Page 27 of Tempt

As I reach the front porch, I hear squealing inside through the door.

I scramble in my pocket for my keys, shoving inside.

I race down the hall to the living room.

What I see makes me pull up, dumbfounded.

Andy is stretched backward in some bridge yoga move.

His nanny is folded over the opposite way, hands extended to either side and one foot lunging under Andy’s back.

Beneath them is a colorful mat.

“We found it in the garage,” Kat calls from under her armpit.

“Twister?”

“We had the best time at the museum!” Andy says cheerfully. “Kat beat our teacher at one of the name-the-animal games.”

It takes me a moment to catch up. “You went with them.”

The well of emotion in my chest is intense and conflicted.

“I didn’t have class.” She shrugs, at least I think she does.

Andy collapses his bridge in a grinning pile, and Kat straightens too.

She reaches for something on the coffee table, moved out of the way to leave room for their game, then crosses to me.

“You should’ve asked,” I mutter.

Kat’s unfazed. “Close your eyes and hold your nose.”

“And stick out your tongue,” my son adds.

It’s two against one, and half of the attack is my own offspring.

I comply.

Moments later I feel something against my bare forearm—sticky and damp.

“What the…”

She grabs tighter as I blink my eyes open to see a washcloth pressed to my skin.

“Don’t move,” she warns. “Andy? Five, four, three…”

He counts down with her. “Two, one!”

She withdraws the cloth and the slip of paper beneath it with a flourish, revealing lines on my skin.

Andy shrieks with laughter. “She got you, Daddy!”

It’s a temporary tattoo of a dog.

Ridiculous and rainbow colored.

“I got a frog!” Andy declares, pointing to his bicep. “Kat got a cat!”

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