Page 86 of Already Callin’ You Mine

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PRESLEY

Things I don’t have time for today—pretty much everything.

Yes, everything.

My morning was jam-packed with meetings, my inbox is overflowing, I have a to-do list longer than I am tall, and the clock is ticking. Oh, and my ass needs to be out the door absolutely no later than three fifteen this afternoon to pick up Otis and get him to his doctor’s appointment. It’s his first one with Doc Galindo—Hickory Hills’ town GP—and I want to make sure we’re there in enough time.

Oh, shit…the paperwork…

Doc Galindo’s office manager emailed me the new patient paperwork to fill out ahead of time, so that we can get started faster once we arrive. I was so grateful, knowing that it was going to be tricky to fill it all out while making sure my little guy behaved himself in the waiting room. The last thing I need is for him to do a runner and end up crashing someone else’s appointment or worse, making a mess with medical supplies, all because he was bored while I took care of paperwork.

I need to get that done before I leave today. I can’t believe I almost forgot that.

Wait, yes I can. Because my mind has been one place, and one place only all week.

Reliving my sleepover with Jace.

Relaxing back in my chair, I let myself indulge for just a second. A romantic purple haze clouds my mind, tinting my memories and making me smile involuntarily. It’s impossible not to when I think about how insanely perfect it all was.

His words. His actions. His reverence.

All for me.

Saturday night easily blended into Sunday morning, Jace navigating my house as if it was his own and this was any other night that we had all to ourselves. Waking up in his arms—to his kisses—was a daydream come to life. One that I want to experience all the time.

One that I know is too good to be true.

Because that’s how things started with Cody too. Then quickly changed.

Well, maybe not quickly. But over time. Not that Cody was ever much of a cuddler. Long, lazy Sunday mornings in bed kissing and giggling weren’t his style. They are very clearly Jace’s though.

Jace also isn’t as serious as Cody. He’s a lot more willing to let things slide. Cody would lose his shit if he caught sight of that living room Saturday night. He would have had all sorts of choice things to say about it. Jace, on the other hand, didn’t think twice—simply picked me up and navigated his way around the land mines.

Then again, there was never a toddler living in our house while I was with Cody. Jace doesn’t know me without my shadow. Errr…well, adult me.

Stop. I need to stop comparing them. It’s not fair…

Fair…ha. Life’s not fair. I know this all too well. That was the line I fed Jace in high school when he complained that the administration accepted my weighted grades. But all my preconceived notions about Jace were wrong and⁠—

STOP!

I need to think about something else.

They’ll change with Jace too. I know they will. Because that’s how it works.

Like my to-do list. And its panic-inducing length.

My living room is still a disaster zone—climbing the ranks toward requiring actual OSHA intervention—three days later. We’re not even going to talk about how the dishwasher still needs to be emptied, the state of the bathrooms, or Mount St. Laundry that is about to erupt at any moment. Or that it’s Old Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard in my kitchen, forcing me to have to buy my lunch in the cafeteria today. And that’s just the house.

Never mind my inbox or all the items I have promised to the various departments at Hayes. At the rate I’m going, I’m never going to sleep again. I’ll be the one making social media videos round the clock until she morphs into a zombie.

I’m really excelling at all levels right now.

I haven’t felt this overwhelmed and useless in a long time. Not since…not since that night. Not since I saw a mess of brown curls that looked a lot like the ones that belonged to the sales girl from Ferg’s Furniture handcuffed to my headboard. The very same headboard she’d helped Cody and me pick out not six months prior.

Not since Cody looked at me and told me he never asked me to get pregnant. Since he callously threw out that he couldn’t even be sure the baby was his.