Page 54 of An Ex Affair

“Mama?” I called as I headed inside the back door of the house.

“In here!” she called out from somewhere in the house.

At this hour, she’d probably be just finishing up breakfast. I headed for the small dining room off the kitchen, the one I’d wallpapered and painted, adding in a chair rail and updated furniture when the girls worked on the kitchen. I screeched to a halt when I found Colson sitting with her, sipping a cup of coffee from Crazy Beans. Mama had an identical cup of coffee in her hands.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Colson drawled. “’Fraid your coffee might have gotten a bit cold.” He gestured to a third cup on the table, along with a small paper bag that probably held my beloved egg bites.

I kissed Mama on the top of her head and then did the same to Colson before my ass hit the chair. How had I missed these little green flags all those years ago? Colson had always taken care of me and my mama in a way that just wasn’t common out there in the world.

“Thank you,” I said softly, tucking into my breakfast before I did something crazy like propose marriage for bringing us breakfast.

Mama shoved her chair back and rose. “Well, I need to get dressed and get busy baking. Crazy Beans said my lemon bars sold out before noon yesterday, so I need to make a triple batch.”

“That’s because your lemon bars are out of this world,” Colson agreed, standing up briefly when Mama did, always the perfect gentleman.

I swallowed my bite of egg and assessed the man across from me. He was handsome, sure. Probably one of the most good-looking men I’d seen, and I’d seen a lot of Hollywood hopefuls in my time there. But Colson was so much more. He had a heart that he buried deep in his gruff chest. Once someone got in there, it was all over. He loved you for a lifetime. And I’d shoved that love in his face in exchange for the shiny object of Hollywood. A fickle lover, indeed.

“Why do you love my mama so much, Colson Wolfe?”

Colson tipped his head to the side, like that was an odd question. “Because she made you. You and your family have always been my true north.”

My ribs squeezed painfully tight. My gaze dropped to the constellation tattoo on his ring finger that had faded quite a bit over the years but was still visible. I loved Colson so much I wanted to cry over the sheer depth of it.

“You know I love you, right?” I said quietly, making sure I held his gaze so he understood how much I meant those words.

His lips quirked in an almost-smile. “And you know I’ve always loved you, right? That it hasn’t stopped just because of some signed court documents?”

Tears flooded my eyes and his image wavered. I nodded, biting my lip to keep from crying. “This isn’t just sex for me.” I had to make sure he knew that. I was the idiot who’d suggested we could actually do that and not develop feelings.

Colson shifted on his chair, the wood creaking below him. His big, scarred hand covered mine, a warm comfort. “I know. It’s not for me either. Hasn’t been.”

I gripped him back tightly. “I need to get my life together.”

He dipped his head in understanding of what I was saying. “I’ll wait you out, then.”

He was giving me space to do what I needed to do, while also loving me. It was everything I knew he couldn’t give me before when we were younger and less flexible. He gave me hope we could actually make this work this time around. I stood, my chair scraping behind me. I rounded the table and plopped down on his lap, throwing my arms around his neck and laying a kiss on him he wouldn’t soon forget. He got over his surprise in a quick second, his hands skimming up my back to tangle in my hair.

“Oh, would you look at that?” Mama’s soft voice interrupted us with a tinkling laugh. She didn’t sound surprised at all,considering I hadn’t moved back into the main house with her when the renovations were done.

We came up for air, but I kept my forehead pressed to Colson’s to get my bearings. His hands smoothed down my back, respectfully not grabbing my ass like he normally would.

“Your daughter says she loves me, Sofia,” Colson said on a smile that lit up every dark corner in my heart.

I pulled my head back and grinned right back. Mama just blew a raspberry.

“As if we didn’t already know that…” she muttered, starting to slam cabinet doors back in the kitchen as she got out ingredients for her baking.

I rolled my eyes. I got off Colson’s lap and held out my hand, feeling like I could take on the world. “Let’s go buy things we don’t need at the farmer’s market.”

Gabi held up a blue-and-white muumuu to her chest. “What do you think, Joey? Should I start wearing nightgowns to bed instead of concert tees and boy shorts?”

Joey wagged his eyebrows and pulled my friend into an embrace. “How about your birthday suit? That doesn’t cost anything.”

Gabi jabbed him in the stomach and then kissed him when he let her go. “My grandpa got Grandma pregnant like nine times when she wore one of these things.” She put the muumuu back on the table, but ran her hand over it, like she was actually considering buying it.

Joey looked stricken. “We have teenagers, babe. We can’t be tempting the pregnancy gods with nightgowns.”

Gabi snatched her hand back. “You’re so right. I don’t want to bring another human being into this world just for them to call me bruh.”

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