Page 26 of Spoil
“I think I was promised a kiss?” His hand comes to my cheek and caresses it tenderly. His eyes dart from mine to my cheeks, and finally my lips.
I lick my lips nervously and nod. His kiss is immediate, but gentle. A sweet caress of his lips against mine. But it’s over way quicker that I want it to be, and he opens the door behind me, causing me to stumble. He wraps an arm around my waist, preventing me from falling, and chuckles.
“I’ve got you now, pretty girl. I’m going to enjoy every moment with you.” I imagine him spending months building up to what we did that one night, and I like it. Knowing we do have time now. We have months if we want it, to build up whatever this is between us. We both live in DC.
“Wait. Why did you open The Envelope in DC when you live in Boston?”
“Because you lived in DC.”
I’m stunned into silence. Which he thinks is cute. He simply chuckles at me as he holds open the passenger door to his car.
“Is this going to become a regular thing?” I blurt out.
“God, I hope so,” he replies and escorts me into his car.
“Cara’s apartment is nearby. I can just walk.”
He closes the door. “Great. We can walk together, and then I can drive you and Danny home.”
I check the backseat, and sure enough, there’s a car seat in it. “Did you forget to return your friend’s?”
He turns me, his lower hand on my back, and I walk slower, pressing into the warmth of his hand, the comfort of another human touching me. “I’m a dad now,” he chastises me. “Don’t you think it's important I get a car seat?”
I blush. I hadn’t really thought about it. We walk the block and a half to Cara’s apartment, and I think about how I want to play this next part. Do I introduce him to Cara? Do I let him do the transfer? Wake her up? It’s going to be different from our normal routine, and it might scare her to wake up to a stranger. She might not remember right away that he’s her father. They’ve only met once.
But then I think about what it would have been like if we’d been together the entire time. Her dad would wake her up and carry her. I guess I’m going to have to play it by ear.
I knock gently on Cara’s apartment door, and she opens it immediately. “You’re early,” she chirps happily. She works from home as some tech genius, so she gets to work whatever hours she wants. When I asked for help with Danny, she was more than happy to shift her schedule. She’s the best friend a woman could ask for.
But then her eyes drift to Daniel and widen, taking him in from top to bottom. God, I can’t imagine what she’s thinking. I randomly brought a man in an expensive business suit to pick up my daughter? How very Pretty Woman of me.
“Cara, this is Daniel. Danny’s father.”
Her brown eyes widen more. At this point, I’m a little worried for her eyeballs.
“Her what?!” she whisper-shouts, shooing us back into the hallway so she can properly yell at me.
“We just ran into each other yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to fill you in on everything, but I promise I’ll call you once I get home. He just wanted to drive us home, and I appreciate the help,” I say pointedly.
Daniel holds out a hand. “I have to thank you, Cara, from the bottom of my heart. If it weren’t for you, I never would have met Nell, and Danny would never have been born.” She takes his hands skeptically before turning to me and mouthing ‘Nell?’ Literally, only she calls me that.
“Can we go get Danny now? You can yell at me later?”
Cara concedes and opens the door wider.
“I’d give you a hug, but I don’t know how possessive my girl is yet,” Daniel stage-whispers playfully as he walks by her into the apartment.
“My girl?” She mouths again. I’m not going to get out of this without seven thousand questions. But I guess that’s fair. She knows all about Daniel. She was the one in the birthing suite with me when Danny came into the world.
She was the one who encouraged me to keep a diary of everything I wanted to share with him if he’d been there.
“Which room?” he whispers, and I lead him into Danny’s bedroom. I told Cara not to decorate it, since Danny doesn’t need decorations when she’s only staying there for sleeping, and only until the back porch gets fixed, but she ignored me and the entire small guest room is full of yellows and greens - Danny’s favorite color combo at the moment.
I kneel next to her sleeping form, and brush one of her brown curls off of her forehead.
“How do you wake her?” Daniel asks quietly as he kneels next to me and I start to choke up. He’s asking how I parent her, sothat he can know how to handle her when it’s time for him to wake her up from a nap.
“I usually just rub a circle on her back until she wakes up. Only takes a few minutes.”
