Page 66 of Stolen Kisses

“Let me go!” she hisses out, trying to pull her wrist free of my grip.

I use my hold to pull her around to face me. The tinge of red to her cheeks and heavy breaths causing her breasts to heave up and down capture my attention and I almost forget why I’ve got her like this in the first place. Everymoleculein my body wants toleanforward and kiss her. Kiss away the hurt and anger from before. Fill her up with my apology.

Pressing her up against the side of my house, I slam my mouth down onto hers out of desperation. She struggles, her feminine hands pushing on my chest. I catch them in mine but don’t relent with my kiss.

“Ow.” I pull back, wiping my lip to check for blood. The minx bit my lip.

She uses my shock to push against me, giving her space. “Don’t you dare touch me like that again. You lost that right when you walked out of my bedroom and my house without a backward glance. With no thought about theimpactyou stepping out of my life and my boys’ lives would have on us. No contact. No explanation,” she spits at me, her voice full of venom.

“Ahem!”

Both of our heads snap toward the back of my house. Sarah’s standing there, arms crossed under her breasts, eyebrows raised in question. Emma uses the opportunity to walk away from me and all I can do is watch the sweet sway of her ass. Sarah wraps her arm around her sister, giving me the evil eye over her shoulder, before guiding Em to the back deck.

With my hands on my hips, my head drops forward in shame. I take a couple of moments to gather myself, then head back inside to finish preparing the cake for Kenny. Icollecteverything I need and carry it to the table. Everyonecomes in closeto make a fuss over Kenny, singing her happy birthday. It takes every ounce of my being to be present in this moment for Kenny and not get lost in the taste of Emma’s mouth beneath mine or the feel of her body as I pressed against her. Kenny’s having a wonderful time, enjoying the attention from everyone.

“Blow out your candles and make a wish, Munchkin,” I prompt.

She closes her eyes tight, sucking in a deep breath before blowing out the candles with exuberance—five-year-old spittle fliesall over the cake. When all of the candles extinguish, she pulls back with a proud smile on her face. “Wanna know what I wished for, Uncle Theo?”

“It’s bad luck to tell anyone what you wished for. You need to keep it close to your heart so it comes true.”

Her little face turns serious as she contemplates my words. With a serious nod, she replies, “Okay. I can do that.”

Emma hands her a knife and helps her to cut through the cake. “Don’t touch the bottom of the cake, or your wish won’t come true.”

“I won’t. I really want my wish to come true.” Emma smiles at Kenny, and I know it’s because she noticed that Kenny pronounced her words correctly.

We all enjoy the chocolate cake which Emma lovingly made for my girl. It’s getting late, so Emma and her family go home, leaving me alone with Kenny and Dad. The house suddenly feels too big and too quiet with everyone gone. We clean up and bring her new dolls’ house, which is now completely furnished, inside.

“Can we look at my baby photos, please?” Kenny begs, so I dig them out.

Dad and I sit on either side of Kenny, with her baby album on her lap. She carefully turns the pages and studies each photo. Dad comments on some of the images. When Kenny turns to the next page, it’s filled with photos of me with Kenny when she was born.

“Uncle Theo, it’s you!”

I ruffle her hair. “Yeah, it’s me. I came to visit you and your mom when you were born.”

When I look closely at the photographs, particularly at myself, I can see the love I had for my niece. I remember feeling incredibly protective over herandstaying with Anna and Dad for a couple of weeks. I checked around the entire house, making sure it was baby proofed to my satisfaction; getting down on my hands and knees to see what was available for a baby to get into. Anna laughed at me. She said I was getting ahead of myself because it would be a while before Kenny would be moving around independently. I also remember how much I hated leaving them. For the first few weeks, Anna and I would FaceTime so I could see Kenny, but then schedules got in the way and those calls became fewer and fewer. Then Anna got sick and I couldn’t bring myself to see her deteriorate, so the few calls became short text messages.

Somewhere along the way, I forgot how important these people were to me. I pull Kenny in closer, leaning down to kiss the top of her head, my chest feeling heavy.

Once we’ve looked through every single photo at least twice, I get Kenny ready for bed and say goodnight, so Dad can read her a story. When he eventually comes downstairs, I hand him a beer. “Youwannasit on the back deck? It’s still nice out.”

“Sure.”

We sit quietly for a while, enjoying the sound of the cicadas in the evening, the darkening sky only littered by the starlight and an almost full moon. Dad takes a pull of his beer.

“So, how are things going with you and Emma? I sensed some tension there today.”

Tension would be an understatement. “Things are over between us. I was … uh … surprised she showed up this afternoon after the way I left things between us.”

He puts his beer on the table, leaning forward, giving me his full attention. “What happened?”

How do I tell my father I’m an asshole? To be fair, he probably already knows this about me. “I was a complete and utter asshole.”

He nods, resigned. “Wanna tell me about it?”

Do I? My shoulders slump in defeatasI take in a deep breathready totell my father what transpired between Emma and me. He sits, silently taking in my misdeeds. Once I finish my recount of the events, he reaches across, squeezing my shoulder firmly. He nods his head gently, almost to himself, a sadness filling his eyes. I can feel the disappointment radiating off of him, it’s a familiar feeling.

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