Play Me (Take a Chance #3)(23)
Author: Diane Alberts

A shadow fell on him and he lifted his head. Kiersten stood there wearing nothing more than an oversized shirt. Did she have shorts on underneath it? God, he hoped so for his own sanity.

Or maybe he hoped she didn’t.

No. Shorts on. Definitely on. “Sorry if I woke you up,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “This was supposed to be a surprise.”

She grasped the doorframe. “You…you’re building the crib? Already?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, feeling like a complete idiot. They had months until this thing needed to be ready. “I saw it in the closet and I just couldn’t resist.”

“I couldn’t resist buying it.” She stepped closer, her eyes on his. Now she was going to tell him he should have waited. Should have let her do it. She didn’t like people swooping in and taking charge like he’d done. He knew that. “You’re really something else. You know that, right?”

“Uh…” He swallowed hard. She was looking at him in a way that he’d only ever seen her do in his imagination. Looking at him as if she needed him in her life. By her side. “I’ve been told that a few times. Usually not in a good manner. I can take it apart. I messed it up anyway.”

She sank to her knees and rested her hands on his shoulders. “Don’t. I like that you…that you did this. It’s sweet.”

He gulped in a deep breath. Her proximity was so tempting it physically hurt to hold himself back. His muscles ached with the strain to stay completely still. “You do?”

She leaned close, brushing her lips across his cheek. He smelled her toothpaste and something that reminded him of spring flowers. Her hair was damp, so he could only guess it was her shampoo. His fingers twitched with the desire to bury themselves in her locks and pull her closer so he could see if he was right.

“I do,” she breathed as she pulled away from him. “And I like you. You know that, right?”

Like. Such a tepid word. He gave a soft laugh. “That’s good to know. Otherwise, the rest of our lives might be a little bit tricky.”

Her face went pale, and she scooted even farther away from him. She didn’t like the reminder that she was stuck with him for the next fifty or so years. He couldn’t say her actions surprised him…but it didn’t mean the rejection didn’t sting.

“It’s kind of crazy when you talk about us in that way,” she said, smoothing her bangs behind her ears. “We had one night together…and now we’ll be together as parents…forever.”

So why couldn’t they give it a go, then? Why couldn’t they try a relationship, and see how it went? No matter what they did, they were stuck together. Why not be stuck together, while being together? “Well, having a kid kind of does that even when you’re not together together.”

“What if you get married someday?”

He cocked his head. The only woman he could picture marrying was sitting right in front of him, but her failed engagement with Pete had killed that possibility. “What if you do?”

She snorted. “Yeah. So not going to happen.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.” She hesitated, her eyes flitting to his before she picked up the instructions. “I tried that once. Look what it got me. And Chris was devastated. I won’t do that again. We have you. Why do we need anyone else?”

“Pete was an ass.” Garrett picked up the Allen wrench and started working on the crib again. Anything to keep his hands busy. Idle hands meant temptation to touch. “You can’t judge every man by the actions of one.”

“You make it sound so easy.” She handed him a piece of wood. He checked the instructions to make sure it was the right one. It was. “But it’s not.”

“Why not?” he asked.

When she stiffened, he remembered saying those very words to her right before they made love. He glanced up at her and stopped breathing. She was looking at him like she needed him again, only this time she needed something a bit more elemental. He ignored the answering surge of lust within him.

She licked her lips and looked down at the instructions again. “When your heart is broken, it’s not easy to just tape it back together and move on. Especially when you have a kid.”

Garrett flinched and finished torqueing in the nut. “I know.”

She picked up another, identical piece of wood and handed it off to him. Damn, she was good at this. Better than he was. “Did you ever have your heart broken?”

Not until her. He hadn’t gotten close enough to anyone for his heart to be on the line. But if anyone had ever near it, it would be Kiersten. That one night together had hurt, and it hadn’t stopped hurting yet. “Yeah. Sure. Once or twice.”

“Then you know how stupid you can be when it comes to love.” She blew out a breath. “Even knowing I was probably making a mistake, I let Pete get to me. I even thought that maybe I was wrong. That love was pure and good and could heal all things. Brianna had found it once. Maybe I could, too.”

“And then he pulled a dick move and cheated on you.” He spun the wrench tighter than necessary. The prick needed another ass whooping. Garrett might have already given him one the night he heard the news. And he might have fractured his hand punching the dickhead in the jaw. But it had been worth it.

Hypothetically.

“Yeah.” She traced the curve of the crib leg. “Brianna found Thomas, and got married again. And I got…well, pregnant.” She laughed, but it sounded forced. She looked away from him, but didn’t say anything, then picked up another piece of the crib. The pile was getting a lot smaller. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Their fingers brushed, and they looked up at each other in surprise. Was that an answering need he saw within her eyes? “You’re good at this. Where did you learn how to build furniture?”

“Mike.” She grinned, and the moment between them passed, which was probably a good thing. He probably shouldn’t be throwing her on the nursery floor and f**king her next to the unfinished crib. “He said if I was going to be an old maid, I needed to know how to take care of myself.”

Garrett chuckled. “You’ll never be an old maid. You’re too pretty.”

“If you say so,” she said skeptically, her brow quirked. She handed him a nut. “You forgot to do the middle one.”

He looked down. Damn it, he had. “Oops.”