Page 53 of From the Embers
EASON
Since the day I’d moved in with Bree, I had made an entire hobby out of sneaking junk food behind the kids’ backs. I was a damn black belt at deceptive cuisine. Cookies snuck in a bag of baby carrots, chocolate wrapped in the plastic of a protein bar. Hell, I’d once eaten an entire burger and fries disguised as a salad while sitting directly across from them.
Sleight of hand, distraction, and redirection were my weapons of choice.
However, for two weeks, I hadn’t been able to sneak more than thirty minutes alone with Madison and Asher’s mother. It wasn’t completely their fault. My real beef was with a rare summer bout of Influenza type A.
Luna might have technically lived in a different house, but she spent every waking hour with Asher and Madison. So, when Madison came down with a fever the same night we got back from the cabin, the three of them went down like a set of dominos. But worst of all was that, by the end of the week, Bree and I went down even harder.
We still tried to meet by the firepit at first, but body aches and a hacking cough didn’t make for good company. As we started to mend, Bree worked from home while I juggled the kids and called in favors from every musician I knew in Atlanta to fill in for me so I didn’t have to outright cancel more shows. Booking managers tended to get rather testy when you left them hanging three weekends in a row.
By the time Friday, my last night off for the foreseeable future, rolled around, I was back to feeling like myself and desperate for some alone time with Bree.
“Eason?” she called, walking down the stairs at exactly five o’clock.
“In here!” I shouted from the kitchen. Rising from the barstool, I smoothed down my white V-neck and buttoned my blazer. I wasn’t a suit guy if I could possibly avoid it, so I’d paired them with dark jeans and a pair of dress boots so she’d at least recognize me.
She was holding her empty coffee mug from that morning when she rounded the corner. Hair straightened, makeup flawless, cream silk blouse hanging over a pair of pajama pants. Work-from-home chic if I’d ever seen it.
She froze the minute she saw me, a slow grin brightening her face. “Wow, you look good.”
“You too, Sug. Well, at least from the waist up.”
“Sweet lord, please stop calling me that.” She laughed. “Why are you all dressed up? Do you have a show tonight?” She frowned and damn if it didn’t make my chest get tight.
“No. I have a date.”
“Oh, you do?” Understanding dawned on her as she curiously scanned the room. “Where are the kids?”
“Playing with Evelyn in Luna’s room.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Evelyn’s here?”
“Please refer back to the aforementioned part about me having a date.”
She bit her bottom lip and shuffled her slippers over to me. After setting her mug on the bar, she looped an arm around my neck. “Who’s the lucky lady? Anyone I might know?”
Encircling her hips, I drew her in closer. “Oh, I don’t know. Sexy brunette, tight little body, sneezes like a tornado siren.”
“Hey!” she objected. “The flu does not take it easy in the name of beauty. Need I remind you that I caught you with a tissue hanging out of your nostril?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She scoffed. “Well, unfortunately, I do. My therapy bill has increased substantially since then.”
It was my turn to laugh. The therapy was no joke. We’d both mutually agreed to go back as soon as we were feeling better. Our relationship had been on a bit of a pause after getting sick, but we’d still swapped nightly texts, and I’d even managed to steal a chaste kiss or two. But the lingering anguish of Jessica and Rob’s betrayal threatened us at every turn.
I was still trying to organize my emotions about Luna’s possible paternity.
Some days, I told myself I didn’t want to know. She was my daughter, end of story.
Other days, I’d catch a glimpse of Rob in her features and it would damn near annihilate me.
And depending on which day you caught me on, I needed to know the truth more than my next breath or I never needed to know the truth even with my final breath.
So, yeah, I clearly had shit to work through.
And the heartache and confusion weren’t limited to me. Bree had to deal with the fact that the little girl she loved and considered her second daughter was now potentially her husband’s love child with her best friend. Those were not emotions that would just disappear because we’d decided to explore the sparks between us. It actually terrified me that, if not dealt with properly, they had the power to extinguish them altogether.
