Page 52 of From Maybe to Baby

Include what? Include the way water runs down his abs? Include how his dad voice somehow makes him hotter? Include how he keeps catching me staring and grinning like he knowsexactly what I'm not writing about? Include how watching him parent is threatening my carefully constructed child-free vibe?

"Miss Minty." Lukas yells, waving from his boogie board, nearly capsizing himself in the process. "Watch this."

I watch him perform what’s supposed to be body surfing, which looks more like enthusiastic drowning. Jonas steadies him with those hands that I definitely haven't been thinking about since our almost-kiss on the balcony before he kicked me out of his suite. I took no offense. I needed to leave, anyway.

But his touch is so gentle, so sure—the same way he steadied me during our conversation about Genny. The same way he...

Nope. Not going there.

My phone buzzes. Ryan:

Draft status?

Working on it

You said that yesterday

Very thorough research

Is that what we're calling it? Because TMZ has different words for it

I'm observing family activities

You're observing something alright. Have you seen their latest headline?

I click the link he sends, immediately regretting it. There Jonas and I are, at the sunset dinner. The photos aren't even bad—just a family having dinner on the beach. Except the way Jonas is looking at me in them... like I'm some kind of answer to a question he hasn't asked yet. And worse, the way I'm looking back.

Shit, shit, shit.

"Daddy, Miss Minty isn't watching." Jace's protest draws my attention back to the water, where she's attempting to stand on her board while wearing what appears to be three different types of flotation devices, like the world's smallest competitive lifeguard. "She's looking at her phone.”

"Sorry, Jace." I tuck my phone away, catching Jonas's knowing smile. "You have my full professional attention."

"Professional?" he calls over the kids' heads, and the way his eyes crinkle at the corners should be illegal. Everything about him should be illegal, in fact—the way he teaches his kids with endless patience, the way his board shorts sit just low enough to be distracting, the way he keeps looking at me like...

The resort's body surfing program provides individualized instruction from certified...

Another buzz. Mom this time:

Three-day rule update?

I don't know what you're talking about

The photos say otherwise

What photos?

The ones where you're looking at him like I used to look at Gerard

You left Gerard

Because he wanted to clip my wings. This one looks like he might help you fly

That's disturbingly poetic for eleven a.m.

Love makes poets of us all

Who said anything about love??

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