Page 58 of Reckless Single Daddy

We stay together like that for a few minutes, panting and laughing with exhaustion. Finally, she slips off me and lies beside me with her head tucked under my chin. We catch our breath for several minutes, and she presses tender kisses along my bare chest. I hum contentedly, savoring the tender, vulnerable moment we’re sharing with no reservations. What a long way we’ve come as a couple.

“Two years together, and the sex still doesn’t suck,” Sloane quips.

I laugh, running my hand along her back. “Aren’t we the luckiest?”

Giggling, she presses a quick kiss to my lips, then pulls back to take a few tissues from the nightstand. She wipes herself between her legs before tending to me, and I swallow as she gently cleans me off. I love these loving moments we share, the care she shows me.

She pulls away once more to grab her phone off the table. “It’s half past eight,” she notes as she looks at the screen. “We’re on the clock now, so better make ourselves decent.”

She quickly slides on her shirt, underwear, and shorts, and I pull my boxers back on. As if on cue, our bedroom door pops open, and a tiny head of blond hair comes running inside.

“Kaleigh! I told you not to open the door!”

Liam, now eleven, comes rushing into the room. He’s slightly taller, a little broodier, but still an amazing kid.

And an incredible big brother.

Unfazed, Kaleigh reaches the bed. After making a poor attempt to climb on, Sloane takes pity on her, leaning down to pick her up and place her in her lap.

“Someone just wanted to see her mommy, huh?” Sloane chirps as she taps our daughter’s nose playfully.

Kaleigh giggles as Liam rolls his eyes.

“At some point, she’ll learn to knock. Won’t you, darling?” I chuckle, tickling her little belly. She lets out another peal of laughter, and I look back at Liam. “Thanks for trying, bud,” I tell him with a grin.

He shrugs. “She’s a year and a half. Rome wasn’t built in a day, I guess,” he says.

I laugh as I look at Kaleigh again. She is the spitting image of Sloane, with her golden hair and sapphire eyes. It’s hard to believe that within just two years, we’ve gotten to this point: married, a child of our own, and raising Liam together. Sloane’s career is taking off internationally, and Hart, Inc. is doing better than ever. Especially since I officially reopened the marina in town.

My team and I restored the marina with all the updated equipment it so badly needed. Now tourism is back and stronger than ever in Rose Valley, keeping the town’s economy in ship-shape. Better yet, the local community has returned to the water.It became such a rarity to see locals on the lake because no one felt safe anchoring off the dilapidated marina. Now we can hold all the fun, traditional boating events during the holidays that makes the area so special.

“Oh, hey, we got some news to tell you,” I say to Liam.

His eyes widen in alarm. “If it’s another baby, I don’t want it,” he says, only half-joking. I know he wouldn’t really care if Sloane was pregnant again, but Kaleigh is enough for all of us right now. Maybe somewhere down the line, we’ll have another one.

I nudge Sloane so she can share her news. She smiles widely at Liam. “My new collection is heading to a gallery in London,” she announces.

Liam’s face breaks into a smile. “That’s awesome, Mom! Congratulations!”

I close my eyes for a moment. I’m still getting used to him calling Sloane that. I know it shouldn’t make me sad. If anything, I feel happy knowing Liam adores Sloane so much that he feels comfortable enough to call her that. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t feel a little guilty about it.

But then I remember that Sloane has been the mother figure Liam always needed and wanted. For years, he wondered why all the other kids had moms, but he didn’t. I would tell him that I hoped he would one day have someone in his life he could lookat as a mom but never feel like he had to replace his real mother with her. And then Sloane came along and became all that and more. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in life to grow my family and make me see that there is more to life than just work and living for my son.

If you had told me life would be like this two years ago, I’d have laughed in your face. Especially if you told me I’d be sharing a life with my best friend’s younger sister. But somehow, some way, Sloane and I found each other again and we worked. We’ve fixed each other in the areas we needed help in and became exactly what we needed for the other person. Sloane has saved me in more ways than I can count, and I’ll never stop being grateful to her for reminding me what happiness can look like.

Our life truly couldn’t be any better.

And to think all we needed was a hook-up in a public bathroom.

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