Page 23 of Pucking Fate

“And if he doesn’t want to be monogamous with me while we have fun this summer?”

“Then you’ll have to decide if it’s worth it or not to keep at it.”

“I’ll bring it up tomorrow,” I agree. “Before we lay another hand on each other.”

“I’m happy for you, Maya. Whether you and Christian are hands on or off, tonight means that you’re getting back out there after nearly five years of being single. That’s a good thing. You deserve to finally have some fun, with Christian or someone else. Lots of someone elses, if you prefer.”

“That’s not going to happen. I haven’t been asked out but maybe twice since Finley was born. Only one knew about him and was still willing to date a single mother. I turned both down, though.”

“Men know when a woman is interested in getting out there or if she wants to be left alone. When you decide you’re ready to see what happens, guys will be lining up out the door for a chance to date you.”

“I seriously doubt that,” I tell her with a snort, even though her enthusiasm puts a bigger smile on my face. “Most men aren’t going to want to fool around with an inexperiencedmother.” I guess that’s one good thing about Christian. Since we share a son, he knows that it’s a packaged deal. Not that he would want to buy the entire package when he’s still so busy sampling so many others.

“You’re smart and beautiful in addition to being a great mother,” Elle says. “If a man can’t handle that, then it’s their loss, not yours.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, Elle.”

“Anytime you need a girl talk, I’m here. I don’t mind the nitty-gritty details either, even if he’s my ex. Christian never really felt like mine the entire time we dated. I think that was the problem, why deep down I knew it wouldn’t ever work between us. With Preston, though, he’s everything to me and has never made me feel like he could walk away and never look back.”

“Yeah, there’s no freaking way my brother would walk away from you,” I assure her. “His anger might try to get in the way sometimes, but you hold his heart in the palm of your hands.”

That’s what I want someday, too. Someone who I know I can trust to never hurt me, to never walk away.

And since Christian has already done that to me once, why in the world would I think he wouldn’t do it again?

10

Christian

“So…about last night,” Maya finally says while we’re cleaning up dinner dishes. My pants tighten just at the mention of the night before. I’ve been hoping for a repeat all day and waiting for her to bring it up, even though my palms are sweating anxiously.

“What about it?” I ask, trying to focus on rinsing the salad bowl in my hands and not look too eager.

“This is just physical between us, right? It doesn’t mean anything?”

“Right. Yeah,” I agree with a nod, since that seems to be what Maya wants me to say.

“And have you, are you going to be physical with just me, or are you hooking up with random women when you leave here?”

Turning off the faucet, I grab a towel to dry my hands before facing Maya. “No, baby. I haven’t been with anyone when I leave you and Finley. I’m not planning on it either. I stopped sleeping around when Elle and Preston messed me up with their ploy.Before that, the women, I was just trying to move on, and that was the only way I knew to do it, you know?”

“Uh-huh,” Maya says, giving me a look that says she doesn’t know and that she thinks I sound like a complete jackass.

“I’m not…I don’t want anyone but you,” I tell her as I take her hand, the only contact I’m willing to risk trying while Finley is still awake but getting ready for bed. “Do you want to know what I do at night after I leave here?”

She shrugs, but her pretty brown eyes are filled with curiosity.

“I look at the photos and videos you gave me.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I do! Since I didn’t bring my laptop, I went and bought a new one the night you gave me the flash drive just so I could look through them all. So, no, I’m not screwing around with anyone in the present or thinking about doing so in the future. Every night I’m stuck in the past, looking back at everything I missed.”

Maya’s eyes get a little misty, but she doesn’t say anything sarcastic, which is a win for me.

“You didn’t have, like, one photo of you when you were pregnant on the flash drive.”

“I didn’t want any memories of when I was ten times bigger than normal all over,” she replies.

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