Her answering groan said enough. She gripped me by the base, holding me at her entrance while I ran my fingertips up her inner thighs, her folds, her clit. Then she nodded, dropping her hand, and I rocked all the way inside her in one perfect, shattering stroke that damn near split my spine.
"There's one more thing you should know." I hitched her knee up to my hip, saying, "The ring wasn't fake, princess."
chapter forty-eight
Jude
Today's vocabulary word: selective
A glanceat my watch told me it was late, later than I'd slept in ages. I stretched a hand out and found the sheets cold. I'd been alone for a while. Staring up at the ceiling, I listened for Audrey's voice or kid commotion or even barking.
The silence caught my attention.
It took me a minute to find my jeans and another to admire the lived-in mess of Audrey's bedroom. The tote bags hooked on the closet's doorknob. The skincare products covering one corner of her dresser. The small pillows that didn't match each other, the bedding, or the room. A parched-looking plant near the window. I could almost see her picking out those pillows, knowing damn well they didn't go with anything but choosing them simply because she wanted to and she had no one standing in her way.
The kitchen and living room were empty but I followed soft laughter to the backyard. There, I found Audrey and Percy sitting in the grass, their heads bent together as they watchedBagel stalking a cat along the back fence. The cat, it had to be said, didn't give a fuck about any of the creatures involved.
A chipmunk ran between Bagel and the cat, disrupting the whole standoff, and Percy shot to his feet and threw his arms around Audrey's neck. God, it was so good to see him happy and being a kid after spending the past few weeks clinging to me like a scared little monkey.
He noticed me then, signing, "There's a cat who lives on this street and visitsallthe backyardsevery day! And the cat looks like a cow. It's white with big brown spots and a pink nose. Like a cow! But Bagel doesn't like the catat alland has been telling the cat to go away right now."
"Why doesn't Bagel like cats?" I asked.
"Audrey says he doesn't understand their species," he signed. My heart pinged at the shorthand sign he'd adopted for Audrey. He did that for everyone—spelling out names took too long—but there was no telling my heart that. "They're very confusing to him and he doesn't want them invading his yard. Chipmunks too."
"Bagel doesn't understand cats?" I asked her.
She shrugged, her focus on a bowl in her lap. "I don't know Bagel's whole story but I don't think he has much experience with other animals."
Nodding in vigorous agreement, Percy signed, "He's the only dog he's ever met."
In my head, I could hear Audrey saying that to him. I loved it. Loved all of this. And, with a desperation I truly couldn't get my arms around, I wanted this for the rest of my life.Ourlives. I didn't know how to make it happen or if she even wanted the same things. But I got the sense she did. Like she felt the strange, oddly shaped puzzle pieces finally snapping into place too. Like sheknew.
"When did you wake up? I didn't hear you," I said, running a hand over his hair. "Why didn't you come get me?"
He straightened his glasses like these questions were a real inconvenience, signing, "It wasn't dark out and I wanted to read my book alone with Bagel."
We had a rule that he wasn't allowed to be awake on the weekends unless the sun was upandshining into his bedroom. He got around this rule by jumping in bed with me and pretending to go back to sleep. I got around this rule by hanging blackout curtains in his room because he wasn't one to wake up and entertain himself.
"Did Bagel like the book?" I asked.
My son turned into a plume of exasperation. "Daddy, Bagel doesn't know how to read."
"Right. Of course." I glanced to Audrey and—Jesus Christ, that wasmyshirt she was wearing with her little black bike shorts. As if it was perfectly ordinary for her to steal my clothes and flip the primitive switch in my brain. "And when did you wake up, Saunders?"
"About an hour or two ago. We've just been hanging out and having some blueberries and granola," Audrey said, a berry pinched between two fingers while Percy ran off to gather Bagel's tennis balls. "Come sit with me."
I dropped to the grass and braced my arms behind me, letting my shoulder bump hers. "Thanks for watching him."
She waved me off, busy picking out her next blueberry. "We had a good time together."
"I didn't come here expecting you to babysit," I said. "You could've woken me up."
"I know." She held a blueberry to my lips. I closed a hand around her wrist and snared her fingertips between my teeth as I took it. "But you needed the sleep. You looked like you were dead on your feet last night."
"He's my kid," I said, still holding her wrist. "Iwantto take care of him. It's never my intention to dump him on anyone else."
"I know all of that too." She offered me another blueberry. Bit those fingers again. "And I would've left a trail of squeaker toys leading to the bed and sent Bagel after them if I had a problem with it."
