Eventually, I haul myself upstairs and dress. I have to film a product-pimping video today on the physically possible sex positions book, which is good because otherwise I’d end up making some gushing vlog about Knox.
At my desk, I can see Knox out the window, working on his latest car. My heart flutters, knowing he’s mine now. I could sit here all day watching him, but I can’t. I have too many exciting ideas to share with my fans.
But first, the book pimping video.
I work all afternoon, shooting it, editing it and doing admin tasks. It wouldn’t have taken so long if I hadn’t spent so much time looking out the window at Knox. Somehow I’m going to have to find more discipline.
Now it’s nearly six, and I wrap a fashion scarf around my neck to cover the still visible hickeys.
I ring his doorbell, and Knox answers, a grin on his face. Before I can say hello, he leans over and kisses me. That’s a much better hello than I’d expected.
Standing tall again, he says, “Come in.”
Knox takes my hand and leads me through to the kitchen. Everything feels different now. The charged air between us settled, relaxed.
Piper’s still upstairs, and we chat as we get supper ready. He’s made a beef and barley stew today. Somehow he found the time for that. I reach up to get the bowls out of the cupboard, and he puts his hands on my ass.
“You’re bad,” I say, laughing.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he says.
“I’m glad you two are finally together,” Piper says.
I drop the bowls and they shatter on the floor.
“Piper,” Knox and I say at the same time.
“Aren’t you supposed to be doing your homework?” Knox says.
“I finished it, and thought you’d want help to set the table. I didn’t know Avery was here.”
“Since when do you help set the table?” Knox asks.
Piper looks at me and smiles. I guess my lecture yesterday about helping out her father has sunk in.
“Do you have a broom?” I ask as I pick up the bigger shards of the bowls.
“I’ll get it,” Piper says.
I clean up the broken dishes, while Piper sets the table and Knox ladles out the stew in more bowls. Through dinner, Piper and I chat as usual. Knox even joins in, a lot more than he did before. He’s relaxed, smiling and visibly happy and is even more fun to be around.
After dinner, the three of us clean the kitchen together.
When we’re finished, we head into the living room. Piper sits on the armchair, and Knox sits beside me on the couch and puts his arm around me.
It’s a perfect day. Sex in the morning, and cuddling in the evening.
So perfect, we repeat it every day for the next two weeks.
Knox
“I’m so excited, tomorrow is going to be the best day ever,” Piper says, her face beaming.
She’s finished grade school, and tomorrow officially graduates from eighth grade. All week, she’s been reminding me that she’s a high school student now, and officially almost a grown up. And that her birthday is in a month and she’ll be fourteen. As in not my baby girl anymore.
I know the next four years are going to get even worse. That she’ll want less and less to do with me, and more and more to do with her friends. Until the day she brings a boy home. How the fuck am I supposed to deal with that?
“I still remember my eighth grade graduation,” Avery says from her position beside me on the couch, “I tripped when I went up to get my certificate.”
“And that’s why we didn’t get the shoes with the heels too high, right?” Piper says.
“Exactly.”
“I don’t want to make a fool of myself tomorrow, especially with the surprise I have planned.”
“What surprise?” I ask.
“Duh, it’s a surprise. Surprise means I can’t tell you. Or it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
Piper’s gone on about her surprise for the past two weeks. I don’t like surprises. No matter how much I’ve pressed her on what it is, she wouldn’t tell me. It’d better be something stupid, and not anything like introducing me to a boy at the ceremony.
“You’d better get to bed, or you’ll be too tired to enjoy tomorrow,” I say.
“Night,” Piper says as she runs up the stairs.
“Good night,” Avery and I say.
“What the fuck is the surprise?” I mutter.
“No idea. She wouldn’t give me any hints,” Avery says.
She’s been sitting beside me on the couch all night, and now that Piper’s gone upstairs, I pull her closer.
“It better not be a boy.”
“You might want to prepare for that. If it’s not tomorrow, it’ll be some day not too far in the future.”