Chapter 15 Lee #2
“As good as that sounds, I already have dinner plans,” Nate said, raising his free arm to look at his watch. “At least I think I still do. So, if I pick you up, you have to come see me next home game.”
Bennie squirmed when he tickled her side.
“Stella said we’re going to go to all the home games we can. As long as I don’t have homework and they aren’t too late at night.”
“Good,” he said, giving her cheek a peck before setting her back down. “I’m sure your dad doesn’t want me hogging any more of your and Stella’s time. See you on Saturday, Doc.”
“See you on Saturday,” I said, chuckling when I found Stella’s gaze. Her hair fell in loose waves down her back, and the urge to touch it and her shouldn’t have been so potent with my kid around.
I let Bennie babble to me as she grabbed my hand and led me to where Stella’s car was parked. Stella stayed two steps ahead, I guessed giving Bennie and me a moment to be alone. I tried to keep all my focus on my daughter and not on how good Stella’s ass looked in those jeans.
It had been a week and a half since I’d jerked off to very unfriendly thoughts of Stella while I was in the shower. I wouldn’t let myself do it on the road, but that awareness of her had skidded up my spine the minute I spotted her from the bus.
An awareness I’d have to hide while we were living in the same house.
“When is the next game, Daddy?” Bennie asked while I strapped her into her seat in the back of Stella’s car.
She was still small enough to need a booster seat or enough that I wanted to keep her in one until she grew a little more.
After my long stretches away from her, she always seemed a little different and more grown up at each return, highlighting all I’d been missing.
Staying home and spending every day with her was the one perk I was looking forward to at the end of the season. I’d missed so much, both from being on the road and trapped in my head, these past five years.
I was lucky to have a special little girl who’d thrived despite her father’s shortcomings, and I wanted to make it up to her before she grew older and didn’t want to hang out with her uncool father all the time.
“Not until Tuesday, so you have me for the whole weekend.” I gave her long braid a gentle tug. She had small braids on the sides of her head entwining into one braid, and I already knew I had no hope of trying to figure that out.
“Yes!” I laughed at her fist pump.
“I’m looking forward to the fancy macaroni and cheese.”
“We made a salad too. Stella said it’s good to have green during dinner.”
My head whipped to Stella after I fastened my seat belt.
“You have her eating salad?”
“Kind of,” Stella said, tilting her hand back and forth. “It’s doused in ranch and she mostly eats the croutons, but she gets a couple of pieces of lettuce too. Baby steps.”
She patted my knee and pulled away from the curb.
“What?” she said, glancing at me as she drove toward the house.
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re just a show-off.”
“Well, if that means you think I did an okay job, I’ll take it.”
“You did a lot more than okay, and you know it.”
She flicked her eyes to me, a blush staining her cheeks.
“Well, thank you. And I’d mentioned having Nate come pick Bennie up, but you may not have thought I was serious. Sorry if I overstepped. When he came over to say hi, I just thought Tuesday was good timing.”
“Good timing?”
“I volunteer at school Thursday and Friday. I figured, let those two get an eyeful before I have to watch them at lunchtime.” She lifted a shoulder at me at a red light.
“I never knew you were this petty.”
“No one messed with my kid before. I mean—” Her eyes widened as she lowered her voice. “I know she’s not my kid, but for all intents—”
“I get it. And I appreciate the petty. Nice to know my girl is being taken care of. Even if you leave a little carnage at school.”
Stella’s lips curved into a wicked grin, not helping my fixation with her mouth.
Silas was dead wrong. I couldn’t get used to this, because I liked it too much.
“Here’s my sign,” Bennie said, racing for the living room the minute Stella opened the door. Welcome Home, Daddy was written in big, stenciled letters in all different colors. She’d definitely had a lot of help.
“This is great,” I said, picking up the large piece of poster board from the couch cushion. “I think I’m going to keep this in my bedroom so I can look forward to it every time I come home.”
I cut Stella a look. All she’d done while I was away, how good it was to have her in my daily life, and that easy smile lifting those damn lips… Words escaped me as our eyes locked.
How could something that felt so good be so wrong?
But it was.
“Isn’t this the best dinner?” Bennie mumbled around a mouthful of macaroni and cheese.
It was better than anything I made for Bennie. I usually took the quick and easy route with meals, especially with Bennie being so picky with food.
I watched in fascination as she poked her fork in a tiny bowl of salad—yes, going for the croutons, but spearing a piece of lettuce with it. I guessed picky didn’t apply when Stella cooked, and it was nothing short of a miracle.
“It is. Stella took really good care of you while I was away,” I said to Bennie while holding Stella’s gaze.
“She did. It was so fun. And she scared Ms. Cullen.” Bennie gave her a devious smile. “Like, she jumped back and everything.”
I burst out laughing.
“Not my finest moment, but I got the point across.”
“I disagree.” I pushed away from the table and stood, gathering the plates. “I wasn’t there, but it sounds like an awesome moment.”
“I ate most of my dinner. Can I watch some TV?” Bennie looked between Stella and me.
“Sure,” I told her as she jumped off her chair and headed for the living room.
“I usually let her watch for a little while after dinner if she finishes most of it, which she has been,” Stella said, joining me at the sink.
“You don’t have to explain anything. Thank you for all of this.” I held up my hands. “Don’t slug me, I’m just saying.”
She slapped my chest.
“I won’t slug you. This time.”
“Even with your brother away on some secret military mission, I think you may be the lethal one.”
She laughed and shook her head.
“I wouldn’t say lethal, but if it keeps her teacher in check a little and those two leave her alone, I’ll allow the reputation.”
She handed me the rest of the dishes, our fingers brushing when I took them from her.
Electricity zinged up my arm from where her skin grazed mine, both of us frozen in front of the sink.
My head ached with the urge to lower my gaze and take her all in, right before I took that mouth that wouldn’t stop torturing me.
I jerked back, rinsing off the dishes like I wanted to rinse off whatever had just happened between us.
I’d spent hours reasoning away whatever was happening between us as some kind of phenomenon brought on by my frazzled state of mind, but it hadn’t worked.
This wasn’t some kind of virus or phase that would pass, as much as I prayed it would.
I liked Stella. And it seemed as if I’d underestimated her for most of our lives—how strong she was, the big, fierce heart she had that was more open than she realized, and how, now that I was finally truly looking at her, beautiful she was.
Like the most gorgeous woman on the planet kind of beautiful.
And I was the unluckiest man alive because I couldn’t do anything about it.