Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Ezra
“Thank you,” I panted like a dumbass, like I had after our first kiss.
But Skylar understood me through and through, because he cupped the back of my head tighter and pressed more sweet, soulful kisses to my puffy, chapped lips. We got lost in it for a long time, our bodies nestled together, both of us whimpering softly.
“I’m sorry about Tiegan,” he said eventually after a long, shaky exhale.
I stroked his upper body in reassuring sweeps. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
We were quiet for a minute, then he got out of bed and I made a wrung-out noise of protest, my thoughts hazy and surrealistic. He opened the door and Rocky burst in, and I melted when Skylar patted the bed in invitation. Rocky, still not dry from the bath, jumped up, poked his nose into my eyeballs, and flopped down with a big doggy sigh. It was a pretty inconsequential thing, but I knew it was huge for Skylar to let Rocky muss up his pretty bed.
“Skylar,” I said roughly as he dug around in his clothes.
“Got it,” he exclaimed as he stood up with his cell. He put it in my hands before he stretched out on his side next to me, so I was flanked by him and Rocky. “Call your kids and tell them Rocky’s okay. They must be freaking out. I was so overwhelmed, I forgot until?—”
“I love you,” I blurted out.
Skylar jerked up as he gasped, making Rocky startle until he sensed there was no danger. He grabbed at my chest, his eyes as big as the sun, and wheezed, “What did you say?”
Reaching up, I gripped his neck, nuzzling my nose against his gently. Our breaths were ragged and even though I hadn’t meant to say it, I repeated deliberately, “I love you, Skylar. I love who you are and how you make me feel. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Tears poured down his cheeks as he gave me the biggest, purest smile I’d ever seen.
“It’s about time you caught on,” he sassed after he sniffed hard, and I cupped his hip and eased him back so I could sit up too. We scooted until our butts were inches apart, his legs bent over mine, his fingers still dug into my chest. “I’ve been in love with you for ever , holding my tongue so you wouldn’t think I was a silly person who fell in love easily.”
A soft laugh tumbled past my lips and I shook my head fondly. Why had I ever been worried he didn’t feel the same way, when he looked at me exactly how I looked at him?
“Bet I’ve been in love longer. I kept quiet because I didn’t want you thinking it was just an obsession with your A+ cock,” I teased, calling back to his first compliment of my cock.
“We have to forgive each other for being scared stiff,” he declared magnanimously.
“We have definitely been stiff,” I agreed with as much solemnity as I could muster up.
He giggled immediately, just like I’d hoped, and angled in to take my mouth sweetly.
We both whined when the doorbell rang.
Rocky, who’d left the room while Skylar and I were kissing, barked excitedly.
“If it’s Tiegan, I’m never talking to him again,” Skylar mumbled, then went back to kissing me in a clear sign the doorbell wasn’t going to ruin this perfect moment.
It rang again and Rocky went into an excited frenzy of barking.
Slumping, Skylar tucked his face into my neck. “What kind of monsters ring twice ?”
I bit back a smile and said apologetically, “My kids.”
Suddenly Skylar was tumbling off the bed and snatching a pillow to cover up.
“Clothes, baby,” I instructed him with a chuckle. “That pillow’s not going to cut it.”
With a wail of dismay, he threw the pillow like it was on fire and scrambled for his clothes. “This is not the premeditated way I wanted to meet your kids,” he cried.
While he was still half-naked, I was dressed because I had much more practice getting interrupted by my kids and having to rush before they burst in. I patiently helped untangle his sweater, smoothing it down his soft stomach, and said cheerfully, “It’s a trial by fire. If I don’t open a door within thirty seconds, they know I’m doing something private .”
His mouth fell open in horror. “But… but we were declaring our love , Ezra!”
“Well,” I said with a shrug, strolling toward the door, where Rocky was beside himself now, “at least we were doing that while kissing, not while one of us was balls-deep.”
“ Shush ,” he whisper-yelled, skipping angrily to my side.
I meshed our fingers together, then dropped a kiss on the back of his hand.
With a wink, I opened the door.
My kids and Rocky collided, Rocky’s tail whacking our legs while my kids hugged him and admonished him for scaring everyone like that, completely focused on him.
Skylar leaned against me lightly and made the tiniest oomph noise.
I knew that sound. It was the one I’d made when I saw the positive pregnancy tests, the ultrasounds, and the first time I’d seen my kids when they were born. It was love at first sight, a noise that showed he’d been felled irrevocably by Dov and Naomi, and while I hadn’t expected anything different, I was still overwhelmed with gratitude.
“They look just like you,” he said with a quaver in his voice. “They love Rocky just as much as you do. Oh God, they’re perfect, Ezra, I love them so much. I want to hug them.”
Instead of answering him, I poked Naomi with my toes.
She leapt up, her space buns hairstyle bobbling, and scrutinized Skylar. Dov mirrored her a second later, except he was already smiling and still rubbing Rocky’s ears.
“Hi,” Skylar said with a squeak, trying to wave with the hand still holding mine.
I lifted our hands up and held out my other arm. “Can we hug? Losing Rocky was?—”
My kids launched at us, Naomi’s arm threading between Skylar and me.
“Yeah, it scared the crap out of me, too,” I murmured, squeezing them harder. “I don’t know how he got out, but he found Skylar. I’m sorry I didn’t call or text you as soon as I found out, but I was freaked out too and I forgot about everything except thanking Skylar.”
“TMI, Dad,” Dov said with an epic eye roll.
“What’s TMI about saying thank you?” Naomi asked with a frown, old enough to know she was missing some kind of adult thing but still too little to know what it was.
“We said I love you,” I explained, nipping this in the bud before Dov could make fun of Naomi for not getting it. “It was a really emotional day, and now it’s one of the best days.”
They smiled at me, and Dov teased me, “Ugh, you’re as sappy as Mom now.”
“Speaking of your mom,” I said. “Where is she?”
“She said there’s no way she was showing up uninvited at her ex’s boyfriend’s place when she and Skylar haven’t even met yet,” Dov said with another eye roll, but he’d figure it out once he had an ex or two. “She left once we rang the doorbell and heard Rocky. But she said to tell you she’s going to Aurora’s Tacos with Grandma and Uncle Xerox and we should all go, Skylar too obviously.”
Giving Skylar a dopey smile, I said, “We deserve tacos. And it’s dog-friendly.”
“Okay, cool, cool,” he said faintly. “You weren’t exaggerating the trial by fire.”
“I really was,” I chuckled. “Just be yourself and they’ll love you just as much as I do.”
He ran his hand through his hair, and then glowed as he put on his self-confidence. “How prepared are you to fight for me, if they all fall madly in love with me like you did?”
Leveling a stern but affectionate look at him, I scoffed confidently, “Please, one look at you looking at me, and they’ll all know there’s no fucking contest, baby. I already won.”
“Ooh.” Skylar gave an exaggerated shiver and fanned his face.
I leaned in to brush a kiss over his cheek.
Naomi, still wedged between us, giggled and then moved so we could put on our shoes and jackets, before towing us outside to my car. Dov and Rocky ambled along behind us.
I smiled indulgently while Skylar looked at me with wide, enchanted eyes and mouthed, “ Oh my God .”
“Did you know that octopuses have nine brains, Skylar?” Naomi asked eagerly.
“Uh huh,” he said just as eagerly before he tossed back another animal fact.
He was so engaged and delighted that when I opened the back door for Naomi, he followed her right in. Dov got in with them, so I opened the driver’s side door and grunted when Rocky jumped onto my seat. I shoved him over to the passenger side and got behind the wheel, thinking that now I could unabashedly, fearlessly look forward to a lifetime with Skylar. Hopefully with a little less stress than today, but with just as much love.
Clearing my throat, I said, “Seat belts on, my precious cargo.”