Page 72 of Single All the Way

I sat up and awakened my phone to give her enough light to find her pajamas. She stood and pulled on her boxers and long-sleeved sleep tee, then slipped into her robe. I crawled out of our warm love nest and walked the short distance to the door with her.

Before she opened it to sneak away, I pressed her back into it and kissed her one last time for the night, hard, intently, like an exclamation point. With my forearms bracketed on each side of her head, I looked into her eyes in the dimness. “Sleep well, Ems. Dream of me.”

I winked, then let her sneak out, biting down on the urge to make her promise to come back again tomorrow night.

Emerson

I closed Ben’s door silently behind me and crept through the dining room and kitchen. The floor was ice-cold under my bare feet, but I barely noticed. I was too absorbed with Ben’s confession.

Did it scare me? Oh, hell yes.

It turned our fun, fast fling into something more serious, even though we agreed it wouldn’t change the outcome. I couldn’t help but be aware the chances of one of us getting hurt had just skyrocketed. One or both.

I shoved all that aside for now. Instead I closed my eyes and soaked in the warmth and elation of knowing Ben Holloway loved me. Was that self-indulgent? Maybe. I’d worry about the cons later.

I couldn’t deny how good it felt to be loved. I hadn’t thought I needed or wanted that, but between it and the things that man had done to my body, I was warm and buzzy inside, like when you drink just enough alcohol for inhibitions to slip a notch and you veer toward feeling quietly ecstatic.

He’d taken a risk by confiding, but I intended to keep our nighttime trysts going until the kids and I moved out. They were too good not to. As long as Ben knew where we stood, it wouldn’t hurt anything. I felt sure of that because I took him at his word and trusted him.

When I finished in the bathroom, I headed toward the stairs as had become my routine, but at the foot of them, I paused.

I’d be sleeping alone soon enough. It would hurt nothing if I went back into Ben’s room for an extra few hours.

I went to his door, let myself in, and climbed under the blankets next to Ben.

“Hello,” he said, his voice a low purr. “What’s going on?”

“It’s freezing out there.”

“It’s warm under here.” He rolled toward me and wrapped me in his arms. I reveled in the heat and his scent and the feel of his solid body against mine.

“I haven’t changed my stance,” I said. “About long-term anything. I just…didn’t want to go up to my cold, lonely bed.”

“I didn’t want you to go up to your cold, lonely bed.”

I relaxed into him and inhaled deeply, content and tired and incredibly comfortable. “I just want to sleep.”

“Do you want to go back to your room just in case?”

I shook my head. “Not tonight. Can you set an alarm for, like, four?”

“You got it.” He rolled away and set the alarm on his phone, then came back and put his arms around me again.

I shoved away any worries about the future. I was going to relish the next couple of hours sleeping in this man’s arms.

ChapterTwenty

Emerson

There were several events the people of Dragonfly Lake went all out for. The annual holiday parade was one of them.

I was embarrassed to say today was my first as an adult. Up until this year, the parade had been held on a Saturday morning, which conflicted with my job, so Kizzy had taken the kids. This year the organizers had voted to move it to Sunday after much debate over whether it would hurt or help downtown businesses.

“It’s starting! It’s starting!” Skyler jumped up from her kid-sized camp chair as soon as we could hear sleigh bells.

Evelyn and Ruby popped out of their chairs and squealed with my daughter.

The air was electric with anticipation as the square overflowed with people. Ben had told me they came from all around for this parade, and now I believed him. It looked like there were more parade goers than residents.

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