Page 44 of Backup Plan

Her suitcase drops down, and I grab it off the belt.

“Well, thanks,” she says. She looks like she wants to kiss me, and I want to, too. I glance around, and I don’t see anyone I know, so I drop a quick one to her lips.

“Why are you saying that like it’s goodbye?” I ask.

She lifts a shoulder. “My car’s in the parking garage. Where’s yours?”

“I had a car service drop me. Why don’t we go to your place and get the kids and whatever you want to bring to my place for the night, and we can go back tomorrow when your ex isn’t there to get whatever else you need?”

She tilts her head, and her eyes soften. “What in the world did I do to deserve how wonderful you are to me?”

I twist my lips, and then I lean in a little closer. “You let me fuck your tits. Oh! And that thing you do with your tongue on my balls.”

Her face is red again, and this time I’m not sure if it’s from the heat of my words or the fact that she’s embarrassed, but in any case, it’s cute as fuck.

Goddamn, I’m smitten with her.

I drag her suitcase to her SUV. She opens the rear cargo compartment, and I lift the suitcase in, and then we head toward the house she shares with her ex.

The closer we get, the more nervous I feel.

Not about the ex. He can kick rocks for all I care.

But I’m about to meet her kids. I’ve never met the kids of a woman I’m screwing before, mainly because I don’t know if I’ve ever screwed a mother before.

It feels like so much more than that, though. We’re going to need to pretend like there isn’t this attraction between us, like I’m not hot for her all the damn time. And I’m going to see a brand-new side to her. I’ve never had kids stay at my place, either. The only baby I’ve ever held is Dex’s, and that was only for like a minute. And this is a five-year-old and a seven-year-old. I don’t know what they’re into, but I placed an order to stock my place with things I think they’ll like, and Dolores is taking care of the rest. I hope we guessed right.

She pulls down an alley and clicks a button for a garage, and she pulls into an empty space next to the kind of Bentley that signals tiny-dick energy. After she puts the car in park and cuts the engine, she pauses for a second. She closes her eyes and draws in a deep breath.

“You okay?” I ask.

She shoots me a tight smile. “Mentally bracing myself for Brent.”

It’s like she physically changed the second we pulled into the garage. Her shoulders are drawn up, and she seems stiff.

I reach over and grab her hand as I place my own nerves on the backburner so I can be stronger for her. “Hey. It’s okay, baby. I’m right here.”

She bites her bottom lip, and then she nods as she flexes her fingers in mine and squeezes my hand. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

She gets out of her side of the car, and I don’t bother opening my door slowly, instead shoving it into the driver’s side door of the Bentley. It may or may not leave a little scratch in the black paint.

We head inside, and she calls out as the door slams behind her. “Sammy? Benji? I’m home!”

Two kids come racing around the corner from another room, and they both plow into their mom at the same time. She braces herself for the impact, but I still hear an oof emit from her all the same.

I study the scene in front of me. A mom and two kids. The two kids have a lot of her features—same hair and eye color, same chin. I can tell they’re her kids just from looking at them. There’s just this inherent characteristic I can’t put my finger on that tells me they belong to her. Maybe the way they’re hanging on her after being away from her for two days.

I wonder if the other features come from their dad. I wonder if they hang on their father like this after spending time away from him.

“Hi, my babies!” She kisses them both on the tops of their heads. “Oh my goodness, I missed you so much!” She gets down onto her knees to hug her boys one at a time.

“What did you bring us?” the smaller one asks.

“Benji, don’t ask that,” the older one says, smacking his little brother in the chest.

“Let’s remember not to hit,” she reminds him, and she reaches into her purse and pulls out two big boxes of Nerds gummies.

“Nerds!” they both scream at the same time.