Page 65 of Just My Ex

“I am so sorry.” He places one hand on his hip and the other in his hair, turning from me, shifting his weight.

I touch the place on my collarbone where he’d kissed me. My pulse reverberates in my throat. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay. It’s against the rules.” His glance is smoky, hooded. “I’m sorry.”

I step to him and slide my hands around his waist and to his back. I wait until he meets my gaze. “It’s okay,” I whisper. “Henry, I’ve never stopped loving you.”

I lean up, press my lips to his, and he groans.

“Henry,” I whisper again against his mouth. Brushing against the tiny scar on his top lip lights every nerve ending I have. I grab tufts of his hair in both fists, not even realizing until he makes a sound, a murmur of surprise.

I’m on autopilot, though. Awash in need.

In love.

I’ve always loved him. I never stopped.

I told myself I’d stopped.

But I was lying.

“Wow,” Navie’s voice pulls us apart.

My cheeks bloom with heat. It takes me a moment to recover, to go back to pretending it didn’t happen. I force my breathing to still. And I can’t meet Henry’s gaze. I just can’t. I don’t know what I’ll find.

“Did you eat breakfast yet, my girlie?” I ask her, ravaging my face with the back of my hand, trying to right myself somehow.

We walk into the kitchen. “Yeah, but I want second breakfast,” she says.

It’s cute. I can blame—or credit—Henry for that phrasing. He’s always saying he’s on his second or third meal. We’re all more grazers than three-square-meals-a-day type of people anyway.

We.Like we’re a family again.

“Mommy?” Navie asks as I’m absently gathering items for cereal, like a bowl and a spoon. I have to open the same drawer three separate times to find and locate three spoons. You’d think I was in a remedial cooking class.

Henry appears in the kitchen and leans his shoulder against the wall. I make the mistake of glancing up at him and he’s …

Well, he’s not okay, in the best way possible.

“Mmm hmm?” I belatedly ask Navie, darting my gaze away from his.

“Why did you kiss Daddy?”

Chapter 26

Henry

Good question, Navie.

Why did we kiss?

Because things have changed, and we’ve opened Pandora’s box. It’s a whole mess of everything that we had before and everything that we are now, all jumbled together.

With a flush across her cheeks, Quinn laughs it off, even as I still can’t find any words.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, sweetheart,” she says as she gently tugs on Navie’s pigtail from yesterday, half in, half out. “Which cereal do you want?” She places two boxes of cereal in front of Navie.

Navie pulls a face. “But I saw you.” She makes smooching sounds with her mouth, pressing her hands to her cheeks.

---