Only One Kiss (Only One 1)

“No,” she says softly and then plays with my hair. “I love you.” She bats her eyes at me.

“Okay, fine.” I kiss her neck and walk around Ralph to the kitchen. Going straight for the freezer, I take out one of her favorite frozen yogurt ones. She claps her hands. “Give me love.” Grabbing my face in her hands, Zoey kisses me on the lips. “Love you,” I say as she squirms out of my arms and then skips over to Zara who scoops her up.

“I’ll go tell Justin that you’re here,” Zara tells Ralph and walks out. I look back over at Ralph, and my heart speeds up a bit. I put my hand on my head, seeing if maybe I have a temperature. Maybe I’m having a sunstroke, and I don’t know it.

“Are you sick?” Ralph asks and turns just a touch so I can’t see Ariella, shielding her from the crazy lady who doesn’t say anything.

“No,” I say, laughing nervously. “I’m fine. Do you need me to help you with that?” I point at the big diaper bag hanging off his arm. “I can hold her if you like,” I ask, walking over to them and holding out my arms to her. He looks at me and then down at Ariella.

“She usually doesn’t go to strangers,” he says. Right before I put my hands down, Ariella reaches out and grabs my finger.

I smile at her. “Hi, pretty girl,” I say. She smiles at me, and I take a step forward, smiling at Ralph. “I can try to hold her, and if she fusses, we can make a swap. The kid for the bag.” I try to make a joke of it. “Can I?” I lean forward, opening my hands, and he slowly hands her over.

“Yeah.” He waits for her to cry once I take her. Instead, she smiles and then looks around.

“Five.” I start counting. “Four.” Ralph looks at me once I finish counting down to zero. “Usually, if they don’t cry in the matter of five seconds, it’s safe to say she isn’t going to cry.”

His eyebrows bunch together. “Really?” He looks at me and then looks at Ariella, who looks from him to me and then smiles.

“No clue,” I say, shrugging, “but I’m going with it.” I look at Ariella, really hoping that she doesn’t cry. “You can put whatever you want in the fridge.” I point over at the fridge, and he grabs the bag and pulls out six bottles. I have to roll my lips and not laugh at him. “How long were you planning on staying?”

He laughs, and it’s somehow light as he puts the bottles in the fridge. “I’ve been stuck without a bottle once, and I’ll never make that mistake again.” After he closes the fridge, he comes over and kisses his girl on her neck, and just the smell of him has me off kilter. It’s a clean smell, which sounds weird. I wish I could explain it better.

“Does she have sunscreen on?” I ask when the haze of his smell leaves me.

“Yes, I put it on her just before we left the house.” He takes his hat off, scratching his head, and then places his hat back down. He looks at Ariella and smiles. “Are you ready to go outside and meet everyone, beautiful girl?” he asks her, and I swear my ovaries just combusted. He reaches for her as she calls his name. “Are you coming out?” he asks me, and all I can do is smile and nod my head.

He walks past me and goes outside just as Zara comes back inside. “What are you doing in here?”

“Who the fuck is that?” I ask, pointing at the door, then putting my hands on the counter. She looks at me as I try to get my head back on straight.

“That’s Ralph,” she says, then she looks out the door and then turns to look back at me. “Oh, no, no, no, no.”

“What?” I ask her, not sure what the hell she is going on about.

“You can’t go there, especially not with him.” She points at the door.

“Oh, God, is he still with the mother?” I put my hand in front of my mouth. “I would never.”

“Candace.” She says my name, and I don’t know what I’m expecting her to say, but what I definitely was not expecting was the next sentence. “His wife died in childbirth,” she says softly and leaves me here in the middle of my kitchen looking outside at him. My heart just sinks thinking about the baby girl in his arms without a mom. I watch as Justin sees him and comes over right away with Zara and Caroline following suit.

Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I walk out of the house. “Look at the big guy with a baby,” Justin says. “Shit, have you met Candace?” He motions to me.