7. Hope

“You just left him? In the middle of the market?” Grace stares at me like I’ve got two heads. She shakes a rattle over Justin’s head who stares at it suspiciously. The kid’s got the same frown as his father.

“My boobs were leaking. I was crying…”

Grace raises her eyebrows at me. I’ve already told her every minute detail of the weirdest and most fun date I’ve ever been on. “…I just had to get out of there.”

How do I explain the feelings that bubbled up inside me when Dexter kissed me? My hormones are jumbling my emotions, and I don’t know if I was overwhelmed from the kiss or from the hormones telling me I needed to get back to my baby and feed him.

Dexter made me laugh all the way through the axe throwing, not to mention the way my core ached every time his muscles pulled back for a throw. My pussy was on fire by the time we left and my boobs were aching, and not just because they were full of milk.

Then we met the foster kid…

“He bought ice cream for all the kids, Grace.” There’s a whine in my voice because I don’t want to feel this way, but damn, when he told me about the buddy system and what he does for that boy, my heart squeezed for him.

“He’s a good guy, Grace. A really good guy.”

Justin giggles at the rattle and reaches for it with his chubby hand. I roll him over on the playmat for tummy time, and Grace puts the rattle in front of him.

“Good enough to be a father for my nephew?”

Justin shakes the rattle, and his eyes widen in surprise at the sound. The shock turns to a smile and he chuckles, a dimple appearing in his left cheek.

“Yeah.” I stroke his thin hair. There’s not much of it, but it’s a strawberry color exactly like Dex’s. “Good enough to be his father.”

I feel Grace’s eyes on me, and I look up to her steely gaze. “It’s okay to like him, Hope. It’s okay to want him to be more than just a father for Justin.”

Justin, trying to keep himself upright, falls on his face and starts to cry. I scoop him into my arms, and he stops immediately. I love that I’m his comfort, that I make everything all right for him.

“I think I do like him,” I admit.

Grace rolls her eyes. “Of course you like him.” She throws her hands in the air. “I just don’t know why you don’t tell him you like him, that he has a baby, and does he want to see if it will work. He’s clearly into you.”

She indicates my phone, which has barely stopped buzzing with texts from Dexter since I got in. The last one is him inviting me out to dinner tonight.

“But what if he meets Justin, then does the honorable thing and steps up to raise him with me as a family, and I never know if he wants me for me or if he’s just trying to make it work for Justin?”

“You’ll know, sis,” she says wisely. “If the guy’s into you, you’ll know.”

She leans back against the side of the couch and closes her eyes. A smile spreads across her face as she rubs her baby bump, no doubt thinking about her and Cal, their whirlwind romance and how they knew within twenty-four hours of meeting that they were meant to be together.

But I want specifics. I don’t have time for guesswork.

“How?”

“When he kisses you, you’ll know.”

I touch my lips, still bruised from the kiss earlier, the kiss that made me run away with barely a goodbye. If that kiss was anything to go by, then he’s definitely into me. I felt it all the way through my bones. It was so overwhelming I had to flee. But that might have been my hormones.

I need to kiss him again; I need to be sure before I tell him about Justin.

I grab my phone from the coffee table and reply to the last text he sent me.

Can meet for dinner. Where and what time?

The reply comes back almost immediately. Grace opens one eye at the sound of the phone dinging and peers at me.

“Are you guys okay to watch Justin again?”

“Of course. That’s why we’re here.”

“Cause I’m meeting him for dinner.”

And I’m going to kiss him again and find out.