Page 90 of What About Us
My mind floats back to that night at Christmas, then forward to that kiss on our wedding day. It bounces to every heated moment we’ve shared the last few weeks. The way she kisses me, the way she moans into my mouth, the way she moved against my thigh in the hotel until she came. The memory of it all has me thickening in my pants.
“Daddy,sing,” Paige says, nudging me out of the sexual daze, when Maui starts singing about sprouting a tree of coconuts or some shit. I’m only half-listening because I’m trying to keep my mind off the fact that all I want right now is to get my best friend—my wife—naked.
I mumble along with the words as Paige sings every single line next to me. She grins up at me and I ruffle her hair. Picking up my phone, I check the time. Could time go any slower?
A text message lights up my phone in my lap. Tristen. Before I can tip the screen away from Paige, her eyes lock on the screen. “Mommy’s texting,” she exclaims, her face lighting up. “What is she saying, Daddy?”
I hate how eager she is for the smallest nugget of news from her mom. The woman doesn’t deserve our daughter’s devotion. Texts or phone calls from Tristen tend to either put Paige on edge or disappoint her.
I can see Finn watching me in my periphery. Quickly scanning the message, my shoulders simultaneously slump away from my ears as my gut tightens in a weird mix of relief and anxiety. She isn’t canceling. She’s coming in September and plans to stay a week. It irritates me that she’s planned a trip for when Paige will already be in school. What the fuck?If she thinks I’ll be pulling Paige out of school so they can spend time together, she’s delusional. I consider not telling Paige, but she’s looking at me with wide, expectant eyes, and I can’t lie to her.
“She’ll be here in September.” I show Paige the text message with the dates listed out.
She gasps and jumps up, running around the couch into the kitchen. Finn and I share a look, mine subdued and hers skeptical. Neither of us wants Tristen to wreck Paige’s world, and the chances that she will are high, whether because she cancels last minute or comes only to leave her again. Both will break her six-year-old heart. But I can’t keep her from her daughter. I’m not that guy.
Paige comes tearing back into the living room a couple of seconds later, the calendar from the kitchen wall flapping as she does. “She’ll be here for the Mommy and Me Day, Daddy!”
Realization hits me and I glance over at Finn just in time to see her gaze falter and drop to her Kindle. A blaze of warmth rushes up her chest, the skin there and on her neck turning splotchy. My heart squeezes.
Reaching out, I take Paige’s hands in mine. “Paige, you already invited—”
Paige deflates. “But she’s not Mommy,” she says, cutting me off, matter-of-factly.
Her words punch me in the gut. Paige has no way of knowing that, as of a week ago, Finn is very much her stepmom. And after everything, I hate that she’d choose Tristen over Finnley. There is no comparison as to who the bigger part of Paige’s life is. When I glance over, the pain is evident on Finn’s face, but she manages to swallow down whatever emotion she’s feeling.
“It’s ok, Paige. I’m sure your mom would love to go with you,” she says, but her voice is shaky and laced with emotion.
Annoyance surges in my chest and I shake my head. I don’t know if it’s the right decision, but I make it instantly. “No,” I say firmly. “You can spend as much time with your mom as you want while she’s here, but you’re not taking back your invitation.”
“Huddy, it’s really ok—” Finn starts, but I cut her off with a glance.
Paige’s gaze bounces back and forth between us, her chin quivering. “You’re mean,” she whispers, before throwing the calendar down and stomping up the stairs.
I hear her little feet pound across the upstairs hallway before her bedroom door slams. Dropping my head back on the couch and closing my eyes, I let out a long sigh.
Finn stands and sets her Kindle down. “I’ll talk to her,” she says, giving my arm a gentle squeeze as she passes.
Chapter 32
Hudson
I’m sitting slumped backon the couch in the dark when Finn comes back downstairs twenty minutes later. After Paige ran off, I’d shut off the TV, cleaned up the popcorn, grabbed a beer, and then flipped off the lights, hoping to quiet my mind. Did I make the right decision? Or am I just making shit worse? I wish I fucking knew.
Even with just the dim light from the light above the stove, I can see Finn’s changed into a tank top and some kind of flimsy, silky shorts. My chest floods with warmth when she stops next to the arm of the couch.
“Are you all right?” Her voice slides over me.
God,she’s beautiful.Her hair is undone now and falling over her shoulders in a thick curtain, the faint citrus and sandalwood filling my nose.
“Huddy?” She touches my shoulder and I realize she’s talking to me.
I gaze up at her. “Is she ok?”
She nods. “She’s asleep.”
She tucks her hair behind her ear and then runs her fingers across my shoulder to my neck. Resting her hand there, her fingers brush my hairlineslightly. I love how comfortable she is touching me. It’s natural, like she was made to do it.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
