Page 30 of Revived

It’s Friday, so in just eight short hours, I’ll be free for the weekend. Tomorrow we’re taking Grayson to the new aquarium that opened up about an hour away, bringing my parents along since my mother is going stir crazy in the house. She’s going to rent one of those motorized scooters so she doesn’t overexert herself. But I know she’s looking forward to it, especially since she misses Grayson fiercely.

As soon as my last class is done, I decide to pick up some pizza on the way home, texting Rachel first to make sure she hasn’t already started cooking something for dinner. Her enthusiastic reply tells me she’s probably exhausted from my son, so I take advantage and make the evening easier on her. Lord knows, the woman has the patience of a saint when it comes to Grayson, so I can only imagine how she feels by the end of the day.

“Daddy! Did you get extra cheese on the pizza?” Grayson shouts as I make my way inside, my arms full of my bag, coat, and pizza boxes. I also picked up a two-liter of Coke since you can’t have pizza without Coke.

“Um, duh! And hello to you too,” I chide as I set everything down on the island, noticing Rachel isn’t in the room. “Where’s Rachel, bud?”

“She’s in the bathroom.” He yells down the hall. “Rachel! You’d better wash your hands!”

“Grayson!” I chastise him just as Rachel comes laughing down the hallway towards us. I stop momentarily to take her in, her face so full of joy as she comes up to my son and starts tickling him.

“I always know to wash my hands. It’s you who needs the reminder sometimes, silly,” she jokes, kissing him on the cheek before standing to meet my eyes. “Hi. How was your day?” She asks so naturally and I swear my heart tumbles a bit between its next two beats. Her face is free of make-up, which rarely catches me off-guard. But it’s the way I memorize her natural beauty in that moment that makes it hard for me to speak. Her hair is in a messy bun, her yoga pants cling to her legs, and her baggy shirt all signal she’s ready to indulge in some pizza and possibly pass out early.

“Um… it was good. Yeah… good.” Smooth, Luke.

She inhales the aroma of garlic and tomatoes, and then moves around me to the food. “Gosh, that smells good. I’ve been craving pizza,” she declares, popping open the box and then snagging a slice, dropping the end in her mouth, and moaning around the bite.

Fuck. Now my dick is awake.

“Rachel! You’d better share!” Grayson shouts, moving around the island and jumping up to take the pizza from her hands.

“Don’t worry, buddy. There’s plenty,” I say, making my way into the kitchen and fetching paper plates for all of us. Rachel fills up two glasses of Coke and water for Grayson and once our plates are full, we take a seat at the table, eating together like we’ve done almost every night since she moved in with us. Grayson tells me about the new friend he made at the park today. Rachel speaks a bit about the phone call she had with her mom, providing me a glimpse of her life in New York that I realize I know nothing about. And before we know it, the pizza is demolished and Grayson lets out a loud burp, making us all breakout in laughter.

“What do you say, bud?” I ask as he continues to giggle next to me.

“Excuse me,” he mimics in a monster-like voice. “Hey, Daddy. Did you know that a burp is like a fart coming out of your mouth?”

I turn to look at Rachel as she just shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Uh, yeah. That makes sense. Where did you learn about that, bud?” I question as Rachel stands and clears our plates and napkins.

“We watched a video today about it!”

“In my defense,” Rachel chimes in, “it wasn’t the most educational video we’ve seen so far. It started out great, and then the guy turned the table on me before I realized what was happening.”

I raise an eyebrow at her, hoping she clarifies. “Like how?”

“Well, it turned into a video of the guy pranking his buddies. They started burping in each other’s ears and then it progressed to farting,” she whispers, eyeing Grayson in the living room. There’s enough space between us now that he probably can’t hear her anyway.

“Nice,” I laugh. “My son didn’t happen to see that part, did he?”

She shakes her head. “No, I stopped it before the farting stuff.”

“But I take it you watched it?”

She chuckles while covering her mouth in embarrassment, her cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. “Yeah. I mean, I was kind of curious how much worse it could get,” she admits on a shrug, and then starts rinsing a few dishes left in the sink. “It definitely made me grateful that even though I live with two guys, at least it’s you and Grayson.” With a flash of her radiant smile and a wink, I can’t help the feeling of pride that rushes through me.

“Hey, stopping washing dishes. That’s my job.” Coming around the island, I reach for the dish in her hand as her other palm closes over it. Her head pops up at the same time mine does, and I swear I hear her breath hitch. This isn’t the first time we’ve touched, but it is the first time I feel like my entire body gets hot almost instantly. I can smell her, that fruity scent mixed with mint that leaves a trail every time she walks past me in the house. I can see the dark lines in those bright green eyes from how close we are, the closest I think we’ve ever been to each other at this point—and that’s what is warranting my reaction right now. I’m mere inches from Rachel’s face and the only thing going through my mind at this moment is wondering what she tastes like, wondering what she would do if I kissed her right now. As if she can sense my war on cue, she gently drops the dish and steps away.

“Uh, yeah. You’re right. Grayson!” She calls to him as he sits on the living room floor, building something with Legos, his favorite pastime besides studying what weird things the body does. “It’s bath time, honey.”

“Yay! Can I play with that new bath paint?”

“Yes! Absolutely. But you have to show me your best painting.” I watch her walk away from me down the hall, following Grayson into the bathroom, the sway of her hips hypnotizing me before I snap out of it and process what just happened.

I wanted to kiss Rachel. It’s not like the thought hadn’t graced my mind before, but that was the first time I felt the desire to act on it. My pulse is still firing rapidly in my body while I scrub the few dishes in the sink and load them into the dishwasher.

What would she have done? Would she have pushed me away, or would she have welcomed it like I sensed she wanted it as badly as I do? Does Rachel think of me the same way I do of her? I realize at that second that I’m not sure how Rachel feels about me, in a non-platonic way of course. Does she find me attractive? Does she look forward to seeing me when I come home from work? Does she recall the shower incident every night when she goes to sleep like I do, pleasuring herself to the image of my cock that I know she got an eye of that morning? Can I safely admit now that I gave in and jerked myself off in the shower a few days after it happened—the image of her naked, standing there on the rug with the towel hanging from her hands engrained in mind as I rubbed my hand up and down my length. The guilt that I felt after subsided when I finally felt tension leave my body that I didn’t realize I was harboring.

I finish cleaning the kitchen and living room as Grayson gets dressed, and then I put him to bed. Admiring his sweet face and body that gets bigger every day, I slowly shut the door and then make my way to the couch, where Rachel is already snuggled into the corner, blanket over her feet, wineglass in hand, and a re-run of Friends on the television.

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