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“You’re not open!” Becca shouted. “I have you!”
Oh. It appeared that Carly was the ball.
My theory was proved correct when Sam launched a shrieking Carly into the air. She landed safely in Michael’s arms. He swung her high over his head, with her laughing madly, and shouted, “Touch down!”
“Huh,” Suzie said next to me.
I had no words. All words vacated the premises. The premises being my brain.
From my vantage point above Michael’s head, Carly saw us and shouted, “Mommy! I’m a football!”
“I see that, angel,” Suzie said, smiling. Her eyes did a quick scan of the yard and then she said, “It appears that they are all alive and unbroken.”
If this was a test of my maternal instincts, I failed. Badly. I should probably be more concerned with the safety issues, and whether the kids should have worn knee pads and helmets, but the only thing my idiot brain registered was that Michael…was…hot.
I mean, it wasn’t my kid being used as a football. So.
Sam grinned at us, completely unrepentant. “Did you have a good time, honey?”
“The best.” Suzie’s gaze turned to her brother, who set Carly down on her feet. “Children are not toys, Michael.”
Michael smirked down at Becca, who burst into giggles. “That’s exactly what he said you’d say!” she said.
I stared at them and my world tilted on its axis. This was what it would be like, if Michael and I were really together. If I were part of his family. Goofy games. Inside jokes. My best friend by my side. Maybe my belly swollen with a baby that wasours. Michael being sweet and hot and—
No.I shut it down and flipped the world right side up again. I was not going down that path, not even in a daydream. Suzie was too important to me to risk losing her the way I had lost Ruth and Jim. Even thinking about it made me nauseous.
Something of this must have been in my voice when I said, “Thanks for watching them, Michael. It was great having time with Suzie,” because he looked at me and his eyebrows snapped together in a frown.
“You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “It was a blast.”
I forced a smile. “Looks like it. Okay, I should get going.”
Suzie touched my arm. “Stay for dinner. Michael’s staying, too. We’re ordering pizza.”
That was a bad idea. I knew it was a bad idea because of how badly I wanted to. “I wish I could, but I’ve got things to do,” I hedged.
“What things?” Suzie asked.
“Things,” I said firmly.
Michael smirked at me, like he knew the only thing I intended to do was avoid him, but he didn’t push.
“We’re doing s’mores after,” Sam said, playing dirty. I narrowed my eyes in a warning glare. He ignored this. “Michael brought his telescope. He’s going to show the kids Saturn.”
“You love s’mores,” Suzie coaxed. “And planets. Stars.” She waved her hand at the sky. “That kind of thing.”
That was true. I was a sucker for stars. I sighed, relenting. “I guess I’m staying for dinner.”
Chapter 13
Michael
Itwasoneofthose perfect nights that belonged in a Norman Rockwell painting. Still warm enough to forgo a jacket, but there was a hint of crispness to the air, signaling that autumn was on its way. Crickets chirped, their cheerful buzz only slightly less loud than the sounds of children laughing and shouting. Nora and Suzie were sitting on deep green Adirondack chairs, watching me make s’mores.
For the first time in weeks—no,years—I felt content.
“How many do you want?” I asked, reaching for the bag of marshmallows.
