Eight Days a Week (15 page)

I was prepared for her to say “thank you.” What I wasn’t prepared for was the ass-shaking she was doing in her office. Clearly she hadn’t heard me knock.

“Um, I can come back if you want me to.”

She twirled around and slapped her hand to her chest, gasping.
 

“Did you win a super hard game of Fruit Ninja?” I asked, and she laughed in spite of my douchey sarcasm.

“Oh no, I’m a Candy Crush kind of girl.”

I opened the door wider, stepping in and closing it behind me. “I brought your badge.” I dangled the lanyard from my finger as a reminder of why I was there.

“Thank you.” She stepped around her desk and held out her hand, but I lifted what she wanted just out of her reach.
 

“Don’t be a jerk,” she said, her hands on her hips and her foot tapping.

“What? I’m not. I drove all this way to bring it to you—how am I a jerk?”

“You’re using my height against me. Just because I’m vertically challenged doesn’t mean I can’t get that from you.”

I pursed my lips. “Is that so? And how would you go about getting it from me when you look like a kitten swiping at a ball of yarn?”

She looked down at the floor, then back up at me, her eyelids half-open. “Hmm, I’m not sure . . .” She batted her eyelashes and lifted a hand to her blouse, playing her fingertips along the edges of the buttons. With a sigh, she touched the exposed skin of her neck and slipped her fingertips lower, brushing along the subtle exposure of her cleavage. My eyes followed the movement, and I focused on her chest.

With a flick of her wrist, she threw her other hand out and snatched the badge from my grasp. I hadn’t even realized I’d lowered it.

I shook my head and glared. “Tease.”

“Sucker.” She laughed and slipped the badge around her neck.

I leaned against the door and raked her over from head to toe with my eyes. “Tess gave me the ol’ fish eyes when I came through the office.”

“She’s just looking out for me, that’s all. We talk about this situation between you and me sometimes.” She gave me a small smile and adjusted the badge around her collar. It got stuck, and she tugged on it.

“Here.” I stepped toward her and bent down to untangle the cord. I brushed her hair off her back and settled the lanyard under her collar before letting her hair fall and smoothing my fingers over her shirt to fix it.
 

“She doesn’t have to protect you from me,” I whispered.
 

She lifted her face toward mine, her eyes searching. “I know.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Good.”
 

Taking a much needed step back, she turned toward the desk again. “Do you know what you want for your birthday?” She looked over her shoulder to catch my unrelenting gaze.
 

“I do.”

She twisted back around so the backs of her legs were against the desk. Then she leaned back, planted her hands on the ledge, and cocked her head. “Care to share?”

“Nope.”

Her eyes glazed over for longer than a few seconds.
 

“Gwen?”

“Sorry. I was lost in thought.”

“Those must have been some intense thoughts.”

She hung her head and smiled before looking back up. “I called my boss, Caroline, this morning. That’s what I was dancing about when you walked in. She’s agreed to let me work fewer hours over the summer to spend more time with the kids.”

“They’ll love that.”

“And you,” she added.

A quick knock on the door made us both jump. I stepped to the side and cracked it open. “No thanks, we already bought some Thin Mints.”

My sister pushed me in the stomach and then smiled like the Cheshire cat as she passed me by.
 

Her face grew solemn as she turned to face Gwen. “Bree’s school is on the phone. She’s in the counselor’s office. Line five.” She turned and flicked me on the tip of my nose, and I swatted at her hair as she walked out.

Gwen rushed around the desk and picked up the line on speakerphone. Counselor Jones explained that Bree had been in a verbal altercation with another student and was too upset to stay for the day.
 

“Okay, I’m on my way,” Gwen said.

I waved my arms and pointed to my chest.

“Actually, Andrew Lyons will be by to get her. Yes, he’s on the list. Thank you. Tell her he’ll be right there.” She hung up and rubbed her hands together. “She’s upset about something.”

“I’ve got her, Gwen. When she’s calmed down, I’ll call you and let you know what happened. Just be home by six for spaghetti, okay?”

“Thank you.”

I gave a small smile in return before stepping out the door.

Chapter 18

Little Child

“I hate her,” Bree said from the passenger seat. Her little fists were clenched, and she was gritting her teeth in anger.

“It’s okay. Just breathe.”

“But Sasha’s so mean!” Her little voice was shrill. “She said I was an orphan. Like
Annie
. That I don’t have any parents like everybody else.”
 

“She’s just being mean, Bree. You know that—”

“I don’t know anything!” She hung her head, pressed her hands to her face, and sobbed.

I pulled up in front of the park and sighed. “Come on. Let’s go to the lake and talk, okay?”

She sniffled and unbuckled her seat belt, then kept her eyes on the ground as we walked. When we reached the park, she crawled halfheartedly onto the steps that faced the water.
 

“I don’t want to be different.”

“It’s okay to be different, you know,” I said.

“But I don’t have a mom and dad.”

“True. But you have me and Gwen.”

She hugged her knees to her chest and stared off. “Gwen’s always gone.”

I nodded and squinted toward the sun. It was a pretty day, and the sky was an endless row of cloud after cloud trailing lazily above our heads. “She’s fixing that, Bree. She talked to her boss and asked to be home more. She loves you so much, you know.”

She pressed her face into her knees. “Are you going to leave us?” Her voice was smothered into her lap, but I heard her loud and clear.
 

I pulled on her elbow, and she looked up at me with blotchy eyes and a red nose.

“I’m not leaving you. No matter what happens, okay?” I squeezed her arm, and she sniffled.

“I want you to stay forever, Dee.”

“Then that’s what you’ll get.”

I let go of her arm and leaned back, closing my eyes to the warmth of the sun as I thought about the unbreakable promise I’d just made. No matter how things turned out between Gwen and me, my promise was to the kids.
 

I finally understood why Gwen was being so cautious. In a perfect world, we’d be a family. I’d be the one caring for all of them. Bree and Brady would have parents again. Gwen and I would have each other.

But all of that would require me to be a father. And I had no idea how to do that.

Chapter 19

I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party

After picking Brady up from Pre-K, we went to Monkey Joe’s so both kids could jump and exert some energy. But after fifteen minutes, Bree turned quiet and pouty. Brady could tell something was wrong and reverted back to his old silence, and the only thing I could think to do was take them somewhere they could just get lost for a while.

So we went to the movies.

A seven-year-old and a four-year-old at the movies on a Monday afternoon was a bad idea. Lucky for me, we were the only ones there. Brady asked a lot of questions before he got quiet again and fell asleep. Bree sat rigid, unmoving, and grown-up as usual. I had this insane urge to send them running up and down the aisles or to start a popcorn-throwing contest. I’d never been around two kids in so much need of fun.

When we got home, we started the usual rituals of school work and chores, and finished just before Gwen arrived at five thirty—early by her standards any day of the week. She grimaced, and her eyes darted around, looking for Bree. I jerked my head toward the stairs, and she took them two at a time.

I craned my head to listen, but they were too quiet to hear, so I turned back to my pot of boiling water and grabbed a box of noodles from the cabinet, emptied the remainder into the water, and added some olive oil and salt.
 

A loud thumping started from upstairs, and it shook the walls. I dropped my wooden spoon and ran up at full speed.

I stopped cold at Bree’s door and stared into the room. Gwen, Bree, and Brady were blasting music and dancing.

Brady was bobbing his head and pumping his arms in jerky movements. Gwen had her skirt hiked up and was swinging her hips from side to side as the beat pounded. Bree jumped around in a circle and ran her little feet in place before throwing her hands in the air.

They spun and bounced, all three of them laughing.

When the beat dropped, they swung around in circles, clapping. Gwen leaned into Bree and sang to her, shaking her shoulders and her ass at the same time. Bree nodded and bopped along, while Brady played an air guitar that made me press my fist to my mouth to stifle my laughter.

When the song ended, they all collapsed on the floor, laughing and breathing hard. Bree crawled over to where Gwen was laying and rested her head against her stomach, and Brady laid his head on her shoulder. Gwen wrapped her arms around them, closed her eyes, and smiled. “Feel better?” she asked, out of breath.

They both nodded.
 

“Thanks, Auntie G,” Bree said softly.

I stepped back into the hallway, rested my back against the wall, and smiled. Then I went back down to the kitchen to finish dinner.

Later that evening, when the kids were upstairs getting ready for bed, Gwen and I stood next to each other at the sink. There was that familiar pull that made me want to touch her. Her leg was just a bit too close to mine. Her ass was almost touching my thigh. I was concentrating on how her cheeks would feel in my palm, and I dropped the plate I was handling into the soapy water. Dishwater and suds went flying up and over the side of the sink and all over Gwen.

She yelped as her white blouse molded against her chest. Her lacy bra showed through, and she pulled the shirt out from her skin.
 

“Smooth move, Ex-lax,” she said.

I stared at her. “Ex-lax? What
year
is it?”

She pursed her lips and dipped her hand into the water before flicking her fingers at my face and covering me in suds. “Shut up. That was my dad’s favorite saying.”

“Ow!” I yelled and pressed my arm to my eye. “You got soap in my eye. I’m going to go blind!”

“Oh, Dee. Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” She pulled on my arm. “Can you open it? Come on, let’s flush it out.”

She stood on her tiptoes, her face an inch from mine. I opened my eyes and laughed.
 

“You are so gullible.”

She set her jaw. “You’re a jerk.” Her eyes slid from mine to my mouth, and she took a step closer.

I settled my hands on her hips, and she sighed. She leaned into me and secured her hands along my shoulder blades, gripping the back of my shirt as I lowered my face to hers. She breathed in, and her eyes fluttered closed as our lips ghosted across each other’s.

“Can I kiss you?” she asked tentatively.

“Yeah.” I tightened my grip on her. “Why are you asking?”

“Because I feel like last time was unfair and I want to make sure.” Her eyes lifted to mine, and my heart sped up again.

My inner kid was looking up her skirt.

Closing the distance, I opened my mouth and enveloped her lips in my own. I tugged on her lower one gently with my teeth and crushed her chest against mine. I slid my hands lower and cupped her cheeks, squeezing and earning her muted sigh into my mouth.

She ground against my dick, and it throbbed against the zipper of my jeans, trying of its own accord to escape and get under her skirt.

“Andrew,” she moaned, rocking her hips into mine. “I’d like to continue this”—she snaked her hands up my chest and into my hair to pull my face closer to hers—“but the kids will be down in a few minutes. I think we should stop.”

I took a steadying breath and ran my tongue across her top lip before kissing her again and pulling away.
 

“Right. Good call.”
 

She stepped back and let her hands trail back across my chest before dropping them to her side.

I adjusted myself and bit my tongue from saying I wanted her in my bed after the kids went to theirs. Instead, I grinned and reached into the sink for another plate.
 

“I have a date Friday night,” I said.

She smiled wide and her eyes twinkled. “Yeah? Me, too.”

I handed her the plate to rinse and, when the dishes were done, I turned to her and bent toward her face. “I hope your date is fun.”