Page 30 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
“Oh,” she said, her fingers wrapping loosely around the mug again. “You don’t want to?”
“Honestly? Ihad a massage two days ago in preparation for this weekend. You could probably use it more than me,” I lied again, taking a bite of toast and crunching it between my teeth. “If I change my mind, I’ll just request another one later.”
“Thank you?—”
The sound of urgent little footsteps pattering across the tile had me crouching down on instinct, toast forgotten. A second later, Zach rounded the corner at full speed and launchedhimself straight into my arms with a“Daaaaddddy!” so loud it echoed off the villa walls.
I caught him in time to keep us both from going down, wrapping an arm around his legs and the other across his back as I lifted him clean off the ground. My grin stretched wide, automatic, and unstoppable. “Hey, bud. Finished your banana?”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded and held up the empty peel in front of my face like it was a medal before carefully laying it on my shoulder like a sacred offering. “Can I have another?”
I plucked it off my shoulder and dropped it in the trash can. “Manners?”
“Pleeeeease,” he drawled.
I pressed a kiss to his tiny, too-soft cheek and pulled another banana off the bunch before depositing it in his eager hands. “Of course.”
“Thank you,” he grinned, one little tooth missing from his bottom row from when he lost it last week. “Also, also, also, the dinosaurs ended, and I don’t know how to do the buttons here.”
“Sounds dire,” I chuckled, straightening and shifting his weight to my hip instead. “Want to meet someone?”
I flicked my gaze to the breakfast bar, where Sienna sat frozen, halfway through a bite of toast like she wasn’t quite sure if she should interrupt. Zach followed my line of sight, perking up immediately.
“This is Sienna,” I said. “Sienna, this is Zach.”
Zach blinked at her, his head tilting slightly like he was deciding whether or not he approved.
“You’re pretty,” he said,finally, like he was letting her off the hook. I rolled my eyes as he wiggled in my arms. “Can she fix the TV?”
Sienna laughed, a genuine one and not one of the for-show ones from last night, and set down her toast before sliding offher stool. “Imighthave some experience with pesky remotes. I can try.”
“Okay!” He wiggled again, his legs kicking out on either side of my body—his way of requesting being put down—and I let him slide down my body before his little feet landed square on the floor. He clutched his banana in one hand and rounded the corner of the breakfast bar, taking her hand in his other like it was the most casual thing in the world. “It was on T-Rex Time Jam and then it stopped and now it’s onboringpeople.”
“Tragic,” she said with a completely straight face, letting him lead her toward the living room. “We can’t let that stand.”
I watched them go, my son chattering non-stop and Sienna wholeheartedly listening like every word was important, and tried not to let the itching feeling in the back of my head take over at all.
————
The sun burned harsh and golden overhead, filtered through palm trees swaying and the occasional cloud. The villa’s private pool sat beneath a pergola covered in vines and white gauzy curtains that fluttered in the soft breeze, and Zach splashed happily in the shallow end, his floaties strapped to both arms, squealing every time he managed to send a wave high enough to hit the tiled edge.
Poor kid didn’t get to play in a pool nearly as much as he wanted to. I made a mental note to get a quote on getting one installed at home as I sat back in the lounger, sunglasses on, some kind of fruity mixed drink in my hand that Sienna had insisted on making a batch of after her massage for “sun time.”
Zach started to inch his way toward the deeper end, one hand trailing along the edge of the pool like that somehow made it safer, and my stomach knotted.
“Hey, bud,” I called, sitting up a little. “Let’s stay in the shallow end, okay?”
His head flopped back in exasperation. “But I gotfloaties,” he whined. “I won’t sink.”
“You’ve also got exactly zero lifeguard certifications, and so do I. Margot’s not out here,” I said. “Back it up for me.”
He huffed in exaggerated defeat but turned around without protest, paddling weakly back toward the center. “I wasn’t gonna drown,” he muttered, pouting at me. “I’m like, half shark.”
“Terrifying,” I said dryly, sitting back again and taking a sip of my drink.God, okay, that’s good.
The sliding glass door opened with a muffled creak, and Zach’s face lit up like I hadn’t just scolded him for going beyond where I’d told him not to. I turned, looking over my shoulder, anddear God, I should have prepared myself.
Sienna stepped out in a black one-piece, the front of it plunging in a deep V, the sides high on her hips, like that wasn’t the most absurdly flattering piece of clothing I’d seen her in, and my brain short-circuited for half of a second. A coverup hung over her shoulders and arms, gauzy and see-through and hiding barely anything.
