Page 44 of Hello Tease

I waited for Larkin to nod before stepping out of the way. Suddenly, her cozy living room, which I’d spent hours cleaning overnight, felt too small for the three of us. There wasn’t enough oxygen to sustain all of us in this small, tense space.

Once Seth was inside, the screen door shut behind him, and he set Emily down. “Give me my big boy,” he said, outstretching his arms for Jackson.

Jackson scrambled away from him, clawing up his mom’s chest and squeezing his arms around her neck as he wordlessly screeched.

Seth’s lips twitched as he shot Larkin an accusatory look. “What have you been telling him about me?”

Larkin stared at him incredulously. “Outside. Now.” Her voice was a deadly growl. Her voice softened only slightly as she turned to me. “Knox, hold Jackson please?”

I nodded, and she passed him to me. He barely let go of her before holding on to me for dear life. I could feel his little heart racing against my chest.

“It’s okay, buddy,” I murmured, my lips against his head.

Seth’s pale face was turning redder by the moment, a vein popping in his forehead.

Emily screamed, “Daddy, don’t go!”

But Larkin stood firm, her shoulders square against all the chaos. She knelt in front of Emily, calmly saying, “Your daddy and I need to talk.” She turned her gaze to him. “Now.”

He looked like he didn’t want to move, but one glare from me, and he followed her out the front door. It slammed behind him.

Emily ran to the door, yanking on it, but I reached for her, scooping her up so I held both the kids in my arms. She cried against my shoulder. “I want to see him. I want to see him.” It was like the real Emily wasn’t there anymore, caught in some primal place where she knew the man who made her, the man who should love her and protect her, was outside.

“I know, honey,” I soothed, walking them both away from the front door. “Why don’t you go to your bedroom and pick some of your favorite toys to show your daddy?” My heart ached as I said it, because I truly didn’t know if he would even be back inside with the angry looks he and Larkin had exchanged.

She seemed conflicted, but finally nodded in agreement, running back toward her bedroom. As soon as she was gone, I set Jackson in his playpen and turned on the TV. I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out, but I damn sure wasn’t making Larkin go through it alone.

24

LARKIN

I walkedoff the front porch and onto the sidewalk, ready to explode at Seth for showing up without notice after weeks of completely ignoring his children and me. His expression looked just as angry as I felt, red with a vein popping on his forehead.

“Why is Jackson acting like I’m some kind of monster?” he demanded, arms gesticulating his anger.

I must have been acclimating to small town life, because I could only imagine the rumors that would start about us if Mrs. Halstead next door saw him acting this way. But I lifted my chin, unwilling to back down. Let everyone know what a piece of crap he’d been.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe because he’s barely a year old and hasn’t seen you in over a month?! Where the hell have you been, Seth?” I folded my arms across my chest to keep my angry heart from pounding right out of my ribcage.

He raked his fingers roughly through his short brown hair and paced away from me. “I’ve been trying to come to grips with the fact that we’re divorced, Larkin! The woman I married isn’t in my house anymore. Our mutual friends are asking where you’ve been, and I keep making up excuses to explain your absence. My mom’s pissed at me that I didn’t try harder to make it work after my slip up.”

“Slip up?” I asked, genuinely stunned. “Is that what you’re calling an affair that went on for God knows how long while I was on bedrest, worried I’d lose our unborn baby while caring for our other child?”

He looked down at the ground, pain in his gaze. “I don’t want to go back over the past, Larkin. I came here because I want to get you back. I want our family back.”

My mouth gaped open. “You can’t be serious. A month of silence, now this? What changed?” My mind raced through the possibilities, and then it hit me. “Oh my gosh,” I breathed, shaking my head at him. “You heard about my date with Bennett, didn’t you?”

He wouldn’t quite meet my eyes.

“You heard I was moving on with my life, and like a crab in a boiling pot of water, you wanted to bring me down with you,” I accused.

“No!” he argued, coming closer and taking my hands in his. “The reality of our situation, of what I was about to lose, hit me, and I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try to repair us. Think of our children, Larkin. They don’t deserve to grow up in a broken home.”

I pulled my hands away from him, eyes stinging. How cruel could he be? “No, they don’t deserve that. But they don’t deserve to see a mom who settles for a husband who sleeps around, doesn’t make it a priority to come home at regular times, and who doesn’t give their mom a chance to have a life outside of being a wife and mother.” I shook my head, tears sliding down my cheeks. “I gave so much of my life to you. I gave up friendships, my career, my body to have children, and you hurt me in the worst way you possibly could.”

He gritted his teeth. “And what about you? You refused to touch me, to let me touch you. And even after the pregnancy, you let yourself go. You weren’t the woman I married.”

His words cut at me, dug at that insecure part of me that wondered if it had been my fault that he needed to go outside of our marriage to get what he wanted. But I lifted my chin and stared him down. I wasn’t the meek housewife I’d made myself be throughout our marriage.

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