Being alone, forced to watch the only woman I’ll ever love move on with her life…and away from me.Chapter 8Charlie“That’s enough sun for now,” Owen calls to Jackson about twenty minutes later. Jackson throws his head back dramatically and begs for one more minute. Owen chuckles and agrees, and then stands to slip the sleeping baby into her stroller.
His biceps bulge under his gray t-shirt and the look on his face as he gently lays Violet down is doing bad, bad things to me. He really loves his niece. He actually does enjoy taking Jackson to the park. Is he a family man after all?
“Hey, Owen,” a group of three moms, one of them pushing a double stroller, comes up the park sidewalk.
“Hey, ladies,” Owen says back with his famous cocky grin. I don’t think he realizes he does it anymore, and that smug smirk just comes naturally to him. “Nice day today, isn’t it?”
The mom with the stroller bites her bottom lip and looks Owen up and down. “It’s a little hot out here, don’t you think?”
The other two moms make a joke about it getting hotter. Owen laughs to oblige them, and the weirdest thing is starting to happen to me.
I think…I think I’m feeling a little jealous.
I squeeze my eyes closed. Stop it right now, Charlie. I’m not in the right headspace to date anyone. And I know better than to get back together with an ex who broke my heart years ago.
Wanting to get married and have children was what drove Owen and me apart in the first place. I wanted to settle down, go ring shopping on the weekends, and pick out baby names.
Owen didn’t.
We wanted different things in life, which no one can fault either of us for. I was willing to wait for Owen, convinced he’d just need a year or two to realize that starting a family was something he wanted to do too.
I guess I was wrong.
Though, really…the joke is on me. Because here I am, in my thirties now, and single as ever and still childless.
“Oh my goodness,” one of the moms whisper-squeals as she looks at Violet. “She gets cuter every time I see her!”
“She gets that from me,” Owen says, and everyone erupts into giggles.
Jackson runs over, cheeks beet red and panting. “I’m thirsty,” he pants, and Owen tears himself away from his fan club to get Jackson a juice box from the diaper bag. He sticks the straw in for Jackson and then rustles his hair, teasing him about being sweaty.
“Can we go swimming at Grammy’s?” Jackson asks Owen as he buckles his helmet back into place.
“That’s not up to me, buddy. Grammy will say yes, of course, but we have to ask your mom.”
I watch Owen out of the corner of my eye, thinking that he’s changed a lot. Maybe?
“Are you going to be in town for a while?” he asks me.
“It seems that way.”
“Come to Getaway tonight. You can drink on the house.” He turns his head, flashing that cocky grin again that makes me feel all squishy inside. “You still like sweet red wine, right?”
I nod. “Yeah, I do.”
“Then I’ll make sure to have some. If I remember correctly, which I know I am, red wine always…” He trails off and wiggles his eyebrows.
“Owen,” I start, voice edging on scolding. It’ll be all too easy to fall back to old habits, and Owen would be a hard one to break. It took years for me to get over him the first time…if I even got over him at all.
Inhaling deep, I look down the opposite direction of the street.
“I…I should finish my run,” I tell Owen. “It was good to see you, though.”
“It usually is.”
Smirking, I shake my head. No, he hasn’t changed at all. “Tell your mom I said hi.”
“You could tell her yourself.” He adjusts the sun visor on the stroller. “Come over for dinner on Sunday.”
“Your mom still does Sunday dinners?”
Owen smiles. “She never stopped. Give me your number and I’ll call you.”
“Owen…” I let out a breath. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Why not? Worried you won’t be able to resist me?”
Yes, I am a little worried, actually. I narrow my eyes. “Of course not. But what’s the point?”
He shrugs, getting a cocky glint in his eyes. “You never know what could happen. And if anything, we could just have sex. We were always good at that, if I remember correctly. I always pleased you. Multiple times.”
I come to a dead stop, staring at him openmouthed with a you did just not say that look in my eyes. Then again, I’m not surprised, and suddenly, heat is flashing through me. Owen is good. With his fingers. His mouth. His tongue…and holy shit, that big cock.
“You’re disgusting.”
He raises his eyebrows. “I did remember correctly. And you never thought what we did was disgusting before. I seem to remember one particular night in vivid detail that involved you, me, and the roof of your parents’ house. What you wanted me to do to you…I still think about my head between your legs while balancing two stories above the ground.”