Kate

I’m jolted awake by a light snore. I open my eyes and realize this ceiling is not my own.

Oh shit, I fell asleep in Andy’s bed.

Wait, that snoring is too loud to belong to a little boy. I recognize the scent that surrounds me. Jaxon.

I sit up and see Jaxon on the other side of Andy, both sound asleep. I bite back my laughter when I see Andy is currently curled up at his father’s side with his little legs draped over his father’s body.

I quietly and carefully scoot off the bed, however, I’m clearly not a ninja since the shift in the bed causes Jaxon to stir.

“Hey,” he says, his voice full of sleep. He hasn’t even opened his eyes yet. When he does, I’m met with blue eyes that look like the ocean, calm after a raging storm.

“Go back to sleep,” I whisper, not wanting to disturb Andy. I step forward to cup his cheek but stop. What am I doing? “I’m just gonna go.”

I finish scooting off the bed and walk around to the nightstand, where I left my phone.

“What time is it?” he asks in between yawns.

I glance down at the screen, and my eyes widen. Holy shit. “5:00 a.m. Wow, we slept all night. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. One minute I was reading Andy our third story, and the next, well.” I extend my hands to mean this moment.

Jaxon carefully unwraps Andy’s legs from his body and rises from the bed. I take a moment to appreciate the way Jaxon looks in the morning—a relaxed look in gym shorts and a T-shirt that clings to every muscle, but it’s the tousled hair, as if it had still been wet when he lay down.

Why didn’t he just wake me when he got home?

He adjusts Andy, covering him back up with his favorite Toy Story blanket, and I take a minute to remember the moment between father and son.

I make my way out of Andy’s room. Jaxon follows me down the stairs. I’m sliding my shoes on, which I had left by the front door, and look up to see Jaxon standing there, staring out at nothing. I follow his gaze to make sure he doesn’t actually see something but come up empty. Or maybe he fell asleep standing up with his eyes open?

“Jaxon.” I stand. “Get your butt back to bed. Seriously, it’s Saturday. Go sleep in.”

“There’s something I’ve been thinking about since Christmas.”

I’m searching the table for my keys. “Yeah, what’s that?”

I’m surprised when I spin around to see Jaxon stalking toward me like a wolf seeking its prey until I’m pressed up against the wall, and he lowers his mouth to mine.

Whereas our first kiss in the alley was fast and demanding, this kiss is anything but. He slowly explores my mouth with his tongue. Not like when you’re young and unsure of what to do with your tongue, so you try to choke the other person by trying to kick their esophagus, but as if he wants to know what every part of my mouth tastes like.

I get lost in his kiss. Am I dreaming this? Holy shit, Jaxon is kissing me in his living room.

“If this is a dream, I sure as fuck don’t want to wake up,” he admits honestly.

I cringe that I had asked that aloud but don’t get the chance to express that wasn’t meant for him to hear because we’re kissing again.

“Do you have plans today?” he asks, his voice raw and husky. It’s sexy as fuck.

I open my eyes and stare deep into his blue eyes. They aren’t full of hostility like they used to, nor the reluctant friendliness as of late. No, instead there is a vulnerability bleeding through.

All the words not said in his gaze send a shiver down my spine, and a direct line of goose bumps erupt on my arms.

“Umm, no plans that I know of.”

“Do you want to spend the day with us?”

“Are you sure?”

He steps back and looks away, feeling my hesitancy. I reach up and cup his beard-covered cheek. “No, I just meant it’s your day off. Don’t you want to spend it with just Andy or maybe do stuff around the house or other adulting things you don’t get to do during the week?”

“I’d like to spend it with you, too. When you’re around, Andy lights up. He looks forward to spending time with you, and life is better when you’re around him.”

I feel brave, or maybe it’s the fuzziness of my brain still reeling from that kiss, but I take a step closer to him and place my palm over his heart. I can feel it ready to beat out of his chest. “And what about you?”

He covers my hand with his. “What about me?”

“Is your life better when I’m around?”

Tags: Stefanie Jenkins I Never Romance
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