“I guess I should be going.” Lillie surprised him in the kitchen while he stood at the counter getting all emotional over a toddler’s verbalization of words he’d heard over and over again since his birth.
Turning toward her, plate in hand, Jon said, “I made brownies.”
Like some kind of little kid, trying to please. The whole time he’d been stirring the brownie batter he’d been fantasizing about smearing it all over her breasts, her nipples and lower. And then licking it off...
“Brownies?”
She was staring at them. Not at him.
“Yeah.”
“Homemade?”
That was when he knew for certain that no matter what was going on with her, she would stay. “Yeah.”
Setting her purse on the faux-wood table, she sat down, seeming to study the grain in the laminate.
Jon put the brownies in front of her, along with a couple of napkins. And then, because he was a barreler, he opened the sparkling wine and poured some into the newly purchased flutes.
* * *
“DID YOU SEE me?” Lillie wanted a brownie. She had to get rid of some of the knots in her stomach to make room.
“See you?” Standing at the counter, his back to her while he poured what she assumed was sparkling water, Jon sounded sincere.
She’d spent the past hour worrying over nothing.
No. That wasn’t accurate, either. There was much to worry about. But apparently, having to explain who Kirk was to the man she’d seen come out of the store while she’d been saying goodbye to her ex-husband hadn’t been one of them.
“At the store. I was...across the parking lot when you and Abe came out tonight.”
“I didn’t see you, sorry,” he said easily, joining her at the table and setting a flute of sparkling liquid in front of her. “I guess I was too busy getting a limp two-year-old into his car seat and trying not to dump my groceries on the ground.” He didn’t touch his glass. Or the brownies. “Did you call out?”
“I was too far away.” It was technically true, but she wouldn’t have called out, anyway.
But...good, her secret was safe. Picking up a brownie, Lillie smiled at her host, thinking about how badly she wanted a sexless night in his bed, with him holding her until she fell a
sleep.
* * *
SHE WAS EATING the brownies. Jon relaxed. It would be okay. Lillie clearly loved Abraham and wanted to be there with them.
Holding up his glass, he said, “I’d like to make a toast.”
She lifted her glass, too, looking curious.
“To the future,” he said, cutting himself off before adding, “Mrs. Swartz.”
“To the future,” Lillie said, clinking her glass to his before taking a long sip.
She barely swallowed before starting to choke. “I...thought...that was...water,” she gasped in between bouts of coughing. Jon got her a glass of water and she sipped from it. He rubbed her back. The coughing subsided.
“Sorry about that,” he said, sitting down again, feeling like a fool. “I thought you’d know from the flutes and the toast that it wasn’t water.”
“We’ve never... You don’t keep alcohol in the house.”
“I just bought it tonight.” He was blowing this. Making a memory that would last forever, but not in the way he’d thought. It probably would have been a better idea to give the idea a little more time to percolate.