Page 31 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
I forgot how tobreathe.
I didn’t hear what Zach said, but she was laughing at it, full and bubbly and stupidly distracting, her hair pulled back in a loose braid, her sunglasses resting high on her nose.
Effortless.Lethal.
She squatted down beside the edge of the pool, setting her glass of fruity-whatever-it-was on the concrete before shifting and dipping her feet in. “You want to learn how to float without the floaties?”
Zach nodded furiously.
She grinned and slipped the coverup off her shoulders, her skin still slick from the massage oil and what I could only assume was sunscreen, and I had to swallow the sound threatening to claw its way up my throat with another sip of my drink, my shorts suddenly feelingfartoo tight. I lifted my leg to mitigate the damage as she slid into the pool.
She helped him out of his floaties and guided him through the water, hands careful and patient, her voice so effortlessly encouraging. She didn’t hover, and most of all, she didn’tbabyhim — she let him try, fail, try again.
And helovedher for it.
I’d never seen him take to someone so quickly. But Sienna was good with kids — I’d known that the moment I’d realized who she was. She was a teacher, and she loved her job. I shouldn’t have expected less.
But it still made my chest feel slightly too tight when she held him gently as he practiced floating on his back, his eyes squinting from the sun, and praised him. “You’re doingamazing,” she said. “I swear, if you keep practicing, you could swim laps in a week.”
Zach beamed up at her, his little curls floating in the water around his head. “Maybe Daddy will get us a pool so I can swim more when we’re home.”
Sienna grinned down at him. “You could ask himreallynicely and I’m sure he’d consider it.”
“I’ll text my contractor,” I chuckled, slipping my phone from my pocket.
I heard their exchange as I typed out my questions about in-ground or above-ground, square footage, and depth.
“Maybe we can swimtogetherat home,” Zach said.
There was a brief pause—so quick that he probably didn’t notice, but I heard it. Heard the way she breathed in, the way the water sloshed around them as she hesitated.
“Yeah, maybe,” she murmured, her voice a little softer. “If your dad invites me.”
Zach didn’t miss a beat. “I’ll invite you.”
My heart thudded hard against my ribs.Fuck.
Sienna laughed, a little breathier than she’d been before. “Well, that’s hard to argue with.”
Later, when Zach was curled up on a towel in the lounger to my left with his iPad and a popsicle, I let myself look at her for longer than a few fleeting seconds.
I shouldn’t have.
But I didn’t stop myself.
She was lying back in the grass to my right, her body stretched over a towel, one leg bent just slightly, her skin lightly bronzed by the sun. Her sunglasses were off and discarded near her head, her arm flung across her eyes like she was shielding herself from more than just light.
Her one piece clung to her like a second skin now, damp and drying in the breeze, and I had to force myself not to stare at the little crease between her thighs. Water droplets glinted at the edge of her collarbone, sliding down over her shoulder, over that same little freckle that had caught my attention when I’d been buried inside of her halfway over the Atlantic. Her braid was starting to unravel at the nape of her neck, damp strands curling against her skin, andGod, I wanted to brush them back, wanted totouch.
The rise and fall of her chest was steady, nipples pressing into the wet fabric. Her lips were parted like she’d dozed off mid-thought, pink and soft and maddeningly close to me, and I couldn’t decide what part of me I wanted them on most.
But then she moved.
Her fingers twitched first, then her arm, sliding down just enough to reveal her face. Her eyes blinked open, straight at me.
I didn’t look away. I didn’twantto.
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