Page 86 of Just My Ex

I breathe her in. Everything about this feels wrong. Saying goodbye to her when I finally feel ready to give her my whole self.

Navie scatters the grass she’d picked up into the air and runs to join us in a group hug. “Pretend there’s a big dog hugging us, too,” Navie says.

Quinn and I laugh. I lift Navie in my arms. “That would be amazing. Except dogs smell. And lick. If you had a dog, he would lick you, Navie.”

At that, she sticks out her tongue and licks my face. I pull back and cry out in pretend shock. Quinn’s only laughing.

Navie manages to get in another quick lick of my forehead before I get her settled in her car seat, which is a feat, considering she’s now got her hands up in paw shape and is breathing with her tongue hanging out, trying to lick my arm every chance she gets.

I give her one more hug and a kiss on her cheek. “Bye, Navie. I love you. I’ll see you soon.”

She responds with a bark and a wave of her “paws.”

Quinn lingers at the driver’s side door, her face etched with concern. “How about you? So much focus on my safety, what about yours?”

“Things are safe most of the time, especially for Evangeline. My presence is precautionary.”

I lift a hand to her upper arm, squeeze it gently, and stare into those beautiful hazel eyes, with bits of warm golds, greens, and tans.

She squeezes my hand in place, tilting her cheek to it. She then lifts it off her shoulder and guides it around to her back so we can hug.

“Thank you for all you’ve done,” she whispers, her breath coming a little fast. “I think I might miss you, King Henry.” She laughs as if she can hardly believe it herself.

“I know I’m going to miss you, my Queen.”

Tilting her face back, she takes in my gaze. “We know better now, though, right? We’re going to do things better now. We’ll co-parent like professionals. We’ll be more communicative …” She tries to brighten in a smile, but it’s heavy with doubt. Or sadness. Or maybe both.

I slide my fingertips along her forehead and draw a strand of her hair away so I can see her better. “Absolutely.”

If she asked me to come with her now, I would without hesitation.

I lift her chin and press a kiss to her lips and only a few seconds in, I feel her surrendering to me, her lips coaxing mine. The rain splashes gently on our cheeks. I could stay here, like this, until we’re drenched from the rain.

If I don’t control myself and stop kissing her now, I will lift her in my arms and take her back to the guest room. However, Navie’s a captive audience right now and well, that’s enough of a deterrent, too.

“Thank you for letting me try to help,” I say after dragging my lips from hers.

She nods once, her gaze darting all around me. “Thank you, Henry.” Then, without another word, she gets in the car and drives away.

I watch them go and I don’t know how long I stand there, at war with myself about whether or not it was the right thing to let her drive away.It’s only temporary, I tell myself. I’m putting all the pieces into place to join her down there soon.

Now, the rain’s just annoying. I start to head back inside my parents’ house when I get a phone call.

It’s the security team at Longdale Lake Resort.

Chapter 35

Quinn

“Mom, my dog!”

Right near the beginning of our time at the resort with Henry, he taught Navie to call people “my dawg.” It was cute and funny, until it wasn’t, since she started calling random strangers that at the resort and some of them were less than thrilled. They didn’t know it was a term of endearment.

It’s been surprisingly hard to break her of that habit.

So, as she’s saying that to me as we’ve left Henry’s parents’ suburb, it’s not registering that she means something else.

And okay. My heart is pounding so loudly in my ears, and I’m so distracted with thoughts of Henry, that I’m not paying the best attention.

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