37. Clarissa

37

CLARISSA

I flopped back on the couch with a tired sigh. Our house was so much cleaner than it had been since before Davey and the movers brought all of our furniture months ago. I hadn't had proper time without everyone in the house to do the deep clean on the carpet and in the kitchen that I had been wanting to get done.

My phone pinged with a text message. Oh my God, Clarissa! Davey booked us a bed and breakfast for the night. I did not realize we were going to be gone all weekend or I would have mentioned it earlier .

That sounds wonderful , I responded.

It's so beautiful here and he's being extra romantic. Fingers crossed for you know what! '

Fingers crossed , I texted back.

Marci had been waiting for Davey to finally pop the question. Hopefully, this little weekend getaway would be when he finally got around to it.

Just let me know when you're headed back so that I'm not dancing around the house naked. Lol .

Marcy responded with three exclamation marks. !!!You have a child !

Child is hanging out with his father.

The phone rang.

"You're letting Kyle babysit?" Marci asked as soon as I picked up the phone.

"I'm letting Kyle try out his parenting responsibilities. If this is going to ever work out, he's going to have to be willing to do this sometimes," I said.

"And you trust him?" She sounded so skeptical.

I laughed. "I actually do, and Leo adores him. I think it's going to work out."

"As long as you're okay with it," she said.

"I'm okay with it. And you need to get back to your romantic weekend with Davey."

"One more thing," she said. "You aren't keeping a secret I should know about, are you?"

"First of all, no, I'm not. Second of all, if it was a secret, I wouldn't tell you because it's a secret. Now go have fun."

I ended the call and placed the phone on my stomach. I lay back and closed my eyes, enjoying the moment of peace and solitude. I don't know how long I lay like that before the phone rang again.

"Did he propose?" I asked without even looking at who was calling.

"I wasn't planning on it just yet, but if you want me to, I will," Kyle said with a chuckle.

I jumped into a sitting position, my pulse surging. "Oh, hi Kyle, I thought you were Marci." I laughed with embarrassment.

"Do I look like Marci?"

"When I'm not looking at the caller ID on my phone, you do."

He laughed even more. "Leo is getting pretty tired. I tried to get him to take a rest, but he refused. Too much going on. I guess it's time to come get him."

I didn't say anything for a long moment.

"Do you think you could bring him home?" I eventually asked.

"I don't know where you live. Are you sure you're ready for me to know this?"

I let out a long sigh. "I'm okay with you knowing where your son lives," I said. "I also think it's time that we sat down and told him, together."

"I like that idea," Kyle said. It sounded like he was smiling. "And what do we tell him when he asks why Mommy and Daddy don't live together?"

I groaned as I thought about his words. "Maybe that's something we figure out if he asks us."

"What do you want for dinner?" I asked.

"Are you cooking?"

"Hell no. I just spent my day alone scrubbing grout. I don't want to make any dirty dishes. I thought I might order something for delivery, and it should get here around the same time you do."

"That sounds like a dinner invitation," he practically purred.

"It is," I said.

"I've been eating nothing but pizza for days. I'm game for pretty much anything else. Burritos or hamburgers would be my top two."

"Okay, I will take it from here. I'll see you when you get home." I ended the call and immediately panicked. Kyle was coming over and going to see where I lived for the first time. My furniture didn't match, and we still had pictures resting on the floor against the wall because we ran out of hooks and hadn't bothered with getting more. The house and the neighborhood were nice, but we did not live in a high-rent zip code. At least everything was clean. I looked down at my sweaty and limp clothes. Everything was clean except for me.

Kyle's apartment and office were in the same neighborhood. That meant I had maybe fifteen minutes to take a shower and put on clean clothes. I managed to take a shower in record time and was pulling on a simple dress when the front door opened and Leo burst into the house. "Mommy, I am home!" he announced.

I was still toweling my hair off when I stepped into the living room. "Did you bring Kyle with you?"

"He did. I'm right here."

I could not suppress the grin that took over my face. "Well, this is it." I held my hand out in a very poor excuse for a presentation gesture.

Leo, who Kyle reported as being very tired, seemed to have found an untapped resource of energy and was bouncing on furniture and off the walls with excitement since Kyle was there.

"Why don't you show Kyle the rest of the house while I order dinner? You remember you cannot go into Davey's room or Marci's. Those are not your rooms to show."

"Okay." Leo nodded and dragged Kyle away.

The poor kid didn't even make it halfway through his order of chicken nuggets before he fell asleep and started to slide off the chair.

"I've got him," Kyle said as he scooped Leo up.

"Could you take his shoes off and put him in bed?" I asked.

"Do I need to do anything else?"

"Maybe next time you come over, we can go over the bedtime routine."

I swear that man smoldered at me. His eyes narrowed, and he got this not quite grin that crinkled the corners of his eyes and emphasized his cheekbones. I was positively giddy in his presence.

"So, where are your roommates?" Kyle asked when he returned.

"Davey announced that he was whisking Marci away for an impromptu day on the Sound. I thought he was just taking her out on a boat ride or something, but it seems to have turned into a romantic overnight at a bed and breakfast. I think he's finally going to propose."

"I thought they were already engaged," Kyle said.

"They were only unofficially engaged."

"Meaning?" He lifted his brows.

"Meaning they talked about it, and everybody knew they were going to get married, but nothing official has been done."

"Is that something you would want?" Kyle asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Would you want to know that you would be getting engaged at some point in time, or do you want it to be a complete surprise?"

I looked at him and bit my lip. I had to think about that for a minute or two. "Maybe at one point, I would have wanted the perfect surprise engagement. Too much life has happened since then. I have a little boy I have to take care of and protect."

"You're doing a fantastic job with him," Kyle said.

"Thank you. He changes everything. I think if I were to be with somebody who wanted to marry me, I would want to know. I know it doesn't sound very romantic. Maybe knowing that we're both interested and want to go forward with our lives together is romantic enough."

"Fair enough. Then you should know that I intend on proposing at some point," he said with all seriousness.

I blinked, uncertain of where this conversation was going. "This is all hypothetical, right?" I laughed nervously.

"For tonight it is," Kyle said. "You know I plan on being in Leo's life, and ideally, that would mean that you're in mine."

I'm not sure how I melted or when, but I got out of my seat and crawled into Kyle's lap. I placed my hand against the side of his cheek and stared deeply into his eyes, something I had longed to do for countless months.

"You have to stop breaking my heart before I think I could say yes."

"But you think you could say yes?"

I couldn't speak as I got lost in the intensity of his eyes. I bit my lip and nodded.

Kyle closed his eyes and lowered his head to kiss me, and then I closed my eyes and got lost in the sensation of his lips against mine.

Kyle stood, effortlessly lifting me. His chair fell back to the floor with a loud crash.

I giggled. "Where do you think you're taking me?"

"Our son gave me a very thorough tour of the house, including showing me Davey's computer room. We did not go into Marci's bedroom, but Leo opened her door to show me. By the way, your roommates are slobs."

"He didn't," I said, burying my head against Kyle's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I made sure to close the doors after he pushed them open, announcing that we couldn't go in, but we stayed in the hallway. He also showed me your room, which he took me into."

"You put him up to that," I teased.

"I didn't have to. But I noticed this house is old and solidly built with nice, thick walls."

Kyle's smile was like a wolf's, predatory and full of teeth.