Page 71 of Before This Ends (Before)

Her shoulders sag with relief, and she walks to me. Since she’s still holding the dog, she presses her face into my stomach instead of hugging me.

“How was school?” I bend to kiss the top of her head, and Dolly wiggles between us.

“Good.”

“Did you do your homework?” I ask, resting my hand of the back of her neck as we follow Emma out of the room.

“Yes, but not my reading.”

“After dinner, you need to get that done.”

“I know. Emma already told me,” she grumbles, and I grin at Em when she turns to look at me over her shoulder smiling.

“You’re gonna have to put the dog down to eat, and you need to wash your hands.”

Reluctantly, she does as she’s told, then—what has become our nightly ritual—we sit around the table to eat, then play a game of Go Fish. After dinner, Winter climbs under the coffee table with Dolly, who had fallen asleep there, and does her reading while I go out and get all of the shit from Emma’s car. When I get back upstairs, Winter is in the shower, and Emma is in the kitchen on her phone, sitting at the counter.

Leaving Dolly’s stuff in the cart I took downstairs, I place Emma’s box on the island, close to her seat.

“What are you doing?” I walk up behind her and smooth her hair over her shoulder so I can kiss the side of her neck.

“Checking my schedule for tomorrow, so I’ll know what time I need to leave in the morning to go get ready for work.” She tips her head to the side, and I smile, rubbing my lips behind her ear. The slight catch in her breath makes my dick twitch.

“What time?” I watch her slide through the calendar on her phone.

“My first client is at ten, so I’ll leave at eight when you go to drop Winter off at school, unless you want me to drop her on my way out?” She meets my gaze over her shoulder, and the moment our eyes lock, I feel like I’ve been sucker-punched.

Shit.

“What?” She frowns.

“Nothing.” I drop a quick kiss to her mouth, distracting her and myself. “Are you good with taking her?”

“Of course,” she says softly. “Tomorrow evening, I have an appointment to go look at an apartment, so I’ll be here later than normal.”

“Karen will be here.” I fight the instinct to tell her she doesn’t need to look for an apartment. I know she’s still nervous about us, still wondering if this is going to work. I have none of those same reservations.

Stepping away from her, I take the album out of the box and hand it to her, and she wipes her hand over the tattered leather cover. I pull out the stool next to hers and take a seat.

“When was the last time you looked at it?”

“Years ago.” She glances over at me, then sets it on the island and brings her legs up so she’s sitting crossed-legged on the stool. I turn to straddle her seat between my legs, just to make sure it doesn’t tip backward, then watch her open the first page. A small smile touches her lips, while she smooths her fingers over a black-and-white photo of an older couple standing in a kitchen, with a huge pot on a small stove in the background.

“That’s my Nanny and Papa Vin.”

“What are you guys doing?” Win comes out of her room, dressed in her pajamas with her hair wet and Dolly in her arms. The damn dog is going to forget how to walk, the way she keeps toting her around.

“Looking at pictures,” Emma tells her softly, and Win climbs up on her lap, my thighs tensing to keep the stool steady.

“Who’s that?”

“My grandma and grandpa.”

“The grandma who taught you to cook?”

“Yeah,” she says, smiling, then turns the page.

“Is that your mom and dad?” Win asks, pointing at a young couple standing in front of a house with flowers blooming in the beds behind them. The man is a giant compared to the pretty blonde woman tucked protectively at his side under his arm, her hand resting on his flat stomach. The two of them are smiling at the camera. Happy, in love.

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