Page 16 of Just Our Secret

Two weeks after Wade stood in this very kitchen apologizing for giving me the kiss I’d fantasized about for the last decade, we’d finally gotten somewhat back to normal. At least, he seemed pretty normal, and I did my best to smash down my feelings so I didn’t embarrass myself.

“Thanks,” I said, taking the bottle of water he’d just pulled out of the fridge. I stooped down to get eye level with Liam, handing him the bottle. “Now, pay attention. Are you paying attention?”

“Yes, Mama.”

“This is not the time to play jokes on Uncle Connor. I’m trusting you to be able to go down to the playground with him while Uncle Wade and I study, and I don’t want you to pull that surprise hide-and-seek thing on him. It’s not funny when you disappear, okay?”

Liam pulled his lips into a thin line, clearly disappointed. “Okay.”

“We’ll be fine, helicopter mom,” Connor said, making a face at me and wrapping an arm around Liam’s shoulders. “We’ll be back in a couple hours.”

“Liam, make sure to listen to him,” I called as they headed out the door.

When it shut behind them, I turned to find Wade standing with an openly amused glint in his eyes and a small smile on his perfect face. He had classically handsome features, with a strong, square jaw, and smooth tan skin stretching over high cheekbones. He’d always seemed so perfect and so out of reach to me. What the hell made me think I had a chance?

“What?” I asked, stepping around him to get myself a water bottle from the fridge.

“You’re a good mom, that’s all.”

I pushed his compliment right out of my mind. I didn’t need to dwell on sweet words from Wade. It would only make this hurt more. I didn’t comment but took my water to the kitchen table and opened my textbook.

“We should get to work. They’ll be back soon.”

He made a clicking sound with his mouth and came over to the table, dropping into the chair. “Real quick, what was that about the surprise hide-and-seek thing?”

I dropped my head, groaning. “Oh, that’s this new thing Liam started doing that takes off ten years of my life every time.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah. He has started hiding from me when we’re out. We’ll be in Target, and he’ll be right there one second and then gone the next.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, no kidding. It scares the hell out of me. He always pops up and yells ‘boo’ pretty quickly after, but those few seconds—a minute at most—are enough.”

His eyes were gentle, understanding. “I bet.”

Uncomfortable again, since that was my default around him ever since he kissed me, I waved a hand. “I’m sure most moms wouldn’t even freak out anymore once they knew he did it. They’d just chill and wait for him to come back. It’s probably silly for me to overreact like that.”

“No, I mean, it’s your kid. I get it. You don’t want to mess around with that… just in case.”

“Exactly,” I replied, entranced by his sweet tone and tender expression. Then I snapped out of it, remembering he was the guy who’d kissed me because I was convenient, effectively cracking the heart he didn’t even know he was holding. “We should get to it.”

“You’re right, sorry. You distract me.”

I snorted, unable to help myself. “Sure I do.”

He looked up, startled. “What?”

“Nothing.” Kicking myself for acting like this after two weeks of playing it so cool, I flipped through my textbook to find the page we needed to study.

“What’s up, Andi?” he asked, dipping his head to catch my eyes.

“Nothing, Wade, let’s just get to work.”

He tossed his pencil on the table. “It seems like you have something on your mind.”

I did.Him.

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