Page 29 of A Very Miller-Cooper Life

“Speaking of which, how is the graphic designing going? Still getting a bunch of commissions?”

I nodded excitedly. “More and more every day. It’s actually getting hard to keep up.” I didn’t say anything else because I knew if I got started, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I was still so happy with what I was doing for a living. I couldn’t believe there was ever a time Ididn’tdo it.

After a few minutes, Mary Beth and Jackie moved on to talk to more guests and we spent the rest of the night dancing with Jamie, Ethan, Courtney, and Nicole. When the reception ended, I was so drunk on alcohol and love that I could barely walk straight.

I blinked down at my phone as I tried to open the Uber app to find a ride back to our hotel. Charlie put her hand over the screen so I couldn’t see it. “I have a better idea. Let’s walk to my parents’ house.”

“You want to stay at your parents’ house?” There was no way I heard that right. Charlie had been even more adamant than me about getting a hotel. “What was the point of getting a hotel?”

“We’re still going to stay at the hotel. We’re just going to stop there on the way.” Charlie loosened my tie, then took it off of me and put it around her neck instead. The act was super hot and if she hadn’t just told me she wanted to stop at her parents’, I would have thought she was trying to seduce me.

“No one is even going to be awake at their house.” I needed to think of any excusenotto go there. Charlie looked way too sexy wearing my tie with her dress to go anywhere with other people.

“That’s kind of the point.” Charlie ran her eyes up and down my body the same way I had caught her doing multiple times throughout the night, and even though it wasn’t the first time, her gaze still set my body on fire. “We’re not even going to go inside. I thought maybe we could reminisce on that first summer we got together.”

“What do you—” My mouth went dry when I realized what Charlie was getting at. “You want to have sex in the lake behind your house.” I swallowed hard, barely able to breathe just at the thought of the first (and only, unfortunately) time we did that.

Charlie had looked so incredibly sexy as she led me to the water that night. Except, the thing was, ten years and three kids later, she was even sexier to me. I wouldn’t have been able to say no if I wanted to, and Idefinitelydidn’t want to. “Let’s do it.”

Charlie and I giggled the whole time we walked to her parents’ house. We tried, and failed, to hold our laughter in as we made our way through the yard. It was as if we were two teenagers who had just snuck out of the house for the first time ever.

We fumbled around as we sloppily removed our clothes. Since Charlie had less to take off, she jumped in before me. Seeing her naked body pop out of the water was enough motivation to get the rest of my clothes off and hop in after her.

Charlie swam over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “It might not have been our smartest idea to do this after we’ve been drinking all night.”

“I have a solution for that.” I slid my hand between her legs and ran my fingers through her folds. “Why don’t I get you drunk on somethingotherthan alcohol?”

Charlie moaned and laid her head on my shoulder. “You don’t need to touch me for me to be drunk on you. I’malwaysdrunk on you.”

“Even after all this time?” I asked softly, my voice cracking since this moment mixed with the alcohol had me on the verge of tears.

Instead of answering right away, Charlie picked her head up and brought her mouth to mine. She kissed me long and hard until I forgot all about where we were. Hell, this kiss was so goodit had me forgetting my own name. When she pulled away from the kiss, Charlie stayed still and stared at me silently for what felt like forever. When she finally spoke, her words cracked me open. “Especiallyafter all this time.”

I spent the next hour making love to my wife in the lake behind the house she grew up in. The house where I first met her. The place where we fell in love. This place might have held a lot of bad memories for Charlie, but I hoped she was able to hold dear all of the amazing memories we had made here.

As I held onto her as we both floated in the water (completely spent from what we had just done) and kissed her slowly, I thanked god for bringing me to that awful family reunion all those years ago.

Chapter 7

Charlie

When I woke up the next morning, it took me a minute to remember where I was. I looked around the hotel room as the memories from the night before came flooding back into my mind.The wedding. The lake. The way Reagan looked at me after we made love as if it was the first time all over again.And it really had felt like it was.

I rolled over in bed, expecting her to be beside me, but was surprised when I found nothing but empty space. As if she somehow knew I was looking for her, she walked out of the bathroom at the very moment, already showered and dressed.

“Shit. What time is it?” I moved my hand around the bed as I tried to find my phone. “Do we need to check out soon?”

Reagan laughed as she walked over to the bed and sat down beside me. “No. Not even close. It’s barely past eight. I couldn’t sleep anymore because I miss the kids.” Before I could say anything, Reagan bumped her shoulder against mine and smirked at me. “I know I couldn’t stop talking about how excited I was to have this night away, but now I can’t stop thinking about how much I miss those cute little faces.”

“Let’s see if you still feel that way when it’s time to put them down for a nap.”

“You mean when we attempt to put them down for an hour then give up and read to Carter while Olivia watches TV and Ronan tries to do flips off of the couch?” Even though I was complaining I still felt a pull of longing as I thought about them. They really were adorable, and I loved their different personalities.

Reagan sighed. “Precisely. Maybe we should give up on the whole napping thing now that they are four. Most things I’veread say kids stop napping between three and four. We might need to let go of the hope that we can still get them to.”

I pushed my bottom lip out into an exaggerated frown. “But that hope is the only thing that gets me through the morning sometimes.”

Reagan ran her thumb along my lip and smiled. “It also leads to disappointment every time it doesn’t happen.”

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