Chapter 22
ELODIE
The week has been moving fast, and I’m not sure if my feeling rested is due to the world’s most comfortable bed or simply feeling at peace with where I’m currently living. Either way, I’ll take this mood and feeling.
Lola gives me a cute little wave when I begin to leave the daycare, and I’m confident as always that she’ll have a great day. Life is easy when clay, crustless sandwiches, and playing with other kids are involved. It’s me who is tasked with taking on serious matters.
I opt to grab a quick coffee from Beans, and I’m busy buried in my phone scrolling the latest news when I feel the presence of a man in a sharp suit.
“Morning, Elodie,” Julian greets me.
I offer him a polite smile. “Most people here would be concerned that the CEO is talking to them in the line at Beans when all he has to do is snap his fingers and people will part ways so you can skip the line.”
He cracks a grin. “Most people don’t have their fiancée’s best friend working at their company. And speaking of which, their best friend’s girlfriend, too.”
Raising my brows, the lines on my mouth are in a thin line due to a smile.
“Is that my title now?” Hayes and I skipped the discussion on titles.
We are by far more than just two people who date casually.
Our connection will forever be stronger.
But I like to hear someone else calling me Hayes’s girlfriend.
“Didn’t realize I’ve been promoted.” We begin to move with the current of the line toward the register.
“I’m not sure what your label is, but I love adding confusion to people’s relationships if it means it gets them to think.”
I pretend to peruse the menu that I learned by heart years ago. “What is it that I might be thinking about?”
“Look, Hayes is a good guy. His intentions are always pure in everything he does on this earth, even if he can be stubborn and impossible. Just keep that in mind.”
Jutting my chin out, I’m both listening but taken aback that he is bringing this up in line for coffee.
“Has Savannah been talking to you?” I wonder.
“Nope.”
“Hayes?”
“Nope.”
“So, you just thought you would casually highlight Hayes’s characteristics before my caffeine hit.”
His suave grin appears. “Yep. It’s a friend duty he doesn’t realize I’ve taken on, and Foster works too closely with you to cheer you two on in your weekly meeting.”
Taking a deep break, I look around and note that nobody is taking notice of us. “Since we’re on this topic, anything else you wish to add?” It’s not to humor me, I’m genuinely curious.
“He’s loyal and devoted. Keep that in mind when it comes to responsibility.
You never have to worry that will go haywire, no matter what path you two take.
” Damn, he just slipped in that subtle hint about my situation should Hayes and I fail.
The translation is simple either way: the family part of our equation will be okay.
I do my best to show no emotion. Julian doesn’t need to know that he just sent my thoughts into a tailspin. “Thanks for the insight.”
We’re almost at the register and he checks his watch. “Listen, sometimes someone else needs to remind you of what is right in front of you.”
“I’m sure that pre-Savannah this 100% isn’t the conversation we would be having.”
“Fuck no,” he agrees. “Instead, the roles were reversed, so I’m repaying the favor as an outside observer.”
True. Somehow, I ended up helping him see reason in his pursuit of Savannah.
“I’ll take your views into consideration,” I comment simply.
“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an actual coffee machine in my office.”
When he walks away, the pondering begins, and it sticks with me all day.
After my shower, I walk down the hall, tightening the tie on my satin robe as I peek inside Lola’s room to see her sleeping peacefully.
Hayes will be back tonight, and as much as I want to wait for him, I already feel my tiredness kick in.
But then I hear noise from the living room.
As much as this would be the moment in the movie that I grab a baseball bat in fear, it’s the complete opposite.
I’m staying in a fortress, and the faint sound of hockey on the television informs me that it could be only one person.
Most of all, I feel him around because my heart is already palpating.
I don’t deny that there is an angelic smile forming on my mouth because I’m delighted by this early surprise, and even more when I see him standing by the floor-to-ceiling window looking across the city.
His suit jacket gone, his sleeves rolled revealing his silver watch, and it’s an image that is always sexy.
He’s eating from a plate with the game on in the background.
I don’t announce my entry, nor am I sure that he sees my reflection in the window.
Except… “I thought you were in the shower,” he says without looking my way. Maybe he heard me or saw me, or simply the sixth sense that we’ve grown for one another makes it pointless to announce my arrival.
“You’re back early.” I walk to him, then lean against the window next to him, causing his heated gaze to draw a line straight to me.
“I had the opportunity to take an earlier flight. Grabbed the chance, as I wanted to see my girls.”
Swoon.
My girls.
That brings a different type of pattern to my heart. It’s saccharine yet clenches my chest.
“I was in the shower. Lola is asleep already, has been for a while.”
He pops a piece of food into his mouth. “I know. I did a quick check and thought I would let you enjoy your shower,” he mumbles through chewing.
My eyes narrow in on his plate, and I began to laugh. “Are you eating dino nuggets?”
Hayes has a boyish grin as he swallows. “These things are the best. I threw some in the air fryer while I was waiting.”
I cover my mouth to control my giggle. “Is this why the freezer was packed with an absurd amount of nuggets?”
“Completely.” He takes a step and reaches to set the plate on the table then spins back to snake his arms around me and pull me close.
“There is something kind of hot about seeing a grown man after a day’s work in a suit and eating his daughter’s dino nuggets.”
He smirks right before he kisses me. “Missed me?”
“A little. Your bed smells of you, but it isn’t the same. Although, I think I might have actually slept more than with you in it.”
I interlace our hands, and I notice he gives a little space between us while his eyes run up and down me before he gives a tug on my belt for my robe to fall open, revealing my matching nightie with thin straps, stopping mid-thigh.
“Arriving back early has its payoffs,” he says huskily. “MILF appeal, and you’re still getting carded at bars.”
Instantly my mouth gapes open from his humor, and I prod his chest with my finger. “I’m 27, don’t ever use MILF in a sentence again!”
He chuckles. “Sorry. The joke popped into my mind, and I had to let it out.”
“Ha-ha,” I mock.
“Reminding me that you’re younger doesn’t help tame me. You are also the mother to my kid, and I have every intention of fucking you tonight.”
My thighs tighten together because I’m not sure how long we will last before we begin to rip off fabric from one another.
But he surprises me when he takes my hand and tows me along toward the couch, and in the process he picks up the remote and turns the TV off. “Before I have my way with you, tell me how it has been here this week?”
“Don’t want your dino nuggets for this catch-up?” I wisecrack.
He bobbles his head side to side. “I am hungry.”
“Me too, I guess.”
With that, we took a few minutes to grab some snacks and a bottle of wine, and Hayes changed into some sweats and a white tee.
For some reason, we opted to sit on the floor between the couch and coffee table while we enjoyed more food fit for a two-year-old paired with an expensive white wine from France.
I caught him up on the week, and I’m relieved it’s the weekend.
“So tomorrow she has ballet and then maybe we can—” I begin to list. I’m interrupted when he touches my arm to indicate for me to stop.
“Lola is all good. Why don’t you tell me something that has nothing to do with logistics of our daughter and laundry.”
My smile is perhaps appreciative because I acknowledge he’s right. “Sorry. I’m just…” I press my lips together because maybe I’m doing my best to avoid the obvious which I probably shouldn’t keep in anymore.
Hayes looks into his wine glass. “Avoiding us. Ouch.” He takes a decent sip.
“Nah. I missed you a lot while you were gone. You have a lot of business trips and long days. We’re used to it. But this time it hit different.” I swirl my fingers in the air. “Probably because I’m living here right now. Reminders of you everywhere.”
He listens with deep interest in his eyes. “And?”
“The last few weeks even when we weren't here, when you would be away, I put it down to missing you because of Lola and I understand how she might feel.” I quirk my lips. “Well, I mean she has no concept of time, but you get my drift. But it’s no longer that. I miss you because of us. It’s taken my head a bit to de-compartmentalize, maybe. ”
“Come here.” He loops his arm around my shoulders to reel me in closer to his body, until I’m straddling him. “I’m going to try and do this without needing to tie you to the bed, but I’ll do it if I need to. Let’s go through this, Elodie. This isn’t just about Lola.”
Faintly, I shake my head in agreement.
Hid hands come up to frame my face. “It’s obvious. Let’s go back to the very day we met. What would have happened if we’d actually exchanged our names. Do you think about that?”
“All the time,” I admit softly.
His eyes sear into me with an intensity that feels earth-shattering. “I’ll tell you what would’ve been next. I’d call you and say it’s crazy and I’m in another state, but would you like to meet up? I could come to you, or I’d fly you down all because you stayed in my mind.”
“I’d say okay.”
“Because?”
“The same, I couldn’t forget you. What I did with you on the island wasn’t like me. I don’t just connect with someone and go to their hotel room on the same day. Nor would I think a weekend when we live quite a distance apart would be a good idea. But you don’t make me think rationally.”
The softness of his fingers tucking hair behind my ear is soothing.
“Ditto, sweetheart. Then we would enjoy a long weekend, then another. And when you thought you were pregnant, I would have been there. Every step of the way. When you discovered you were, then I would have been on a plane so fast, and we would’ve figured it out.
It wasn’t planned, but I don’t believe it was an accident when it comes to us.
Everything we do is unexpected. Then when I got to you, I’d have held you and repeated that it was your choice, while I would secretly wish that you made the one I wanted, and lucky for me you did. ”
“What next?” I’m in a trance of relaying our what-if.
“Moving here, living together, getting a ring on your finger and you with my last name.”
I snicker a tiny smile. “That’s a lot.”
“Ask me about the secret,” he urges in a whisper.
“What secret?”
“Even if there weren’t Lola, that all would have still happened.”
He leaves me speechless. How can it be that the last few minutes have given me a different mirror? The one with a realization that we very well probably would have happened had fate been different.
“Hayes—”
He shushes me with his finger on my mouth. “I’m crazy about you. You’re with me on this, right? You’re mine.”
“I’m yours.” It’s honest, and I loop my arms around his neck.
“Good. Because this…” he motions between us as he grips my hips to lift me a few inches tighter to his waist, “is where you belong.”
“Going to trap me in your castle?”
“Tempting, but we need you at the office for your work ethic,” he jokes.
I touch his forehead with my own, and my fingers play with the hairs on the back of his neck. “What am I going to do?” I purr.
He nuzzles his nose against mine then kisses the corner of my mouth. “You have me,” he murmurs.
As I’m lost in the trance that he always puts me in, somehow my thoughts and feelings connect as pieces fall into place. I'm not overthinking.
It’s the reason why I confess so easily in a whisper, “I’ve fallen in love with you.”