Page 94 of Phantom Faceoff
“Sorry, Jules.”
Oh, right.
I look over his shoulder where Julian has moved an arms length away, watching us with the sweetest, saddest smile, and it makes my heart twinge.
“I want that someday,” he says, voice quiet and thick.
I hold Malachi to my chest and reach a hand out to pull Julian over top of us. For right this moment, we need each other.
A few months ago, I never would have thought this was something thatIwanted. Now? I can’t imaginenothaving it.
A Daddy.
A boyfriend.
Malachi freaking Blanchard.
I can’t imagine letting any of it go. Losing it.
Do I love him?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Malachi
For the firsttime in years, I sleep easy. Wrapped around my best friend and boyfriend. Acting as a shield from the lies my mind feeds itself.
I’ve kept all the shit with Mack locked up so tight by the time it spilled over it was like snapping open an over-pressurized soda can.
Exhaustion heavy in my bones, I don’t wake up until nearly noon, and even then I have no motivation to get out of bed because curled into my side is the golden retriever who somehow won me over before I could even realize I’d started to fall.
I stare at his sleeping face for far too long. I stare until his eyes squint open and confusion passes over his face before his attention lands on me and recognition has his body melting against mine.
“Morning, Daddy,” he says, and it almost sounds as innocent as when it comes from Julian.
“Afternoon, Wildfire.”
He reaches around me for his phone on the desk and groans at the clock.
“I can’t tell you the last time I slept past nine.”
“Whatever will you do without going for a run at the ass crack of dawn?”
Zander props up on his arm beside me, swirling his fingers over the ink on my chest.
Adoration swells up beneath every pass of his fingertips.
God, it feels incredible whenever he touches me. What is wrong with my body that it thinks this could ever be bad?
“I’m sorry.” I card a hand through his messy bedhead, and he lifts those solemn eyes to stare into mine.
The hand on my chest slides up to cup the side of my neck as he leans in.
I tilt my face up to meet his, waiting for him to close the distance.
His nose bumps mine. Breath slides along my face. Then, for the briefest moment, he lets our lips meet in a kiss.
It’s tentative. Fragile.
