Page 73 of Exposed

“No, dude. Stay with your wife. I can find Simon’s pocket knife and nerf guns to bring with him,” he quips, his brown eyes filled with mirth.

“Yeah, they’re next to his coffee maker by the crib,” I joke back.

“Can you imagine a baby hopped up on caffeine?” Deacon laughs and punches my shoulder.

“I don’t want to,” I shake my head. “His stuff is in my room. There’s a pack and play in my closet you can take. His favorite panda bear is on my bed. You’ll need his formula, his bottles, the water warmer, clothes, diapers, wipes….It’s a ton of stuff. Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I brought a duffel to put everything in. This isn’t my first rodeo, kid.” Deacon clicks his tongue and gives me a playful slap to my cheek.

He may be two years younger than me, but he has way more experience with kids since he’s helping raise Indy.

An idea for Pepper and me pops in my head.

“What’s the weather forecast tonight?” I ask.

Noah does a quick search on his phone. “Mild. No precipitation.”

“You’re already planning something dirty aren’t you? Atta boy,” Deacon pats me on the back, and I rub my fingers over my jaw.

“I’m always planning something dirty,” I smirk, and Deacon chuckles.

“Tomorrow morning, call us when you guys wake up, and we’ll meet you back here,” Noah suggests.

“That works. Oh, and Pepper made a schedule for his feeding times.” I point to the fridge.

“I’ll take a photo of it,” Deacon salutes me.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell them about the custody battle. Hopefully, they have ideas for how we can find cold, hard evidence that the Trumans would be unfit guardians for Simon.

I beeline toward Papi holding Simon. If he’s going to be gone tonight, I want my cuddles now. Plus, he probably has to poop before he goes, and Lord knows he only does that when I’m holding him.

30

BOAT RIDE

PEPPER

Simon started falling asleep around 7:00 p.m., and Matt doesn’t like his parents driving late at night, so everyone is gone by 7:30 p.m.

“I’ve got someplace special I want to take you,” Matt announces as soon as everyone leaves. “Bring a change of clothes and your toothbrush.”

“Is it a surprise?” I ask.

“Yeah, wifey. Let’s go.” He twirls his parents’ classic car keys around his fingers.

I blush at him calling me “wifey.” This may be a marriage for the sake of his custody issues, but it doesn’t stop butterflies from taking flight in my stomach. I’ve never had someone want to surprise me before, and it makes me giddy.

An hour later, we’re cruising along the Aveline coast inMatt’s family boat. Matt took his shirt off as soon as we got on the boat, and watching him drive a boat shirtless is hotter than I expected. Honestly, whatever he does shirtless keeps my attention.

Sitting in the passenger seat, I pull my legs up to my chest as the cool ocean breeze blows past us and ruffles my hair.

We slice through the glittering ocean water, and when I look over the side of the boat, the water is lit up with a neon blue color.

“It’s glowing,” I squeal. This is incredible.

“Bioluminescent dinoflagellates. When the water gets stirred around, the algae lights up. Usually they aren’t visible until later in the year. Even the plankton want to be around you, princess,” Matt announces over the noise of the boat.

As our boat cuts through the water, the algae illuminates in what seems like a thousand different shades of blue, and I feel like I’m on another planet. We pass a few couples kayaking in the water, checking out the bioluminescent algae, too.

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