“I honestly have no clue.” My answer makes her frown. “Have you been able to read my mind lately?” I ask and she shakes her head. “Then what makes you think I can read yours?”
“Because I feel like I’ve always been pretty transparent, even if I don’t want to be.”
“You aren’t.”
“Promise you won’t hurt me like before?” she whispers, her eyes welling with tears just thinking about it.
That slays me. This girl has been everything to me for so long, and it seems impossible that she doesn’t see that and doesn’t know that I’d never make the same stupid mistake twice. I’ve been trying to win her back ever since I came back into her life. The last thing I want to do is hurt her.
“Promise,” I whisper. “Never again.”
She studies me for a moment before she nods, whispering, “Then, I’m all yours.” Relief floods through me with her words.
“Daddy!” Savannah shouts before I can kiss her. “Daddy!”
“Fuck.” Sydney tries to get up, but I roll us so she stays put on the couch. “I don’t believe she called for you. Stay.” I get up and jog to Savannah’s new room. The lamp is turned off, must have been Sydney’s doing, so I turn it back on and sit on the edge of the bed. “What’s up, little Miss?”
“The light was off. I was scared.” Her little, child-like, girly voice is way too cute, especially with how she pronounces words.
“Sorry. Your mom turned it off when she came to check on you.”
“Mommy’s here?”
“Yeah, want her to say goodnight before you go back to bed?” Savannah nods her head, so I call out, “Babe!”
“Who’s babe?” Savannah asks.
“Uh, that’s what I call your mom sometimes.”
“Why?”
“I just do.” I don’t think now is the time to get into the fact that her life is about to change because I’m with her mom.
“Hey, buttercup,” Sydney says as she comes into the room.
“She wants you to say goodnight.”
Sydney tells her to lie back down and she tucks her in, kisses her forehead, and says goodnight. We leave the lamp on and walk out. I pull Sydney into my room. Her bag is already on my bed, so she must’ve dropped it off in here when she came to check on Savannah.
“Change and get ready for bed,” I order, handing it to her. I’d like to have sex with her. My body is thrumming with a need to have her because it’s been entirely too long and we need to celebrate us finally getting together, but this needs to go slow.
Slow means no sex until the second date at least. I know we have history and all, but I also know that I need Sydney to trust me. That means not having sex with her every chance I get. We need a new normal, not the old one.
I take my own advice to get ready for bed, following her into my one and only bathroom. She’s already changed and is now brushing her teeth. Soon, for the first time, we’re crawling into bed to simply sleep. Sydney looks at me and I know her mind is still racing. She won’t fall asleep that way. Cupping her cheek, her eyes close as I lean forward and finally get my kiss.
She smiles and I’m reminded of the first time I kissed her. We were on an airplane. She hates takeoffs and I compared them to first kisses. We had ours and she had her first ever. She smiled and laughed a little. Until I do the same thing I’m doing now, slipping my tongue into her mouth. A low moan leaves her mouth to enter mine. She presses against my body. That feels good. Too good to have her breasts heaving with her breathing and brushing against my chest. Too good to have her leg thrown over mine.
I pull away, kiss her forehead, and whisper, “Sleep, gorgeous.”
Somehow, she burrows even closer. I wrap my arms around her and within minutes, we’re asleep.
The week passes with Sydney and Savannah having a sleepover every night except Tuesday, because Savannah wasn’t leaving her Lo-Lo. We start moving their things over with the help of Zane. They’re all moved in by today, Thursday. But Savannah is staying with Logan for a bit tonight because Sydney and I are going on a date.
“A bar, Ian?” Sydney asks.
“Don’t judge yet,” I reply as I open the door for her. Aaron Peters told me about this place and if it wasn’t for what he said about it, I wouldn’t have brought her to a bar.
“Woah,” I hear her murmur when we walk inside. It’s low-lit, but not so much that those playing games can’t see what they’re doing, and it’s set up in an intimate manner. A live jazz band is playing, but they aren’t too loud. The room is full of dark woods with the brightness coming from the lights.