Page 235 of Steamy Ever After

Brodie studied her face. There were lines on her forehead and near her eyes that he’d noticed appeared when she talked about Kade. He wondered if his brother had anything to do with her buying her BMW.

“Speaking of the boys, do they have basketball practice again today?” He pulled out his phone to check the time, and she peeked over at it.

“They do. We better get on the road.”

“Would you like to drive?”

“No, I had my fun. I kind of like being a passenger.”

The lines on her face were gone. In their place were happier ones.

“I like seeing you smile.” He reached over and touched her face. “I like seeing you happy. You’re beautiful, Peyton.”

“Thanks.” She looked away from him, but her smile remained.

“And I hate seeing you sad,” he added.

“It can’t always be avoided. It’s there sometimes, as much as I don’t want it to be, things remind me…”

“Like the car?”

“Kade talked me into it. I was looking at the X5, a far more practical vehicle, but he convinced me I didn’t need a ‘mom-car’ anymore. The boys aren’t that old, but he was right. It isn’t like I’m lugging strollers and diaper bags around.”

There were so many things he could ask, like how Kade had been with her boys or if they ever talked about having kids of their own, but he didn’t. He didn’t want to know, and he didn’t want to picture Peyton with his brother.

PEYTON

Brodie held the passenger door open for her, and she breathed in his scent. He didn’t wear much cologne, if that’s what it was. He smelled good, like the salty air and the pines that grew in this area.

“I wish we didn’t have to leave yet,” Brodie murmured, leaning closer to her.

If she turned her head, she’d be close enough to kiss him. Instead, she bent down and got into the car.

Peyton looked out at the sea, thinking about how different she felt with Brodie than she had with either Lang or Kade. It had taken months before she went out with either of them. With Lang, she thought he flirted with everyone—she didn’t believe he was interested in her.

Kade was her friend a long time before he became her lover, and it was longer still before she introduced him to her boys. If he hadn’t sent her the email, asking her out, she never would’ve realized he wanted more than a friendship.

With Brodie, his interest was apparent. There was no pretense. When she and Alex had talked about Brodie being a player, she mentally compared him to her ex-husband. If she hadn’t held out on Lang so long, she doubted he would’ve asked her to marry him. When he did and she hesitated, he’d pressured her. Even then, she felt as though she was Lang’s conquest more than a woman he was in love with.

The other day, Brodie had mentioned something about how she would’ve gotten to know his family better after she and Kade were married. They weren’t together long enough for either of them to consider marriage.

With Lang and Kade, she’d been cautious. In hindsight, she must’ve sensed one or both of them would break her heart. With Lang it was intentional, with Kade it wasn’t.

She often wondered, if she had to do it over again, would she let herself fall in love with him?

“You’re quiet, Ms. Wolf. Which reminds me, do you go by Wolf or Becker?”

“I go by Wolf-Becker officially, although I only keep Lang’s name for the boys’ sake, since they’re Beckers.”

She studied him for a while, wondering how he felt about kids. “I thought about asking him to give up his parental rights, since he hasn’t seen the boys in years and has no desire to. If he did, I could legally change their last name to Wolf, but now that Jamison is ten, I think it’s too late.”

He didn’t respond, but his jaw was tight and his hands gripped the steering wheel harder than necessary.

“Brodie?”

“I’ve never met Lang, and I don’t want to. I don’t understand how a man can leave his kids.”

“He told me he realized he’d never wanted children. He was a big kid himself, and I should’ve recognized it before I married him. I see that now, and I blame myself as much as I blame him.”

---