"We can have coffee here...I don't understand..."
"I can't do this anymore. I can't date you if it's going to be like this," he said.
She stared up at him, those round, brown eyes filled with confusion. He saw, then, all of a sudden, just how young she was. Not just in age, but in maturity. She was sheltered. Inexperienced. And instead of leaving the nest, she was trying to bring him into it with her.
The realization hit him like a hammer to the chest and he lost his breath for a moment. "My God, Emma," he said. "You're not ready."
"What?" she asked. "Dustin, I don't understand."
"It's okay. I do. And I think we should stop seeing each other for a while," he said, his voice shaking.
She stepped toward him and took his hand. "I don't understand, Dustin. I thought things were going really well. I love you so much. And you say you love me."
He couldn't think of a way to explain to her why things weren't going well without insulting her. In the end he decided she would just have to figure it out on her own. "This just isn't working for me. I'm sorry."
Her eyes welled up with tears and her bottom lip quivered. He was still holding her hands.
"Oh, God, Emma," he said. "I'm so sorry."
"We've barely gotten started. You aren't even giving us a chance."
"I'm sorry."
"I was so sure about you. About us."
"I'm sorry, Emma."
"Stop saying that!" she said. She pulled her hands away and pressed the backs of her hands into her eyes, dashing away the tears. "Nobody's...nobody's ever broken up with me."
"Guess you've never dated an idiot like me before, huh?"
She just stood there, staring down at the ground, her eyes darting back and forth and her brow furrowed as though she were working out some complicated equation in her head.
"I've got to go, Emma."
She looked up at him, still confused. "Go, then."
God, he wanted to kiss her. Apologize and pretend like none of this had happened. But he turned and left, not looking back.
Travis and Arden knelt on the floor in his living room with Baby Emily laying on a blanket between them. Travis had thoroughly enjoyed playing house with Arden. They cooked dinner together, chicken enchiladas. And while that was baking, Arden had insisted she wanted to make a pie for him all by herself. So he'd sat on a stool at the bar and watched her make a huge mess of his kitchen. She wore jeans and one of his t-shirts, her hair back in a ponytail, covered to her elbows in flour with smudges on her face. All she had to show for it was a crust that was so crumbly she couldn't roll it out but had to pat it down into the pan. She'd done so without batting an eye as though that were the plan all along. Then she'd chopped up some apples, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and piled more crumbly crust on top.
Travis figured that had to be the ugliest pie he'd ever seen, but he knew as soon as he bit into it, it would be his favorite pie in the whole world.
Arden had been a complete mess, so with the baby asleep in her swing, they took a baby monitor into the bathroom and showered together. Since she was still on holiday vacation, he talked her into spending the night with him. She put on some pajama pants and a white tank top that left nothing to the imagination. So when Travis got done dressing and found Arden in the living room smiling at the sleeping baby, he couldn't help but tackle her on the couch.
This led to her squealing and giggling and him shushing her and both of them waking up the baby. So they took her out of the swing, gave her a bath, powdered, diapered and dressed her--and now they were watching her kick and flail on the floor.
"Look at her stick her little tongue out," Travis said.
"I know," Arden giggled. "She's so funny."
Emily's facial expressions changed rapidly. Sometimes a smile flickered on her face, sometimes a frown. She made little clucking and gurgling noises. Travis put his finger in her hand and enjoyed the feel of that tiny hand wrapping around one of his fingers.
Arden rubbed her tummy. "Wonder how long she'll play like this?"
"You wanna sneak off to the bedroom?" he asked.
She grinned up at him. "Yes. It's probably not a good idea, though. We could be interrupted."
Travis shrugged. "I guess we could make out on the couch until she gets hungry again."
Arden nodded and they raced to the couch to see who would get to be on bottom. Arden won and Travis climbed on top of her, immediately going for those breasts. He nipped at them through her shirt and she tensed all over. She wrapped her legs around him and he pressed himself hard against her making her writhe against him.
"Let's just do it here, Travis!" she gasped. Just then he took a taut nipple between his teeth and she cried out.