Rules for Dating Your Ex

by Piper Rayne

  Britani cringes. “Oh sorry, I’m not used to kids.”

  No shit.

  Jamison picks up Palmer. I can’t wait until next week when I’m hoping my heavy lifting restriction is gone. We step outside and I can tell that Jamison is sold on this place. He asks a million questions about having pools in Alaska as though the hot mess express that is Britani is an expert in the field.

  I’m salty and irritated, but I need to stop picking on this girl. She hasn’t overtly crossed the line. Maybe she’s found a little bit of flirting goes a long way with selling houses.

  “Palmer, let’s go upstairs,” I say while signing upstairs.

  Jamison puts her back down, and the two of us walk through the modern kitchen with quartz countertops and white cabinets to the upstairs master bedroom with the same view as the family room.

  It’s gorgeous. Damn it. Why can’t I already afford half of this place?

  Palmer tugs on my arm, pulling me down the hallway. She stops in a room painted pink with a built-in dollhouse in the corner. She sits down and crosses her legs, picking up the small furniture. The house is vacant, so it seems weird that the dollhouse furniture was left behind. Maybe their daughter outgrew it.

  “Whoa!” Jamison says. “It’s like it was made for her.”

  “This is such a sweet room. And a dollhouse. Jackpot!” Britani puts her hand in the air for a high five.

  I give Jamison a quizzical look and he smirks, walking toward the window. “Another great view. So let me ask you, are they willing to rent?” Jamison turns to face Britani.

  And that’s my cue to leave. This isn’t my business.

  I tap Palmer on the shoulder. Go.

  She shakes her head and picks up the tiny bed, stacking it on another one in the second bedroom of the dollhouse.

  I tap her again. Go now.

  This is the worst. I can’t just pick her up and take her out of the room.

  Britani says that it’s for sale only and she’d have to talk to the listing agent. Jamison says we’d make it worth their while, and I don’t even want to know what that means. I want to leave this room, but Palmer is too into the dollhouse to care what I want.

  “I’d really prefer a rent-to-buy option,” Jamison says.

  I tilt my head toward him, and he gives his yeah, I’ve got an idea smile. The same one that led to us getting caught making out in the janitor’s closet in high school, or when he decided he wanted to join me in the changing room when I was trying on swimsuits. It’s his mischievous smile and it scares me.

  “Britani, can you give me a moment with Sedona, please?”

  I want to tell Britani we don’t need a moment, that whatever he’s going to try to talk me into isn’t happening.

  But she starts to leave, then stops at Palmer. “I’ll take Palmer.”

  “No,” Jamison and I say in unison.

  Whoops.

  She startles and looks at us.

  “She’s good playing with the dollhouse,” I say.

  Britani walks out the door on her stilettos, but she’s doing this weird bounce I think is meant to sway her hips.

  After she’s gone, I whisper, “Next time, I get to pick out the realtor, okay?”

  Jamison disregards my comment. “So I’m thinking we rent this place, you pay me what you pay at your apartment now, and I cover the rest. It’ll practically be fifty-fifty, and when we’re ready, we buy the owner out.”

  I cross my arms. “That’s not what we discussed.”

  He shoots me his flirtatious smile. The one that works wonders on people.

  “Don’t,” I warn with my finger in his face.

  He holds up his hands. “It’s just a thought. I’ll rent-to-buy it myself, but…” He pulls me into his arms and kisses my neck. “Your rules include sleepovers, right?”

  “Sure, Palmer can spend the night here.” I move to get out of his hold, but his arms tighten.

  “I’m not laughing.” And he’s not.

  I know what he wants. He’s a “jump in the deep end before you know the temperature of the water” kind of guy. I’m a “put my feet in to test the waters first” kind of girl. Case in point—we’re on day one of officially being a couple and we’re looking at houses. “Just get it for yourself and we’ll talk, okay?”

  He presses his lips to mine, and I don’t think much of it until we’re being smacked on the legs by two little hands. We look down at Palmer, who is staring at us with furrowed brows. She’s never seen us together like this, and she’s way too young to understand. She wiggles between us and raises her arms for Jamison to pick her up. Seems someone is jealous. I suppress a grin. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose.

  Palmer loves to visit the lake our town is named after. She loves the water and feeding the ducks. Jamison has hung on to this fact to try to get us to move in with him. Somehow Britani sweet-talked the other side into agreeing to a rental that might turn into a buy. In one month, he moves in and he’s determined that I move in at the same time.

  “Just think, she can feed the ducks every day at the house.” He waggles his eyebrows.

  Barely an hour can go by without him talking about it.

  “Hey, I meant to ask you. Did you ever tell your mom about Palmer?”

  His cheery smile disappears, and he picks at the grass. Jamison’s parents can be hard on him. His dad used to call him after games and tell him what he needed to improve. When his career ended, I think Jamison’s dad wept as much as he did. So I get his reluctance to tell them that there’s a child they don’t know about. I’m scared that Mum Ferguson will be pissed off at me too.

  He picks another blade of grass and wraps it around his finger. “After the car accident, they cut me off for a while.”

  I don’t say anything, keeping my eyes on Palmer.

  “They were disappointed that I ever came home after my second injury. I’d find my dad in the shed, watching tapes of old games. He couldn’t let go of the fact I’d never play professional soccer again. Always bringing up some new treatment that he read about, grasping at anything he thought might hold some promise.”

  It’s weird to hear about what he was doing when we were apart. It’s the one section of his life since we met in high school that I don’t really know about. All I knew about was the accident when I heard it in the press.

  “I kept telling him that it was over, but he wouldn’t listen. Mum was on me about drinking with my buddies. Dad told her to leave me alone, I was blowing off steam. They’d argue so loud, it’d wake me in the wee hours of the morning with a banging hangover. But I still saw my dad’s hope and desperation. If I went into town with him and someone asked about my injury, he’d tell them I’d be good as new, I was just there for a visit while I rehab.” Bringing his knees up, he wraps his arms around them. “They want the best for me. I know they do. It’s why they had me do the whole foreign exchange student thing.” He smiles at me.

  I run my hand down his back and slide closer, thankful they did.

  “But the pressure from the two of them and my drinking was already so out of control… my dad called this professional in Aberdeen. Some buddy of a buddy. Sent all my scans up there. The day of the accident, the doctor paid us a visit and gave me the news I’d already heard in New York. The chances of me making enough of a recovery to play again were slim. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the athleticism, and if I did, it would only be a short time before I injured myself again. The look on my dad’s face was tragic. It was like watching myself get the news the first time all over again. After the doctor left, my dad retreated to the shed, and I went to the pub. Got smashed and well…” He glances at me. “You know the rest.”

  I nod and lay my head on his shoulder.

  “They kicked me out of the house. That was rock bottom for me. I’d already lost you and our daughter, my career, my parents, and the press had a hold of the story. I returned to the U.S. and got clean. Part of my rehab was to make amends. After some hard conversatio
ns, my mum was happy, but my dad is still mourning my career. We’re civil, but nothing more. To tell them that I hid their first grandchild from them… I feel like a disappointment all over again.”

  When a duck gets too close, Palmer runs to us. Jamison opens his arms, and she falls into them. He lies on his back and has her fly up above him. I lie down too, looking at her, and Jamison lowers her so she’s half on me and half on him. We put our arms around our daughter and both kiss one of her cheeks.

  After we pack up and we’re folding the blanket, I know I have to say something to try to fix this situation. “I’ll gladly tell them you didn’t know about her.”

  His eyes widen, but he shakes his head. “I can’t have others fixing problems for me, but I love you for offering.” He presses his lips to mine. I’d love for the kiss to be longer, but our daughter slides between us again. “This is something I have to handle on my own.”

  I nod and hope this isn’t the catalyst that could drive him to drink again.

  Twenty-Seven

  Jamison

  I leave the AA meeting in Sunrise Bay and dial-up Merrick on my way to my minivan. After I pick up Sedona, we’re turning in the rental and I’m going to buy my own SUV.

  “Hey, man,” he says. “How are things?”

  “They’re good. I’m renting a house I hope to buy down the road, and I’m on my way to pick up Sedona to buy myself a car.”

  He’s silent for a second. “That’s a lot of change. You ready for all this? You do know that just because you missed part of their lives, you don’t have to make it all up at once.”

  Merrick probably thinks the spontaneous side of me, the one that thinks of consequences later, is ruling me right now, but this is something I always wanted. Ever since I left Sedona to play in the Scottish Premier League, I’ve dreamed of having a family with her.

  “I know. But I want this. This is where I belong.” I decide not to tell him that I’ve agreed to Kingston’s idea about starting a youth sports complex where we combine our talents and I teach soccer and he teaches baseball. That might take Merrick right over the edge and he’ll fly out to Alaska. “There’s actually something I’ve wanted to talk to you about.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Do you think I’m good enough to be a sponsor?”

  Another beat of silence. Merrick is a “think about his words before he uses them” kind of guy. “You’ve been sober for over a year, and yes, I think you could help someone work through their steps.”

  I want to help someone the way Merrick helped me, and it’s not like I’m crazy busy at the moment. Plus, the leader of my usual AA group asked today, and I know some of our members are struggling.

  “So you think I should do it? There’s a need for one where I’ve been going to meetings.”

  “Yeah, give it a try, but you have to be ready to say it’s not a good fit. Sometimes a pair doesn’t jive for no reason other than they don’t. So keep that in mind. You have a good heart, Jamie, and I don’t want you to suffer a downward spiral and go down a bad road because you couldn’t help someone the way you wanted to. Remember this disease affects people differently.”

  I was damn lucky to get Merrick as my sponsor. The guy’s been sober for almost seven years, and he had a slip up right before that when he’d been sober for five. You just never know. But he’s a success, in my opinion.

  “Okay. I’m going to say yes.”

  “And you have to be able to drop things for them if they call. Will Sedona understand?” I hadn’t thought about that, but… Merrick interrupts my thoughts. “You can’t tell her who you’re sponsoring either. They have to remain anonymous as well. Just things to consider.”

  I’ve already kept to myself the fact that we both know one person who attends the meetings with me.

  I nod, although he can’t see me. “Got it. Thanks, Merrick.”

  “Call me whenever. And slow down a little. Enjoy this time with you and your family together again.”

  I laugh. “Okay.”

  “Yeah, whatever, Andretti.”

  I laugh and say my goodbye.

  Driving over to Sedona’s, my stomach flutters with excitement. I think I’m finally back on the right path in my life.

  Palmer’s napping when I arrive, but Sedona’s wearing a tight tank top and a pair of shorts that immediately make my pants feel tight.

  “You mind listening for her while I shower?” She walks into the bedroom and I follow.

  “That means I can’t join you.” I wrap my arms around her stomach, behind her at the bed’s edge.

  “Sorry.”

  I fiddle with the hem of her shirt and inch it up, exposing her stomach. She still flinches when I touch her stomach, and it’s not because she’s in pain. It’s because she’s self-conscious. I hate that.

  “I can at least undress you.” I inch it up some more and she raises her hands, allowing me to pull off the shirt and toss it onto the floor. I groan at the sports bra underneath. “I hate these things.”

  She laughs, and I’m fairly sure we’re remembering when I showed up in New York all those years ago. “Practice makes perfect. You had this down a few years ago.”

  She’s right. When we started working out together sometimes, I did become a master at the sports bra removal, but I’m rusty now. She keeps her arms in the air and she leans back into me. I pull the fabric up over her head, and my reward is her bare tits begging for my hands.

  Dropping her arms, she places her hands over mine, which are molded to her tits. “Way to go, Ferguson.”

  “I guess it’s like riding a bike,” I mumble and kiss the shell of her ear. “Now for the shorts.” My tongue glides down her spine as I hunch to push her shorts down to her ankles. She steps out of them, and my hands slide up her torso as I make my way back up her body. “I need to be inside you.”

  She moans and turns around. “I’m a sweaty mess. I have a better idea.”

  She falls to her knees in front of me, unbuttoning my jeans and sliding the zipper down while her gaze meets mine. There’s no better sight than this one.

  She frees my cock, pushing my jeans and boxers down my legs to pool at my ankles. When she urges me back to spin around, I fall onto the bed and she situates herself between my thighs. We explored together enough as teenagers that Sedona knows what makes me tick. She learned what I enjoy when she’s blowing me until she got it down to a damn art. I can come in two minutes when her mouth is on me. But it’s been so long, I fear I’ll come the minute she runs her tongue up my length.

  My hips jut out and I rise off the bed from the sensation of her warm, inviting mouth. My breathing labors the farther she sucks me down, and I watch her take half my dick into her mouth. My fists clench the comforter and I groan, closing my eyes.

  “Damn it, lass,” I say, mentally reminding myself she’s always been this good. Some new guy didn’t teach her anything. I was just more used to it back then.

  I hang on by a thread until her free hand dips down and plays with my balls. Just like that, it’s game over. My hand threads through her hair and I hold her to me as I pump into her mouth. I’d hoped to last longer because it feels fucking fantastic and I don’t want it to end, but I can’t hold off any longer. It’s been so long since she’s worked her magic on me. I pour into her with a groan.

  She rises to her feet and I kiss her hard, tasting myself on her lips and making me hard all over again.

  “I better shower,” she mumbles against my lips.

  “Please let me join you,” I whine like a child.

  “Sorry, you’re on daddy duty. But maybe tonight after she goes to bed…”

  I pull her to me again, my tongue diving into her mouth, never satisfied. “You better believe it. So can I spend the night?”

  She hesitates. Since the SunBay Inn, we haven’t spent the night together because we’re not sure how to navigate it with Palmer. I’m not even sure Palmer will notice. I’m here every night when she goes to bed and u
sually shortly after she wakes up.

  “I suppose we could bend the rules.”

  My hands mold to her ass. “I promise you won’t regret that decision.”

  She laughs, wiggling out of my hold. “Time for me to shower.”

  For the first time, she struts naked in front of me, and she coyly glances at me over her shoulder before disappearing into the bathroom. It takes all my restraint not to follow her.

  “That’s her,” I say to Sedona as we park outside the car rental place. I’ve delayed returning the van because I feel like an ass.

  “Are you actually scared?” she asks, her eyebrows high on her head.

  “You should’ve heard her. She was so mad and disappointed.”

  I retold Sedona the story on the way over here, fully aware I sounded like a scorned child. What do I care what this woman thinks of me? I shouldn’t. Only two women are important to me, and they’re in this minivan with me. Well, and my mum.

  “Oh please.” Sedona takes the keys out of the ignition. “Get Palmer.”

  She opens her door, feet landing on the pavement. I get out, unstrap Palmer, and take the car seat out of the minivan, fully aware something is going down. When I set the car seat to the side of the minivan, Kingston pulls into the parking lot to pick us up.

  Sedona opens the door of the rental place, and Gina looks up at her from behind the counter.

  “What’s the hold-up?” he asks, climbing out of his truck.

  “Grab some popcorn. There’s gonna be a show.”

  I rush Palmer to go inside because I haven’t seen Sedona look this determined to put someone in their place since the time I had a crazy fan who didn’t know the meaning of personal space. Kingston comes in alongside us.

  Sedona slams the keys on the counter. “He’s returning this.”

  Gina looks past Sedona at me. “Okay. Well, he needs to sign the paperwork.”

  Sedona turns to me, and Kingston takes Palmer’s hand so I can join them. Gina quietly gets the paperwork together and I sign all the documents.