Page 63 of The Lucky List
I cried in my car the whole drive home.
I’m not laughing, I promise.
You can laugh.
Good because I totally am. Getting hit in the nuts is never not funny.
He got me in the dick too. Impeccable aim, that one.
All things aside, not as good as the fart date, but still one of my favorite dates.
That was not a date.
It was a date. We have one left.
But that one doesn’t count.
Just like the other one shouldn’t count when you watched my kids.
It followed all the rules. At your house. With the boys.
I’m trying really hard to follow your rules here
What if you didn’t?
Try hard?
Followmy rules.
Don’t take pity on me because your kid nailed me in the balls. I want to earn your trust fair and square. I already broke your no kissing rule. And I know I fucked up at the hospital when I didn’t stay with Micah like I said I would. I was going to, but then I saw you with him and I thought I’d give you time together. And I should have apologized for this sooner, but I’m sorry, Lucy. I’ve been trying to show you that you can count on me.
Instead of reading his text as a rejection like I normally would, I let his words sink in, letting them permeate my hard shell. This man has shown up for me and my kids since the moment we first met him, and I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid to not see what he’s been doing this entire time. Keeping him at arm’s length, pretending this is just sex—just a list we’re completing—is the biggest lie I’ve ever told myself.
Except for that one time at the hospital, he’s done everything he said he would, and everything I’ve asked of him. He’s told me how he feels, told me the truth even when I didn’t ask for it, gone above and beyond to make me and my kids feel special.
We’re not just friends with benefits. It’s time I finally put on my big-girl panties and do more than just hump the hot firefighter.
CHAPTER 17
MIKE
“You want a Guinness? I think I might have a bottle of it in the back. Someone brought it for a poker night once, but I’m more of an IPA guy. It’s yours if you want it,” Hardy says as he walks over to the fridge.
“Didn’t know we were ending our friendship today,” I tease.
“I thought you liked Guinness?”
“Draught Guinness, not shite from a bottle.”
“Yeah, don’t have any on tap.”
“I should just stick with water since I’m watching the boys.”
He tosses me a water bottle and joins me on the couch.
“Daddy, Levi is jumping on my bed,” Hardy’s daughter Avery says as she runs down the stairs.
I start to bolt off the couch, but Hardy slaps a hand to my chest, pushing me back down. “Do you guys want to color in the kitchen?” he asks.
