Page 115 of What Started In Deception

“I see three yellow ducks,” Lydia said. “Can you find them, too?”

“That’s a yellow duck,” Everly replied quickly.

“Yes, it is.”

He moved closer to the doorway, watching as Lydia sat curled up in the corner of the couch, holding Maverick as he slept in the crook of her arm while she wrapped the other arm around Everly as they looked at a book.

Everly pointed at the page. “That’s another one.”

Lydia smiled. “Great job, Ev.”

Everly beamed at her. “I’m so smart.”

Lydia laughed as she snuggled Everly closer. “Yes, you are. Your beautiful brain is one of my very favorite things.”

He swallowed as he stared at the sweet picture they made, shocked as hell by his sudden, desperate longing for something just like that. A quiet moment with kids on the couch. With Lydia. A family of his own.

Lydia looked up, sending him a slightly cautious smile. “Hey, you.”

Everly gasped as she grinned. “Ty. Come sit with us. I’m looking for ducks.”

“I can do that.” He headed their way, sitting on the empty cushion next to them.

“Ev, why don’t you go pick out a couple more books?” Lydia suggested as she adjusted Maverick in her arm.

Everly scrambled off the couch in a pair of pink polka dot shorts and a white T-shirt, heading for the playroom. “Okay.”

Ty snagged Lydia’s hand, frowning when he felt her slight hesitation as her fingers tensed against his before they relaxed. “Hey. What was that?”

She shrugged as she shook her head. “It was nothing.”

Clearly, this was about earlier this morning—about the awkwardness that still lingered between them. “Don’t do that. I don’t want what happened between us to take us backward.”

She shrugged again. “I don’t know why it would. We’re friends. More like co-workers, really.”

Whatever this was between them was a hell of a lot more complicated than that, especially when he couldn’t stop thinking about Lydia half-naked and whimpering in his arms, but it was probably better to leave things there. “So, we’re good, then?”

“Never better.” She cleared her throat as she pulled her hand from his, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’m assuming you know that Will left already.”

He nodded, letting her not-so-subtle subject change slide. “How did things go in here?”

“Okay. Mac’s exhausted and burnt out, which is why she’s upstairs sleeping. She said Will’s anxious and always has his phone close by. I think she’s still convinced that he’s cheating on her.”

He sighed. “That’s tough.”

She nodded. “I tried to tell her that he isn’t, or as much as I was able to…”

Everly hurried back with two more books in her hands. “I picked these.”

Lydia smiled. “They look like great ones.”

“Yup,” Everly said as she set the books on the cushion, then climbed onto Ty’s lap. “We can find stuff on the pages.”

He nodded, settling his arm around her back as she rested against him. “Sounds good.”

Lydia gave him her attention. “Mac and I are taking the kids to the zoo tomorrow. We’re having a girls’ day. Or sort of anyway.”

“That sounds like fun.” And he couldn’t deny that he was more than a little bummed that he wasn’t invited.