Page 78 of Dream with Me

Chelsea rubs at her sleepy eyes with her fists. “Of course they are, Owlie. Don’t you see their heart eyes all the time? Now, can we get my water?”

Troy and I say nothing. We watch in silence as our six-year-old leads our ten-year-old to the kitchen. Before they step out of the room, I overhear Oliver asking his little sister, “So, what are heart eyes?”

CHAPTER40

TROY

I knock on the front door of the home Shannon and my kids live in. The home I’ve been having sleepovers at for the last couple of weeks. Dr. Linden gave us the okay to reignite the physical part of our relationship, and she also thought we could introduce me spending the night at home sometimes and see how the kids—and us—did with it. So, that’s what we’ve been doing.

Tonight, though, it’s date night. So, I’m picking Shannon up at her front door. We’ve been on dates every week. We also meet for drinks in our kitchen regularly, and those moments, sometimes hours, we spend there are some of the most healing times throughout this entire journey.

The door creaks open, and Oliver stands there, holding Chase the best he can on his hip. Oliver is trying to hold back a grin that I’m sure he wants to come across as serious since I’m picking his mom up for a date and all.

“Daddy!” Chase shifts his weight, trying to get to me, and I reach out to take him from Oliver’s arms.

“Thanks, Dad. That kid’s getting big.” Oliver holds the door open for me. I walk in past him and ruffle his hair as I go. “Flowers, nice touch.”

I hold in a laugh, wanting to match the seriousness in his voice. “Thanks, I wasn’t sure.”

“Oh, she’ll like them, Dad. Girls like flowers.” This kid.

As he leads me further into the house, Chase nuzzles his head into the crook of my neck. I squeeze him tight. It won’t be long until he won’t want to be held anymore. We step into the living room, and my girls—all three of them—are there. Chelsea immediately jumps up and hugs my side. I wrap my hand, holding the flowers around her, and bend down to kiss her head.

“Hi, baby girl.”

“Hi, Daddy.”

I lower Chase to the floor, and he only protests for a second before he’s distracted by Scrappy, who is trying to steal one of his toys. I pull my gorgeous wife into a hug since she’s now within reach.

“Hey, beautiful,” I whisper into her ear. “I missed you.”

She pulls back slightly and looks up at me, “You’ve only been gone a few hours.” Her smile is fucking gorgeous. She rises to her tiptoes and plants a kiss on my lips. “But I missed you, too.”

“Get a room.” I turn my head to see my sister-in-law, Shyley, smirking a few feet away.

“Young ears around, Shy,” Shannon reminds her. She pulls away from me.

“Oops, sorry.” Shyley grabs several pieces of popcorn from the bowl she’s holding and pops them into her mouth, crunching obnoxiously. Olivia squeezes past her, carrying bags of snacks, and gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Strong work bringing flowers.” She tries to whisper it, but Shannon hears and grins.

“Speaking of flowers, are those for me?”

I look over at Shannon and smile.

“They are. Come with me to the kitchen, and we’ll put them in water before we go?”

She takes the hint, and when we get into the kitchen, I set the flowers on the island and back her up to the wall, my hands firmly in place on her waist. I lean down so my lips are almost touching hers.

“You look stunning tonight, chiclet.” I close the distance to her mouth and kiss her like it’s been a month rather than mere hours since I’ve seen her. When I pull back, she’s lightly panting, and I like it. I like getting her worked up like that.

“You do realize I’m wearing jeans and a sweater, right?” Her voice is light and playful, not self-deprecating like it would have been if the same question had come out six months ago.

“Have you seen your ass in these jeans?”

She laughs and gently pushes me away, then goes to the sink, grabs a vase from underneath, and fills it with water. I work on removing the flowers from the packaging while she does.

“I like this side of you, Troy. The side that isn’t so guarded with your words.” She takes the flowers from me and arranges them in the vase, fixing her eyes on them. “You seem lighter. I like that I get this side of you now, too. Does...”

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