For the next half hour, she patiently explained how the “kitchen” worked, and I tried real hard not to tune her out. I failed more times than I succeeded.
“Avery, your pizza will get cold.” In her excitement, she’d forgotten to eat.
“Okay. Okay.” She sat down cross-legged, eating with small bites, glancing around her room. Her gaze stopped at her desk, and then she kept looking between me and the desk, as if trying to figure out something.
“Ryker, can I draw you a friendship card?” she asked after a while.
“Sure.”
“So you want to be my friend?”
I winked. “I thought I already was.”
She looked at me wearily. “So I don’t have to call you Dad?”
I’d started gathering our pizza boxes, but froze in the act, swallowing hard.
“Do you want to?”
She shook her head. “No. I want you to be my friend. Because friends always stay.”
Avery sounded satisfied, as if she’d found the perfect loophole. Pressure gathered in my chest in a matter of seconds. Jesus, I couldn’t believe my ears. It wasn’t just her words, but the way she’d said them, with so much nonchalance, as if she was informing me it was cold outside tonight. It slayed me. I tried to see things from her perspective, and it was remarkably easy. Kids’ worlds weren’t complicated. She’d been disappointed before, so that was the only thing she’d come to expect. Disappointing children should be illegal. If I had a kid, I’d never leave it. Ever.
I had no idea what to tell her. Should I even say anything? Explain that things weren’t black and white? No, I had to talk to Heather first.
After we took the empty pizza box back to the kitchen, Avery brought a sheet of paper and crayons into the living room. I was sitting on the couch, she was lying on the floor on her belly, bent over the paper. She scribbled “Friedsip card” on it and drew two figurines just below it. Didn’t take a genius to figure out it was supposed to represent
the two of us, even though we looked nothing like the drawings. She shoved the card in my hands after she was done.
“Thanks, Avery.”
I detected a hint of wariness in her eyes. Damn, I wanted to erase that. I knew how it felt to have that security blanket stripped from around you. It sucked. I wanted her to have the safety of knowing that both her parents would be there no matter what. But what did I even know about that?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Heather
“Troops, I’m home,” I called the second I entered the apartment. No one answered. In fact, the whole place was suspiciously quiet. I returned earlier than I’d thought so it wasn’t Avery’s bedtime yet. Considering she usually fought tooth and nail for any additional minute, I wasn’t sure what was going on.
Tiptoeing to Avery’s bedroom, I discovered her sleeping soundly. Oh, wow. That was a first.
Hearing the water running in my bathroom, I headed that way. Ryker was showering. Oh, yum. He was just... perfection. Taut skin and toned muscles everywhere I looked. I rarely had the opportunity to just drink him in like now, so I planned to take advantage of it for as long as possible.
“Had your fill?” Ryker asked in a teasing tone.
“Not by a long shot.” I grinned, shrugging. I’d been so lost in the act of admiring him that I hadn’t realized he was watching me.
Ryker’s mouth curled up in a smile. He moved one finger in a come here motion. I walked toward him slowly, eyeing the spray of water. I stopped at the edge of the shower, heart beating wildly. Was this drop-dead sexy man really here, in my shower? Or was he a vision? I ran a hand from one shoulder to the other, tracing a pattern over his chest, feeling his wet skin under my fingers. He kissed me the next second. Oh, yeah. He was real.
The touch electrified my lips, and the way he explored me made me weak in the knees. I clasped his shoulders, needing more support. Next thing I knew, Ryker’s hands were gripping my hips. What was he planning?
He pulled me with him under the shower, getting my clothes completely wet. I half laughed, half yelped.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What’s it look like?” He grinned widely. I was full-on laughing now.
I wasn’t spontaneous, but Ryker was making me discover all sorts of things about myself. Like the fact that I relished these small, unexpected moments.