Trinity and I got into the car. The moment it was just the two of us, we looked at each other and screamed.
“She’s back!” Trinity said.
“She’s back!” I replied matching her enthusiasm.
Trinity sighed. “I love her.”
“Yeah, me too,” I agreed.
For the rest of the night, we sat together as a family, eating the delicious food from the gala and catching up on our two weeks apart. I hadn’t seen Trinity that happy in a while, and it made me feel relieved to see her smiling again. Trinity was so excited all night that by the end of the evening, she could barely keep her eyes open. I kept telling her that I would put her to sleep but she kept refusing. Eventually, I realized why she was so reluctant to fall asleep.
“Trin,” I said. “You can go to sleep. Kennedy is not going anywhere.”
“She’s not?” she asked.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I promise to make sure that we see her tomorrow, one way or another,” I said.
“Okay, Daddy. I am pretty tired.”
I took her to bed, and she was asleep within minutes. When I came back downstairs, I smiled at Kennedy.
“It’s so good to see you again.”
“It feels so good to be here,” she admitted.
“Ken, the divorce has been finalized. I signed the papers, and it’s now official. And . . . I’m so sorry that I didn’t do it before. I need you to know that. And I also need you to know that I never wanted to get back together with her. It’s been six years. I forgot about the divorce. And I never thought I’d ever find someone again, anyway. I would never have lied to you on purpose. I called her my ex-wife because that’s what she was to me.”
Kennedy smiled. “I’m sorry for overreacting. I just didn’t want to get hurt again.”
“I know. But I would never hurt you. Never.”
“So,” Kennedy said. “Trinity didn’t want to go to sleep because she was worried about me leaving again?”
“Yeah, poor thing. She really loves you.”
“There’s one way we can make sure that she sees me again.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” I asked.
“Well, I could sleep over,” she said.
I grinned at her. “Now that is a very good plan. It’s good to see you again, Petunia,” I teased.
“Peter? Is that you? Oh, I’ve missed you so much.”
I leaned in and kissed her.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Kennedy
It felt so good to have his lips on mine, and as I leaned in to deepen the kiss, it felt as if I was coming home again. No wonder I had been so miserable these past two weeks. This—thisis what I had wanted more than anything else.
“I missed this,” I said when we pulled away.
“You have? Really? I wasn’t sure if you’d ever want to do this again with me.”
“I have not stopped thinking about you,” I said. “Reed, I swore that I would never get close to anyone again. I made a promise to myself many years ago. But it was impossible with you. I . . . I’m just so happy to be here right now.”
Reed reached out to tuck a strand of hair away from my face and smiled at me. “You’re so beautiful, Kennedy. I love you.”
It was the first time that Reed had ever said the words to me, and for a few seconds, I just sat there staring at him in surprise.
“I love you,” he said again. “And I should’ve told you that long ago. It all happened so quickly with you. I kept trying to fight it, because . . . well . . . because you were looking after Trinity and I didn’t want to hurt her. But . . . it was impossible to stop thinking about you in that way. I think you’re the most amazing person that I have ever met in my life. And not to mention the most beautiful woman I have ever met. And, I love you.”
I smiled. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get tired of hearing him say that. “I love you, too. And I know exactly when it happened for me.”
“You know the moment you fell in love with me?”
I nodded. “Oh yeah. It was in Florida. You were on the balcony, and Trinity was sleeping on your lap. I fell in love with you at that moment.”
“When you took the photo of me?” he asked.
I smiled. “Yeah. It’s now officially my favorite photo in the world. It was very hard to see that picture when Trinity was taking me through all of them. I want a copy of it, by the way. Reed?” I asked.
“Yes?”
“Can we go to your room now?”
He grinned, stood up, and took my hand.
We walked to the bedroom in happy silence. Reed popped his head into Trinity’s room to make sure that she was okay first, and then once we were in his bedroom, we quietly closed the door. We took off our clothes in silence, each of us drinking in the sight of each other’s naked body. I was once again reminded of how incredible he was to look at.
We climbed onto the bed and immediately fell into each other’s arms. The moment he touched my bare body with his hands in a gentle caress, I felt myself fall into that familiar feeling with him again. Reed knew exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it done. He knew what my favorite parts were to be touched, and he knew when to slow down and when to speed up. It sometimes felt as if he were in my head. Every time I thought about him doing something to me, he did it. His body was attuned to mine; he knew my every desire and moved to fulfill them all, one by one. I lay down and opened my legs for him. Reed was above me, smiling down at me. He reached down to kiss and suck each of my breasts, then he kissed me on the mouth and slowly entered inside me. I moaned a little too loudly and quickly bit my lip. Reed chuckled.
“It’s okay, she’s sleeping,” he whispered to me.
“I know. I . . .” but he rocked over me and I seemed to lose my train of thought.
I closed my eyes and let my head flop to the side. My one hand was on his waist, and my other gripped the duvet beside me. Reed straddled me gently, stopping every now and again to kiss me, sometimes softly, sometimes with a ravenous hunger. The kisses gave me a chance to breathe and helped to prolong the inevitable explosion that was building up inside me. I wanted him more than I wanted anything in the entire world. I wanted more and more and more. And when I finally came, I felt all the stress and anxiety from the previous weeks completely disappear. We didn’t just have sex this time. This time, we made love. I hadn’t known there was a difference until that moment, and I knew that my relationship with Reed would never be the same again.
Afterward, Reed and I took a shower together. It was by far one of the best showers I had ever experienced in my life. Reed gently rubbed the soap all over my body, and I did the same to his, and when he leaned down to kiss me, I found myself becoming aroused all over again. When I looked down at Reed, I saw that he was obviously feeling the same way. He pushed me against the wall and slipped his fingers inside me. The rushing water helped drown out my moans as I came all over again, my legs shaking and threatening to give way. Reed kept me standing, and when I was finished, I got down onto my knees, put him in my mouth, and did the same for him.
Afterward, we lay in bed together. I told him that I wanted to sleep over and he gave me a t-shirt of his to wear.
“Trinity is going to go out of her mind when she sees that you spent the night. This is the best gift you could give her right now,” Reed said.
“I was so worried that she would never want to talk to me again.”
“Are you kidding me? You are all that she has spoken about. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to stop thinking about you when she kept bringing up your name every few minutes.”
I chuckled. “That’s good to know.”
“I’m so glad you’re back,” Reed said.
“Me too. Hey, does this mean I’m your girlfriend again?”
“I hope so. Would you like to be?”
“I’d love nothing more.”
He smiled and kissed me gently on the mouth. “I have a feeling that tonight is going to be
the best sleep that I’ve had in a long time.”
“You and me both, boyfriend. You and me both.”
“Good night, pretty Petunia,” he said.
I chuckled. “Good night, perfect Peter.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Reed
It had been a week since Kennedy had come back into my life. A blissful week where I could think about her whenever I wanted without feeling guilty. A blissful week where my dreadful ex-wife didn’t come banging on my door. A blissful week where my daughter could not stop smiling. Had you told me a week ago that I would be in this state of happiness again, I wouldn’t have believed it.
It had been a good week at work too. Without the feeling of depression weighing down on me, I’d gotten through my work with much more gusto. I was happy to see clients again, and a lot more dedicated to getting things done. I didn’t even mind doing admin work, which I usually found dreadfully boring.
“This is more like it,” Warren said as he walked into my office that afternoon.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re smiling again. And I bet you’re not just smiling because it’s Friday.”
I laughed. “It feels good to be happy again.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So, tell me what’s been happening? The last time I saw you was last week, and you were down in the dumps. Now I walk in and see you grinning at your computer. What did I miss?”
Warren had been away all week, and I’d been dying for him to come back so I could tell him the good news.
I shrugged. “Not much. Like I said, I’m just feeling happy. Must be this coffee,” I said and held up my mug. “Did you see that they replaced the machine? This new one makes the best coffee. I might not even see the need in getting from the café anymore.”
Warren looked at me. “You’re happy because of a coffee machine? No way, I don’t believe it.”
I laughed. “I am happy because of the coffee. But that’s not the only reason I’m happy.”
“Kennedy is back in your life!”
I chuckled. “What else could it be? She is!”
“Seriously? What happened?”
“Remember that boring senatorial gala I was going to last Saturday?”
“Oh yeah, with your cousin? The one you didn’t really want to go to.”
“That’s the one. Turns out Kennedy was the caterer for the event. I had no idea that she was going to be there and she had no idea that I was going to be there. It was Trinity that spotted her first, actually. Before I could stop her, Trinity had run to see her. And . . . well, we both just realized how much we missed each other.”
“Just like that?”
“The gala was also incredibly boring. So, we decided to sneak out and go back to my place.”
“And what exactly did you do at your place?” Warren teased.
“Oh, you know, the usual. Ate dinner together, talked, that sort of thing. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“You never give me any of the juicy details,” he complained.
“Well, that’s because I don’t want you picturing my girlfriend naked.”
“I already picture her naked,” he said and laughed. “But I’m glad to hear you calling her your girlfriend again. That’s awesome news, man. I’m happy for you. So, what’s the deal now with her being a nanny? She still going to do it?”
“She’s actually working for her best friend Camille, who works for a wedding and event business. She’s not entirely too sure what to do because she’s doing pretty well there, and they really want her to stay, but she also wants to come back to us. I think she’s going to talk to Camille and see if there’s a way she can do both. I think that would probably be best. One of her friends has helped out this week, and I’ve been dropping her off at school in the mornings. But we’ll see how things go. I’m just glad she’s back in my life.”
“So am I,” Warren said. “You were a miserable sod without her.”
“He was?”
I turned around and saw Trinity and Kennedy standing in the doorway smiling at us. I was glad that she had walked in on that part of the conversation and not about the part where Warren said he thought of her naked. Considering my daughter was with her, that would’ve been very embarrassing. I grinned at them.
“Yeah, I was very miserable without you. And poor Warren had to put up with me moaning all day long. This is a nice surprise. I didn’t know you were coming to visit today. Hey, angel,” I said to Trinity.
“Hi, Daddy. Hi, Warren,” she said brightly. “Kennedy surprised me today and picked me up from school. I had no idea and I almost walked right past her. We decided to stop by and surprise you too.”
Kennedy smiled. “We won’t stay. We know you’re busy. But I wanted to know if you were free tonight for movies and pizza? I don’t feel like cooking tonight.”
“Pizza and movies? That sounds great.” I couldn’t think of anything better, actually.
“YAY!” Trinity yelled in excitement.
“Great. We’ll stop by now to get everything as it’s on our way home. Trinity is going to choose the movie, and I’ll pick out the pizzas. Should I get some wine too?”
“Wine would be great.” The night just got better and better.
Kennedy walked up to me and kissed me. “I’ll see you later,” she said. Then she looked at Warren, “Good seeing you again.”
“You too. Sounds like you have the perfect night planned,” he said.
She grinned. “I think so too.”
As soon as they were out of earshot, Warren grinned at me.
“Wow, I forgot how hot she was.”
“You weren’t picturing her naked were you?” I said.
He grinned. “Me? I would never do such a thing,” he said.
I threw a pen at him, and we both laughed.
“You lucky bugger,” he said.
“Trust me. I know.”
When I got home that evening, Trinity and Kennedy were in the living room, drawing. I went to kiss them both hello and smiled as I looked at their drawings.
“Look how good Kennedy is getting,” Trinity said and pointed at the drawing in front of Kennedy.
“Yeah, I tried to draw you again,” she said. “I’m going to do the same drawing all the time and see if I can get better. So far, there’s only a very mild improvement, but it’s an improvement none the less.”
I chuckled. “Your first drawing was of a stickman with glasses. This is way better. Although, mind giving me less of a paunch next time? I know I’ve been eating a lot more junk lately, but you don’t to rub it in.”
“Kennedy said that is what you are going to look like after all the pizza we eat tonight,” Trinity said.
“Hey, you weren’t supposed to tell him,” Kennedy said, and they both started chuckling.
“Ha, wait until I start drawing the two of you. You won’t be laughing then.”
“Want to draw with us now, Daddy?” Trinity asked as she saw her opportunity.
I pulled up a chair. “I’d like nothing more,” I said.
We sat like that for almost an hour, just drawing and talking and laughing. I hadn’t taken the time to do things like this with Trinity over the years. I was too busy working and too busy trying to ignore the emptiness inside me. I’d been a good father, but there had been a lot of things that I hadn’t done right. It was good to just sit there and spend time with her again. I tried to make my drawing as ridiculous as possible, and instead of drawing them as humans, I drew them as dinosaurs. When I showed Trinity the end result, she was delighted and told me that I had a future as an artist. I wasn’t even sure that my dinosaurs looked like dinosaurs, so I knew she was only trying to be polite. It still amazed me at how kind and considerate she was for someone her age. How thoughtful and mindful she was of other people’s feelings.
“I think I should stick to being a doctor,” I said. “But it’s nice of you to say that.”
“But you’ll still draw with me even if you don
’t want to be an artist?” she asked. No wonder she wanted to tell me that I was good. She just didn’t want me to stop drawing with her.
“Are you kidding me? There’s no way you’re going to get me to stop. This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. So, who wants pizza?”
“ME!”
We sat down together in the living room, eating our pizza and drinking our wine. We had poured some cranberry juice into a plastic glass for Trinity so that she could pretend like she was drinking wine too. She had taken a sip of mine and told me that it was disgusting. Trinity had chosen two movies that we’d all already seen with her before, but it didn’t matter. She giggled at the funny parts before they even happened and we spent most of our time laughing at her.
It was one of those simple evenings that had no airs or graces about it. We finished the bottle of wine together, ate too much pizza, and then still followed it up with coffee and cookies. By the end of the second movie, Trinity was fast asleep, and we were both stuffed.
“I can’t move,” Kennedy said, her head lolled to the side. “I think I ate my weight in cookies and pizza tonight. I think they put something in that food. I literally couldn’t stop myself.”
“I can’t move, either. They say that you eat more when you are happy.”
“That makes sense,” Kennedy said. “I hardly ate when I wasn’t with you. Now I can’t stop.”
“Oh well, we’ll just have to be happy and fat together.”
“I can deal with that,” she said.
“Hey, I have an idea. Maybe we should all sleep here tonight,” I suggested.
Kennedy chuckled. “That’s such a good idea. Do you have any blankets or pillows downstairs? The thought of walking up those stairs is too daunting to even consider at the moment.”
“I do, actually. We’ll have to use these cushions as pillows. But I have a whole bunch of blankets in that closet over there,” I said.
I got up to get them and made a little bed on the living room floor for all of us. Trinity stirred when I tried to pick her up.
“I’m still watching,” she mumbled.
I laughed. “No, you’re not. We’re all so tired. Trin, we’re going to all sleep here on the floor tonight. What do you think? I’m busy piling up the floor with cushions and blankets.”
Dirty Daddy (A Single Dad Romance) (The Maxwell Family) Page 22