Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 61542 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61542 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Katie nods.
“And that means you’re not seeing anyone else, right?”
She nods again.
“Got it. That’s all I wanted to know.” I wrap my arms around her wet, naked body as hot water bubbles up around us. I pull her back until her naked body is leaning right against my chest. I whisper in her ear. “I’m yours, too.”
Katie twists her body, dislodging me from inside her. She’s wearing a sweet smile on her face. The lighting from the hot tub casts shadows on her skin that move with the water.
“I know,” she says. “And I’m sorry I didn’t mean it the first time, but you should really stop asking me important questions during sex.”
“Okay. Since we’re not having sex right now, let me ask you one last time. Are you mine?”
“Yes, Adam. I’m all yours.” Katie averts her gaze for a second and smiles shyly.
She’s so fucking adorable. My new girlfriend’s fucking adorable.
I put my hand on her soft, smooth cheek and gaze deep into her eyes. Yes, she means it this time.
As I press my lips against Katie’s smile, she opens up for me and kisses me back. It’s a sweet, gentle kiss.
We’ve always had passion, right from the very beginning, from the first night we met. And now, we have a lot more than that.
We have each other now.
Katie
“Careful!” I whisper-shout as Adam’s grip on the toy he’s holding falters.
It’s like I’m seeing it in slow motion as the toy falls right on top of William’s face. William, shocked, goes quiet for a second before he starts to wail.
Poor little thing. He’s probably scared as hell. He doesn’t know what happened.
I rush to the crib. William was already about to fall asleep when I left the room, so I thought it was going to be okay to leave him alone with Adam while I read a book outside, but apparently not.
“Hey, baby, it’s okay,” I say in a soft, soothing voice as I toss the toy aside and stroke William’s hair.
I hear a soft rattle as Adam picks up the toy. It usually hangs over the crib and plays a song when I pull on the string. William likes to stare at it while he falls asleep.
The past few nights, though, it hasn’t been working. I wasn’t going to do anything about it because William was going to be too old for it soon anyway.
He’s been sleeping fine without the stupid song. But when Adam offered to try to fix it, I didn’t see any harm in it.
William’s not hurt; only shocked. He’s also really sleepy, luckily. As soon as his tears dry, he goes back to sleep.
As William’s breathing deepens and slows down, I twist to look at Adam.
He’s been spending more and more time here, but he hasn’t gotten used to just how tiny and fragile William is.
“Adam,” I whisper. I gesture toward the door. “Talk outside? I don’t want to wake William up.”
He follows me, his heavy footsteps muted by the carpeted floor. In the living room, I sit on the couch and invite him to join me.
I really like Adam, and I don’t say that lightly. I’ve never met anyone quite like him. Before I met him, I didn’t even know someone like him could exist.
He’s sweet, kind, intelligent, and any girl would be lucky to have him.
Most importantly, though, he makes me feel like I can be myself around him and he hasn’t hesitated once to prioritize William and me over his work. He’s been spending all his free time here.
Still, he’s not perfect. Nobody is.
But I didn’t expect him to be so clueless about babies. I mean, I used to be like that just two short years ago. Sawyer, too. But I guess I’ve forgotten how big the learning curve really is.
“I’m sorry,” Adam says as he takes a seat next to me. “I should’ve taken the toy away from the crib before I started working on it, but it didn’t occur to me before that it could slip out of my hands.”
“I know. I know you didn’t mean to startle William awake. You just need to be more careful,” I say.
Even though I can be too protective when it comes to William, I can’t bring myself to get mad at Adam.
He’s always so apologetic and he’s always asking me what he can do better, on top of doing a lot of reading on parenting websites. So, you know, he’s trying.
That said, I know this is not the first time or the last time he’ll ever a parenting mistake. Like last week, for example, he just left a pair of scissors lying around on the coffee table, seemingly unaware that William could grab it and hurt himself.
“Yeah. I’m trying,” he says.
“I know. It takes time. There’s no way around that.”
“I wish there was. I love William, and I don’t want to put him in harm’s way.”