Page 96 of A Lie so Dangerous and Fragile

“That won’t be necessary. They will be fine without me,” he said, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Going somewhere?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He almost appeared scared at my reply.

“Ciara wants us to have lunch,” I found myself saying, and his shoulders relaxed.

He looked relieved as he nodded.

“The twins are taking a nap. You can wake them at two for lunch.”

“Sure,” he said.

I stood there, and we both stared at each other in thick silence. I should leave. I should look away. Take a step back from his intoxicating scent that brought memories of us tangled under the sheets, rough palms tracing my skin, and his raspy voice in my ear. Like I wasn’t in control of my body, I perched beside him on the couch. I placed my bag on the floor and rested my sweaty palms on my knees. He faced me with a questioning look, his perfect eyebrows curving at me.

“So, um, we should talk about the kids’ welfare.”

I might as well get it over with and let him know I would be moving back to my apartment next week. We needed to talk about our plans with the kids. I couldn’t keep avoiding it anymore. We’d discussed it with a custody lawyer, but everything we had talked about was what Tristan’s attorney asked us to say so we could gain custody of Kayla.

“My apartment is almost fixed. I should be moving back in next week.”

Something flashed in his eyes, his face tensed, and he couldn’t look me in the eye anymore.

“Right. Of course,” he forced out and stayed quiet. His fingers came up and grazed his stubble as he stared ahead, thinking. “I only want what’s best for our kids. I will provide enough for child support, and I also want to be involved in their lives, if you’ll let me.”

It hurt that he had to ask me if he could be in their lives, but I didn’t blame him for assuming I’d cut him off.

“I have been doing a lot of thinking about it. I … I decided to work five days a week at the diner to save up for school and help Vina with the bills. I’m free, like, the whole day to be with the kids. I only have evening shifts, so …”

“You can drop them off here. Their nanny will still be around, and my family is home all the time to be with them. You can pick them up in the morning, or I can drop them off. I’ll be crashing here for a while till I find another place.”

“That sounds great. And you can visit whenever you want, and they are all yours during the weekends.”

“Great.”

“Great,” I said with a strained smile.

Another silence passed between us. There was so much I wanted to say to him, but I didn’t know where to start or the right words to say.

“Hmm … for the holidays, we can split it. You can have Thanksgiving, and I can have Christmas, and we’ll swap the next year,” I added, and he nodded. “Is that a yes?” I asked, and he nodded again.

His silence was making me uneasy.

“And, um … I promise to reach out if anything comes up that has to do with the kids,” I added, and he nodded again, just staring at my face like he wanted to memorize every movement of my lips and the features of my face.

“That’s it then—unless you have something else to say.”

Maybe ask me to stay. Convince me we still have a chance to be happy. That we could make this work together.

“No,” he said, and I was the one who nodded this time.

“Awesome. We are solid. We are a team,” I said and nudged his knee with mine. The leather fabric of my pants couldn’t block the heat that ran through my veins.

His lips curled into a small smile, almost lost but there.

“Okay, I should leave.” I stood up reluctantly. I smoothed my pants, and my eyes didn’t miss the way he followed every movement of my hand.

---