one hundred point four degrees before giving her the rundown of our night. “Now, first and foremost, you canalwayscall your mama,” she says and Jensen smiles as he sways and rocks his daughter. “Second, there arenostupid questions when it comes to the care of your baby, so if your doctor makes you feel like you’re not bein’ heard, you find another one, am I clear?”
“Yes, Mama,” Jensen says dutifully and I grin, my shoulders relaxing the littlest bit.
“All right then. It sounds like she might just have a little bug. She’s somewhere new and y’all are in and out of the house, so it’s inevitable she’ll catch a bug before long. Give her a little something to help her sleep and reassess when she wakes up.”
“Thanks, Dottie.”
“Y’all are doing a great job. Bein’ a parent is hard, and little ones never act the same so you’re always just learning as you go.”
Tears fill my eyes and I let my eyelids flutter shut. She’s not my daughter, but she means so damn much she might as well be.
She feels like it.
Jensen and I give our thanks again and say goodbye before we’re each moving around the space in tandem, changing Remi and giving her medicine. Stifling a yawn, I glance at the clock and silently curse.
“I’m really sorry to do this to you, but I have to be at the university in a couple of hours and I was hoping to get a workout in before…”
“I know I lost track of time. Just let me take a shower real quick and then we’ll get out of your hair.”
“That’s not—” My words get caught in my throat as he drops a quick kiss on Remi’s hair and hands her to me. He doesn’t meet my gaze, and it’s as if all the progress we’d made dissipated the moment he hung up the phone.
It shouldn’t hurt but it does.
Temporary.
This is temporary.
It should be temporary, but Jensen’s eyes look haunted and I’d give everything to bring back the lightness.
“I’ll be quick—give me five minutes.”
Without another word he’s down the hall, his bedroom door closing with a snick.
“Daddy will be here soon,” I coo to Remi as I ignore the pulsing between my legs at the thought of Jensen being adaddy. I mean by strict definition he is, but also I wouldn’t mind trying out that particular term of endearment on my knees in front of him.
My overtired brain helpfully conjures all kinds of inappropriate images as the memory of him grinding against my core has me blushing furiously in the morning sun.
“You okay?” Jensen asks, and absolutely startled, I gasp and spin toward him.
And now I’m more turned on than I was before.
His chest is bare, the skin flushed from hot water, his sweatpants hanging low on his hips, the waistband of his boxers a sinful tease of what’s beneath.
Damn this man.
Rubbing the towel over his head, he stares at me before tossing it over the back of the kitchen chair and taking Remi from my arms.
She quiets almost instantly, nuzzling her cheek to his chest and rubbing her eye with a tiny fist, but that barely registers over the blood pounding in my ears.
“My eyes are up here, Ness,” Jensen says with a quirk of his lips, and I lick mine because I can’t help it.
