He smiled a little. His gaze lowered to her mouth. “A kiss would instantly change my mood. I would have done it earlier, but I didn’t know if I should kiss you in front of Sophia.”
She smiled up at him, leaning into his body. “She can’t see us now.”
A look of relief eased his features. He cupped her head and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. Then another. And another. And finally stroked his tongue along them until she opened. He tasted her, gently, slowly, and finally pulled back with a moan. But he smiled, closed his eyes, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
And Tessa couldn’t help but wonder how he’d treated the women he’d just spoken with. Wondered how long he would treat her sweetly like this. Wondered if Sophia’s continued grumpiness would change his mood.
No time like the present to find out. Tessa knew dinner would be a challenge.
“Better,” he murmured against her skin before kissing her there again. “Much better.”
She smiled and stroked his chest, wishing this could last.
But for Tessa, none of the good things in her life seemed to be lasting very long.
15
“Zach with a kid? What a joke.”
He couldn’t shake the words. They hummed in the background, aggravated by the fact that he couldn’t even work something as simple as a car seat. On the drive to the restaurant, Sophia alternated between whining and singing and Zach was exhausted trying to anticipate her moods, fearful of another iced-tea crying jag. Tessa had been amazing about everything, but he felt like she was just waiting for him to make one major mistake that would justify denying him the right to be in Sophia’s life. He fully recognized that he only believed that because it was something he would have been doing if their situations had been reversed.
And, hell, in all honesty, he was probably angry at Kerry more because she was right than because she’d dissed Tessa and embarrassed him. He was a joke when it came to anything related to kids. And he was terrified Tessa would figure that out before long.
“Where are we going?” Sophia asked from the back.
Tessa was looking out the side window. She’d been quiet since they’d gotten in.
“The Monkeypod,” Zach said, pleased when Tessa focused on him and laughed at the name. He glanced in the rearview mirror at Sophia. “Doesn’t that sound like a fun plac
e?”
“Monkeypod,” she said, her voice comically shocked. “What’s a monkeypod?”
“It’s a restaurant. And they have awesome shave ice. But…” he added, “all little girls have to eat their dinner before they can have any shave ice.”
She dropped her head back against the car seat and heaved a sigh. “Oh, man. That’s just not right.”
Zach barked a laugh at the unexpected comment and all its maturity beyond Sophia’s years.
Tessa sputtered a laugh too and glanced into the backseat. “What? Where did you get that?”
She shrugged her little bare shoulders. “I dunno.”
Zach propped his elbow on the window ledge and ran his hand through his damp hair. “She’s hilarious.”
“Out of the mouths of babes, as they say,” Tessa said, grinning. “Some jaw-dropping comments do come out of her mouth from time to time.”
He pulled off the two-lane highway and into the gravel parking area.
“Look,” Sophia shouted. “A monkey.”
The restaurant had a colorful sign across the front of the A-line roof over the porch sporting a goofy-looking monkey.
“You’ll see a lot of monkeys tonight,” Zach said as he parked. “Why don’t you count them?”
Tessa grin at him. “Good game, Dad.”
Dad. The word zinged him in the chest. The emotion that accompanied it felt a hell of a lot like fear. Like the burn in the pit of his stomach that came when he looked at a pipeline and knew his timing was off. Knew the wall of water was going to pound him against the sea floor so hard, it could be the very last time it ever happened.