Chapter 15
JAKE
Noah stared at me with a pouty frown and folded arms, the moody stance ruined by his hooded giraffe towelling poncho.
“No,” he sassed, stomping one tiny foot.
I bit back another smile. Everything this kid did was funny to me now, even when he was a disobedient little shit.
He’s my disobedient little shit.
Well.
Not mine. But I was definitely attached. It was hard not to be. Noah was bright and funny, pure chaos in cute form, and said the most ridiculous things that amused me without fail. Most days I couldn’t wait to hear whatever random thing popped into his head.
Yesterday, as he’d munched on his fish fingers and peas, gleefully telling Ellie all about the dog we’d met at the park, he randomly asked where farts came from before letting one rip.
After Ellie told him it was bad manners to break wind at the dinner table, trying not to laugh the entire time, I’d excused myself to go laugh in the bathroom because I couldn’t stop. He cracked me up.
“Noah…” I tried my most encouraging tone. “You haven’t seen it yet.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t want a bath!”
“But here’s the thing. It’s not just a bath behind this door.” I glanced side to side, then whispered, “It’s a party.”
His gaze flashed with intrigue.
Gotcha.
“A party?”
“Yep. And you’re only invited if you get in the bath. I don’t make the rules.”
“What kind of party is in a bath?”
This kid. There was no getting anything past him sometimes.
“Well, you can have a party anywhere. But let’s open the door and find out, shall we?”
His sigh sounded like it came from an old man. “Okay.”
I built the suspense, then pushed open the door with an embellished, “Surprise!”
“Woooooow,” Noah breathed, all bug-eyed as he entered the room.
I’d filled the bath with some colour changing bubble bath so the water was bright orange, chucked in a few glow sticks and turned off the lights. I’d also set up my new starlight projector so the ceiling was a kaleidoscope of drifting stars and multicoloured floating auroras.
I’d made bath time my bitch.
“Welcome to our Galactic Glow in the Dark event, featuring Mr Shark,” I tossed the shark squirter toy into the bath, “with a special appearance by Mr Noah Brooks.”
Noah squealed when I plunked him into the water. He gazed in awe at the glow sticks and stars, splashed his feet, then pulled at his poncho.
“Jake, I need help.” He lifted his little arms until I tugged the thing over his head, and he sat down in the tub wearing his favourite Mickey Mouse swim shorts.
Result.
I found the music remix on my phone and pressed play. It was a risk. Part of me was sure I’d be playing some baby shark crap in less than five minutes, but if I was about to dance my ass off for this kid, the music had to be good.
Noah’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head again when Insomnia by Faithless filled the room, and it was ridiculous how pleased I felt that he liked the music, but also that my ploy actually worked.
“Next, we need foam. All good raves have foam.” I popped the cap on the can of kids foaming soap purchased yesterday, and sprayed it all over his head and arms.
Noah thought the whole thing was hilarious and lathered up his pudgy little hands without being asked.
“Now, we have to do some special dance moves to get the party started. I call this one… The Face Wash.”
I was pretty much pulling this out of my ass, but amazingly Noah did what he was told, swiping his face and behind his ears, as instructed, and rinsing it all off while he bopped his head to the beat.
I was winning at life today.
By the time Ellie got home from work, my t-shirt was half-drenched but Noah was clean, laughing and jumping around the bathroom in his towelling robe, and having the best time of his entire life as we bopped to the kids dance playlist I’d found on YouTube.
Ellie stared at us in disbelief. “What on earth…”
“We’re having a dance party,” Noah shouted, shaking his butt in time with the music.
“I can see that.”
“Dance with us, Mummy!”
“Yeah, dance with us. Show us your best moves.”
Panic bled into her eyes. “I don’t have any moves. I don’t dance. I can’t.”
“Sure you can.”
“I’d look like a fool. I don’t have any rhythm. My hips literally don’t lie.”
Fuck, she cracked me up too.
“Who cares? It’s just us here. You can be a fool in front of us. Right, Noah?”
“Yeah!”
Ellie didn’t move, so I shimmied closer, miming the most ridiculous moves learned from my late teens and early twenties, when the only thing I did on the weekends was get drunk and dance until dawn.
“Big fish, little fish, cardboard box, now stack the shelves.”
“Oh my god,” she laughed, hiding her face behind her hands. “What does that even mean?”
“You’re not stacking the shelves, Ellie.” I carried on dancing around her, and tried to move her arms. “Come on. Stack ‘em.”
“Yeah, stack ‘em!” Noah repeated as if he knew what that meant, though I wasn’t sure Ellie did either.
The remix ended and Wannabe by the Spice Girls began to play.
“Come on, you have to dance to this one.” I couldn’t stop smiling as I twirled Ellie around, jabbing my shoulder, making her laugh at the ridiculousness of me singing the words out loud.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered, then started to move, completely off-beat.
Startled at first, she relaxed once she realised I wasn’t laughing or making fun of her, or maybe that I looked ridiculous too.
She bopped her head, rolled those gorgeous hips, and the swell of her ass brushed my crotch as she spun around.
It took every last speck of restraint not to grab her waist and grind our bodies together.
Oh, how I fucking wanted to though.
Instead, I lifted Noah into the air, twirling him around, making them both giggle as I moved his little arms to the music, and the three of us danced until we were breathless.
I’d once danced till dawn at the Full Moon Party in Thailand, and for the longest time nothing could beat that experience, but this moment right here, felt like the most fun I’d had in forever.
“That was fun,” Noah echoed sleepily a while later. “Can we do dance party bath time every night?”
“We’ll see.” Ellie kissed his forehead. “Shut your eyes now, baby.”
“Hang on.” I jogged back to the living room to grab the orange dragon from the floor. “You forgot Zog.”
Ellie’s smile softened as I tucked Zog by Noah’s side, making sure he was fully covered by the duvet, exactly the way he liked.
“Thanks, Jake.” He wriggled and kicked his feet, trying to get comfortable. “I don’t want the night light.”
“Are you sure?” Ellie checked the sleepy sloth light on the wall. “You don’t have to try tonight.”
“I wanna try. Jake will get the monsters.”
Something in my chest flipped at his conviction. I wasn’t the one people depended on for anything, but this cute four-year-old was the first, and something about that made me feel pretty damn incredible.
“Of course, bud. You can count on it.” I circled my fists in the air, bouncing side to side and pretending to fight. “I’m ready.”
Noah giggled.
“Okay you two,” Ellie laughed, nudging me from the room. “Go to sleep. We’ll be just down the hall.”
“Okay. Night, Mummy.” A yawn distorted his words. “Night, Jake.”
“See you in the morning.”
“Can you make the pancakes with the smiley faces?”
“You bet. I might even make some frowny faces, mix things up a bit, you know?”
“I like that,” he murmured. “I like you. You’re the bestest.”
My chest constricted again, and I stared into Ellie’s wide and waiting eyes and said, “I like you too.”
The air shifted for a fraction, for as long as it took us both to glance away.
Restless suddenly, my limbs charged with whatever electrified the air between us, I wasn’t sure what else to do except point down the hallway. “Right, I’m gonna…”
“Yeah, I’ll just…” Ellie disappeared into her bedroom, probably to change into her usual comfy clothes, while I raided the kitchen for drinks and snacks and readied the lounge for our movie night.
After our late-night texting sessions often ended in meeting in the living room to watch something mindless on TV, we’d made it a regular normal-hour event to work through our one-hundred movies bucket list, and tonight we’d settled on Groundhog Day.
I’d never been someone who was content with staying in and watching TV, chatting about the most random things, but it was pretty damn nice, now that I was living it.
I dumped Noah’s toys in their container, closed the blinds, turned off the lights for ambience—watching TV with the big light on was a huge no no—and shook out the blanket because Ellie grew cold whenever she sat still longer than ten minutes.
Eventually, she reappeared wearing a plain t-shirt and navy pyjama bottoms covered in zebras. The soft outline of her tits and nipples were clearly visible through the light material of her shirt, and I cursed myself for turning the main light off.
I want to see more.
Goddammit.
I needed to stop thinking of her like that.
Still, I couldn’t help the double-take because holy shit. I’d always thought Ellie was pretty, but lately her beauty blew me away. So many times I’d lost track of what I was thinking or saying because I’d been so distracted by her full lips or her sky blue eyes.
I had to focus on something else, clear my throat and force my dick to remember she was my friend.
It was getting harder and harder though, in more ways than one.
I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.
“I promise I didn’t use Noah’s snacks.” I gestured at the junk food on the coffee table. “Make sure you remind him of that, you know, in case he gets mad at me.”
Amusement softened Ellie’s face. “He needs to learn how to share.”
“I ate one of his Munch Bunch yogurts the other week and he gave me the evil eye all morning.”
“Well, that’s different. He’s very passionate about his Munch Bunch.”
“You’re right. I had it coming. Should’ve known better.”
We shared a laugh, and a few seconds of awkwardness as we held each other’s gaze, or maybe it was leftover awareness on my part now that I knew the colour of her nipples. Warm honey. I wondered if she was sensitive there, whether I could make her come by sucking on her nipples and—
I sat down and shoved a cushion in my lap.
Better safe than sorry.
“So, what do you want to watch?” We settled on the sofa, not quite side by side but close enough to be keenly aware of her body heat, the gentle scent of her. Soft and sweet and Ellie.
Ellie was too distracted by opening a bag of chocolate buttons to notice me ogling the scrap of pink lace peeking above her pyjama bottoms, only visible because she’d stretched forward and her t-shirt had risen up her back.
Whatever I imagined about Ellie’s underwear, it was not that.
Well, I’ll be damned.
Ellie Brooks was a fancy lingerie girl.
I let my eyes linger while she was distracted, then once again reminded myself Ellie and her fancy lingerie were my friend.
That was not the kind of lingerie I liked seeing on my friend though. It was the kind I liked to remove with my teeth or tear off with both hands, and apologise profusely with fake promises to buy her some more even though I wasn’t sorry in the slightest.
Shit.
I’d barely recovered from the drawer filled with sex toys, and now this?
This was bad.
This was very very bad.
“I thought we’d agreed on Groundhog Day?” Ellie said, and I had zero idea what she was talking about, my brain still caught up on all that fancy pink lace and whether it cut high across the cheeks of her ass and if there was any bows involved.
I was a big fan of bows, especially ones that unravelled with one sharp tug for quick, easy access…
“Oh, yeah,” I croaked out. “I remember.”
Fucking hell. Get a grip, Jake.
And not on your fucking cock.
I needed to change the subject. Fast.
“So, uh, I have a favour to ask you, and you don’t have to say yes, but—”
“Jake,” she laughed at my rambling. “Ask me.”
“Well, you know it’s Mother’s Day weekend.”
“I know.”
Her smile dimmed, and I felt like the biggest dick alive.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“No, don’t be sorry,” she rushed out. “Please. Ask me.”
“I have to go to lunch at my mother’s house, and I wondered if you and Noah would like to join me.”
“Oh. Really?”
“It’s the first time I’ll be seeing Oliver since the wedding and I’d love your support, but most of all I’d love everyone to meet you and Noah.
And maybe I thought it would be a good distraction for you too.
The food is usually pretty good, and there will be a lot of chatting about random shit, but the truth is I don’t like the thought of leaving you and Noah alone, knowing what day it is. Unless you want to be alone and—”
Ellie grabbed my forearm, settling me, and when I finally looked at her, the bottom dropped from my world.
“Oh, fuck. I made you cry. I really am a shithead.”
“No. I’m…” She swiped a tear away before it rolled down her cheek. “It just surprises me sometimes that we have you and you care about us that much. You made me all emotional in a good way.”
“Oh.”
“We’d love to meet your family, but are you sure we’d be welcome? It’s a day for family.”
“You’re part of my life now, Ellie. Of course you’re welcome.”
The quiet snaked around us, and Ellie stared at me with an intensity that wasn’t there moments before.
I swallowed and shifted, letting the cushion slip from my lap, an inexplicable bolt of pure, hot lust sparking through me at the near-palpable energy shift between us.
“Ellie,” I whispered.
My pulse boomed.
I could see her brain working overtime, ticking over and over, figuring something out.
She looked at me like one of her favourite puzzles, searching and seeking, like she wanted to try me on for size, and I knew what she wanted then, felt the needy weight of it like it stroked my cock.
She wants to kiss me.
My gaze drifted to her lips.
I barely had time to blink before she reached for my face with both hands, yanked me closer, and sealed her gorgeous, greedy mouth to mine.