Page 55 of Buried Dreams

“We’re going to the park,” Saige tells her.

“Oh fun, would you like a little tour of the bakery?” She holds open the door. Saige doesn’t even wait for me; instead, she walks in. I follow her and squeeze her hip as I walk in, and I’m in shock at the progress that the shop has had in two weeks.

“It’s so big,” Saige says, turning around in a circle.

“It is, isn’t it?” Everleigh agrees. “This is going to be a little seating area.” She motions to the front where they made it bigger. “And then this is where the cases are going to be for the donuts.” Her eyes light up as she discusses it all.

She looks around. “What do you think, Saige?” She walks over to the wall at the end. “Should we do the walls a cotton-candy pink or a baby blue?”

“I like the pink,” she declares, and Everleigh smiles as she nods.

“Me too,” she says, folding her arms over her chest.

“Want to come to the park with us?” I finally get the courage to ask. “And then after, ice cream?” I don’t even know I’m holding my breath.

“I don’t want to intrude on your time,” she says softly.

“It’s fine,” Saige says. “Dad usually sits by himself, so you can sit with him.”

I raise my eyebrows. “And then we have ice cream from Wild Billy’s.”

“Well, I can’t say no to Wild Billy’s,” she says to her. “Only if you promise to try out all the new donuts that I’m going to make this week.”

“I can do that,” Saige assures her, making me laugh.

We walk out and over to the park. Saige runs to play while I sit on the bench with Everleigh beside me. I want to lean in to kiss her, but I’m not sure it’s the right time. So instead, I put my arm on the back of the bench and rub my thumb up and down her bare arm. We sit quietly as we watch Saige run around with friends of hers, before she comes over and asks Everleigh if she ever did the monkey bars. Everleigh laughs at her as the two of them go off, and then back and forth on the monkey bars.

“My whole body is going to hate me later,” Everleigh complains when she finally walks back over to me. Watching the two of them spend time together is something I didn’t know I needed in my life.

We don’t stay at the park long enough for my liking, and after ice cream, she gives Saige a hug goodbye before walking back to the bakery.

I ache to kiss her. I ache to hold her. I ache to be with her, with the both of them at the same time. I make dinner with Saige on the couch reading her book. A shower is next and then she goes to sleep at around nine thirty.

I pull out my phone, and instead of texting her, I call her, and she answers after two rings. “Hey,” she says, and I close my eyes and lean my head back on the headboard.

“Want to come and make out with me?” I whisper and hear her laugh. “We have to be quiet. We can make out on the couch or my bed.”

“You are incorrigible.” She laughs. “Be there in five.” She disconnects the phone.

I walk out of the house to sit down to wait for her. She gets out of her car wearing a pair of loose shorts and a matching top. “Are those your pj’s?”

“Well, yeah,” she admits, walking toward me, “I was in bed.”

“Really?” I say when she is close enough, and I don’t wait a minute more before my mouth is on hers. “Fuck,” I hiss when I slide my tongue into her mouth. “Bed or couch?”

“Bed. That way, I can sort of hide if she comes to your room,” she decides. I slide my hand into hers as I make my way into the darkened house, feeling like my house just became a home.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

EVERLEIGH

“I have to go,” I whisper to him as he bends his head to give me another mouthwatering kiss. My hands come up to grip the front of his shirt as I listen to the birds chirping in the background. He finally lets go of my lips for just a second before coming back and softly pecking them. “You need to stop doing that.” My eyes finally flutter open as I stare at him, taking him all in. His hair is all over the place from my hands running through it.

“I don’t want you to go,” he admits, and my heart surges in my chest because I don’t want to go either.

“You have to go and be a dad.” I smile. I kiss under his jaw, the bristles from his beard pricking me. “Call me later if you can.”

I slowly slip out of his arms and jog slightly to my car, not slamming the door, afraid I’m going to wake Saige up. I start the car, hoping that it doesn’t make noise, before I drive away with a last wave. I look in the rearview mirror until I get to the stop sign at the corner of his street. I see him standing there in shorts that are hanging on his hips. Shorts he slipped on about five minutes before he walked me to the door. Opting to lie on his bed next to me in his boxers, even though I made it one thousand percent clear to him that we were not going to do anything that would require either of us getting naked. So instead, we made out like we did when we first started dating, dry humping each other, and it was magnificent.

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