Page 29 of The P Arrangement

He laughed. “No, Mommy.”

I threw my hands up. “Me neither. I guess we’d better see who it is.”

In the middle of a weekday, it was most likely a package. I was always ordering stuff and then forgetting I’d ordered it. Sometimes, it was like getting a present from myself.

But when I opened the front door, it was not a delivery.

It was Preston.

And somehow, he looked even sexier in his dark jeans and plain white T-shirt than he had last weekend in his suit. The outfit wasn’t the least bit original, but he looked gorgeous.

I groaned inwardly at how easily my hormones gave in when he was around.

He smiled. “Are you almost ready?”

“Daddy!” Paxton barreled past me and launched himself at Preston.

After he caught our son, I held the door open for him to enter.

I patted the top of my large suitcase and kicked my carry-on. “Everything’s packed. But what brought you here?”

All week, I’d been questioning whether I’d made the right decision in agreeing to Preston’s arrangement. Having him see that I still wore the North Star piercing he had made just for me had left me feeling open and exposed. I had let my guard down, and now, he knew I still cared about him.

Sometimes, I wished that he had cheated on me or something equally awful. It would make it easier to hate him—and I had tried, but I truly couldn’t make myself. Having your husband fall out of love with you was pretty awful, but people couldn’t control their feelings. I couldn’t control not hating him any more than he could control not loving me anymore.

Thankfully, on Sunday, after Paxton woke up, Preston hadn’t said another word to me about the situation. He also hadn’t acted any differently than normal, and I was grateful. But he’d always been a gentleman. Just another reason I had always liked him. But even if he pretended like he didn’t know, we both knew he did. The fact that he’d discovered my secret lingered in the back of my mind, no matter how hard I tried to forget it.

If only I had changed the piercing. If only I hadn’t let Preston go down on me until after I left and changed it. Because it had already occurred to me that I would need to do something about it if we were going to keep sleeping together.

But it was too late now.

Preston had offered to let Paxton stay with me during the beginning of the week since he’d had him last weekend and known I wouldn’t see him on my weekend. It also gave Preston more hours to catch up on work at his law firm before being out of town for four days. It also made it easier for me to take Paxton to and from my sister’s while I went to work. While we’d only exchanged a few text messages since I’d left on Sunday, the law conference started tonight, so I knew I was going to have to see him soon. But I had a plane to catch, and I didn’t understand what Preston was doing at my home.

Then, it hit me. He hadn’t seen Paxton for four days.

I bumped the heel of my hand on my forehead. “I’m so insensitive. You wanted to say good-bye to Pax.”

His brow furrowed, and he chuckled. “I mean, yes.” He gave Paxton a squeeze, and our son grinned and threw his arms around Preston’s neck. “But I thought we talked about me changing my plans to go to Vegas today.”

“I wuv you, Daddy,” Paxton announced, oblivious to the fact that his parents were having a conversation.

“I love you too, buddy.”

“We did, but I thought we were meeting there,” I said.

Preston laughed and shook his head. “No. When I said I was going with you, I meant, I was goingwithyou.” He tickled Paxton’s belly, who giggled, and said, “I changed my plane ticket to your flight and your ticket to a seat next to mine.”

“How did you manage that?”

Preston dropped the hand he’d been using to entertain Paxton and lifted an eyebrow. “You sent me your information, including the confirmation email for your flight.”

I tsked at my memory—or lack thereof. “Oh, right.”

And now, I didn’t have a whole plane ride to prepare myself to see my ex tonight. I would have to sit next to him on the plane too.

Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t canceled my hotel room. I didn’t plan to change my mind about telling Preston I would stay with him just because I was being a chicken, but something could happen where I wouldn’t want to share a room with him any longer. Or worse, Preston wouldn’t want to share a room. Maybe I would stay by myself tonight.

Preston swung Paxton around like he was an airplane and slowly brought him in for “a landing,” and I bit my lip. He was even sexy while just being a father to our son.

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