Page 80 of Rematch
He climbed onto the bed, grinning at how greedily Lennon took the bottle. He and Chelsea lay facing each other, neither of them speaking.
Preston drank in the moment, happier than he’d ever been in his life.
Within twenty minutes, Lennon and Chelsea were both sound asleep.
Closing his eyes, Preston made his New Year’s resolution a week early. Because he was going to do whatever it took to keep these two with him forever.
His beautiful family.
Chapter Twelve
“I’m a masochist,” Chelsea muttered under her breath as she pulled a pan of cupcakes from the oven and set them on a rack to cool before getting started on the frosting. The batch was half test run, half she was too excited to wait to try all the new shit in the bakery’s kitchen.
Chelsea had rung in the New Year with her parents and Lennon six days earlier, all of them watching Preston and the Stingrays play Calgary. She’d watched enough hockey by now that she knew nearly all the words to the Canadian National Anthem, which, as far as anthems went, was freaking awesome.
She sighed. While the cupcakes looked and smelled delicious, they didn’t distract her from her current state of…yeah…masochism.
Because her thoughts were a chaotic mess.
She tried to tell herself that was understandable. After all, this morning, right now, was the first time Preston had Lennon on his own.
Preston had shown up at the bakery to steal a morning squeeze from his “beautiful boy” and walked in to find her in the midst of a mini meltdown. Lennon was going through a stage where he needed to be held constantly. That wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t have a million things she had to do and if he didn’t weigh so much. Sixteen pounds didn’t sound like a lot, but it was when it squirmed and wiggled constantly.
Chelsea was supposed to be creating her list of permanent products, staples they would sell at the bakery daily. Of course, they would have a special of the day, either a cookie or pastry, but for now, she was trying to focus on setting the standards.
Lennon’s “carry me” phase was working in direct counterpoint to that goal. Ethan was out today, meeting with a graphic designer to establish their brand. She was glad he was taking care of all that crap because she didn’t have a clue what any of the marketing lingo he used meant.
Preston had walked in, sensed her frustration, and immediately taken the squalling sixteen-pound boy into his arms. When she’d unloaded her stress over establishing the menu and Lennon’s sudden clinginess, Preston offered to take the baby with him while he ran a few errands. She wasn’t sure what she’d projected after the offer, but he’d quickly assured her it was fine if she was uncomfortable with the idea. He’d probably mistaken her delayed response as unease. But that wasn’t it.
It was just that a major truth had crashed down on her head and knocked her slightly silly.
She realized in that moment that she trusted Preston with their son.
Completely.
Then, when she told him she would appreciate the help, that gorgeous, sexy-as-fuck smile erupted on his handsome-as-sin face and triggered yet another avalanche.
She was falling in love with Preston.
Nope.
Scratch that.
She had fallen in love with Preston.
She’d done the one thing she told herself she couldn’t do because Lennon had to come first. She was determined to protect his happiness and his future and his security. Starting an affair with Preston would be the height of irresponsibility, because if it failed…
Well, she didn’t want to think of all the bad shit that could go down because it involved that word custody, which never failed to make her want to throw up.
The problem was that, while she thought it was her maturity—ha fucking ha—that kept her from giving in to her and Preston’s obvious attraction to each other, that wasn’t the whole truth, or even half the truth about what was holding her back.
Tomorrow, it would be one month since Preston had walked into this bakery. One month in the scheme of an entire lifetime was little more than a blink. And yet, this past month had meant more to her than all the other months of her life combined.
So much so, it had reawakened a hard truth she didn’t want to acknowledge.
She was scared.
Terrified, actually.
