Page 3 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

The resort was also one of the few places I’d seen my son happy. Last year, that was the only place he felt safe enough to talk and play like the kid he was.

And if they sold it, that would be another major change in his life since my divorce.

I couldn’t keep doing this to him. I couldn’t keep taking away his safe zones.

“PB and J.”

My mouth dropped in shock.Did he just say something to me?

“PB and J sandwich,” he repeated in the same quiet tone, and joy jumped into my soul. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

I immediately leaped to my feet and searched my cabinet but didn’t find the makings to prepare what he wanted. Luckily the store was only a few blocks away, so I quickly grabbed my coat. “I’m going to run down to grab some peanut butter from Rose’s. Make sure you lock the door behind me, okay?”

He didn’t look at me when he nodded. I kissed him on the cheek and headed out.

I stopped to ask my neighbor, Mrs. Winchester, to keep an eye out for Caleb and then jogged to Rose’s. Thankfully, the ground wasn’t too slippery.

The grocery store was pretty crowded when I got there, which was expected. It was only November, but everyone was getting their Christmas shopping done and taking up most of the space in the aisles. It was while I was squeezing through in Aisle 9 that I bumped into someone’s back.

A large, bulky someone in a khaki jacket and some faded denim.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t—” The words died in my throat when the man turned around, and familiarity slammed into me.

I knew that face.

I knew those serious-looking dark eyes, that hooked nose, and the strong scarred chin.

Those lips with a hard top and a pouty bottom.

“Marcus?” The name breathed out of me, shock and something else firing through my blood. “No freaking way. Is that you?’

He cocked his head to the side. “Allie?”

He remembered me.“It is you!” Excitement had me jumping forward and hugging him before I could think twice about what I was doing.

Before I realized that even after eight years, the buttery feelings and breathless sensations he inspired weren’t gone, merely brimming under the surface.

Before I even thought about the fact that there was too much between us for me to be this casual about his arrival.

Including the secret I never told him eight years ago.

The secret that was currently waiting for his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

TWO

MARCUS

I tried not to let the hug affect me.

I even tried to muster up the usual annoyance at the act. I wasn’t a touchy kind of guy, nor was I the type for the sentiment. It was very atypical for me to accept a hug, even from someone I knew.

But with Allie, it was impossible not to draw her close, not to inhale her scent, which was like daisies and sunshine. My heart should not have doubled its beat, but trying not to react to her gentle touch was like fighting a losing battle.

I might hate almost everyone and everything else in this town, but Allie Beston could never be one of those people.

Still, I slipped on my mask of indifference, merely nodding as she pulled away.

“What are you doing here?” she exclaimed, excitement shining in her bright eyes.

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