Page 41 of One Steamy Pucking Meet Cute

I smile as the collection of drinks and food clinks and clatters. Jake is also wearing one of the big, puffy white hotel robes. He’s barefoot with wet hair, like he’s fresh out of the shower.

“What’s this?” I ask.

“Room service. But you looked too hot. I told the guy to leave it outside.” He crawls on the bed and plants a kiss on my forehead. “Not sure I want to risk letting anyone else see you looking like this. I’d have to fight for the right to be your fake fiancé.

I bite my lip as butterflies explode in my chest. Is this real?

“Should we talk about…”

“I got orange juice,” Jake says quickly, almost like he’s purposely cutting me off. “Eggs. French Toast. Fresh fruit. Did I say eggs?”

“Is everything okay?” I’m feeling a little worried now. Does he not want to talk about last night? Because I feel like there’s still plenty more to talk about. Like what happens with Walker if things don’t work out between us. Like whether he wants to be a bigger part of Walker’s life, one way or another. Or even if we want to start telling people, because God, I would so love to tell everybody and stop keeping secrets.

“We have a flight back to Frosty Harbor on the team jet in…” he checks his phone. “Five hours. But I wanted to take you to an aquarium in the city. I love aquariums.”

I smirk. Okay. He’s clearly dodging the topic, but he’s also not pushing me away. That counts for something, right? I should also remember I’m the one who sprung a life-altering surprise on him last night. I should give him the space to digest it how he wants to. If that means not directly talking about it for a little while, I can live with that. “That sounds great. Walker has never been to one.”

“Perfect. What looks good to you?” he says, plucking the silver lids off the trays on the serving cart. I’ll set up your plate.

“Breakfast in bed, huh? Are you trying to win me over or something?”

Jake’s smile is quick, and his movements are a little too frantic. I’ve never seen him quite like this. I try to tell myself it makes perfect sense. The man just found out he’s the father of a two-month-old baby last night. The mother of his child is a woman he has only ever casually hooked up with. Oh, and she was too much of a coward to tell him the truth until after his son was born, so he’s probably understandably pissed with her.

“Jake…” say. “It’s okay if you’re mad at me. I expected you to be mad when I told you. Furious, even. It’s–”

“I’m just…” Jake closes his eyes, holding up a hand to stop me. “I’m processing. But I’m not mad. It’s not that. Could we keep moving forward like things are normal for now? It feels good that way. And I’d like it if we could just pause all the heavier stuff. For now.”

Okay. We’re communicating now, at least. That’s good. “Definitely,” I say quickly, nodding. “Which aquarium is it?”

“The New York Aquarium. The one on Coney Island.”

I lean forward, taking in the smells of all the breakfast food. Walker must smell it, too, because he’s doing his “I’m waking up now” grunts and wiggles in his crib.

“Sounds perfect.”

“Where is everybody?” I ask, looking around in wonder.

The aquarium is one of the biggest in New York, but there’s hardly anybody here.

Jake looks a little bashful. Even though we're inside, he’s wearing a black baseball cap and sunglasses. It’s still clearly obvious he’s Jake Summers, but his little disguise has managed to keep all but one mega fan from stopping us this morning.

“I may have gone online and bought every ticket that was still available for today,” Jake says. “I couldn’t buy out people who purchased ahead of time, but the lady on the phone said I cleared out about 70% of their normal volume for our time block.”

“Why did you do that?” I ask, unable to help but laugh a little. “That’s ridiculous. And it must have cost a fortune.”

He grins. “You seemed overwhelmed when we were getting swarmed on the streets. I thought you might appreciate fewer crowds. Besides the charity, most of my money just sits around anyway. It feels kind of good to have a reason to splurge.”

“I’m your reason to splooge?” I ask, giving him a teasing bump. “Is that what you just said?”

His eyes flash with arousal and amusement. “Yes, Caroline Prince. You are a very, very good reason to splooge. And for the record, I said ‘splurge,’ not ‘splooge.’”

We spend the first hour walking slowly through the massive building. We stop and slow down inside a half-tube tunnel made of glass. Deep blue water hangs overhead as all sorts of fish drift by in the water. Jake has Walker out of his carrier, and he’s holding him, pointing out fish while asking him questions.

It’s adorable because Walker is absolutely clueless. Mostly, he’s just drooling on himself and grunting, but Jake doesn’t seem to mind.

Sneakily, I snap a picture of them on my phone. I don’t know how things will wind up with the three of us, but I want some photo evidence of how good Jake is with his son. Also, Jake’s ass looks amazing in those jeans. It wouldn’t hurt to also have a little photo evidence of that.

The two of them are like magnets for passing women, though. Even if Jake bought out most of the tickets, a small trickle of other people is still going through the aquarium. I’m not surprised, considering plenty of people probably book ahead of time before taking trips to the city.

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