She shakes it off and heads into the kitchen. “Beer?”
“Sure,” I reply. I sit down at her little kitchenette as she slides a beer in front of me. We start chatting about my work, her work, and everything else we can think of. My beer’s been empty for an hour, but I don’t care. I’m content with sitting here in her kitchen and talking with her all afternoon. We usually don’t talk too much. I usually avoid it since every time I get too close I start to get a hard on. And she always seems a little shy around me. But right now, in her kitchen, this is probably the most fun I’ve had talking with another person in a long time. Jake and I always talk about football or sex. And as that word creeps into my mind, I start to imagine Avery sitting on the edge of that counter, legs wrapped firmly around my waist, while I bury myself deep inside her.
As if a gift straight from the heavens, Brooklyn chooses that moment to wake up. When Avery heads to her room to help get her up and ready for the rest of the day, I take the opportunity to think about my grandma. My co-workers swimming at the pool. Anything to help relieve the wood I’m sporting under the table.
Brooklyn comes running into the kitchen, and I realize it’s getting close to dinner time. Avery probably wants to get something going for supper, and honestly I’m still starving since I only ate half a PB & J sandwich and a handful of chips. I get up and start to head towards the door. Brooklyn realizes I’m probably heading out and starts to whine. “Don’t go. I want you to eat pizza wiff me,” she says, throwing her little arms around my thigh.
Avery comes into the room and tries to remove her daughter from my left leg. “Honey, Maddox is probably ready to go. He didn’t do any of the things he had planned for today. You’ll see him again very soon.”
Brooklyn starts to cry and my heart jumps in my tight chest. “But I want Maddox to eat pizza wiff me.” Damn, I can’t handle the tears. I can take a punch straight in the face. I can take down a drugged out teenager running from the police to avoid arrest. I can take a 240 pound grown man and throw him on the ground like he weighs nothing. But the sight of this three year old crying against my leg is my undoing. I realize at that moment I would do anything for her, include having pizza with her.
I look up at Avery who is beside herself at Brooklyn’s behavior. I give her a lopsided grin and say, “Well, looks like I have a date with a beautiful little blond tonight. Pizza it is.”
Avery just stands there in the middle of her living room and stares at me. After a moment, she breaks out in a shy little grin, too. And I realize I would do anything for her too. Fuck. I know at this moment that I’m not strong enough to walk away. All I can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. And hope that Jake doesn’t find out.
Maddox and Brooklyn are playing in the living room while I get the table set for the pizza. Saturday nights are usually our night to order in. On the rare occasion I want to deal with taking a toddler out, we’ll go out for dinner at a local restaurant. Originally, Holly was going to join us this evening for dinner but was asked on a date. She was vague on the phone about who she was going out with, so I can’t wait to interrogate her a little more tomorrow morning.
The doorbell rings but before I can grab my purse and head towards the front door, Maddox is standing there, pizza in hand, and handing the delivery guy some cash. “You didn’t have to do that. We invited you for dinner,” I say as he shuts and relocks the front door.
“You may have invited me, but there is no way in hell you are buying my pizza. I’m an old fashioned guy. It ain’t happening, sweetheart,” he answers with another of those award winning, panty dropping grins. My lady parts tingle from his term of endearment.
He grabs my daughter on his way into the kitchen, and we all start to settle in for pizza. I cut Brooklyn’s slice up into bite sized pieces while Maddox throws a slice of cheese and sausage on my plate and gets two for himself. I fill up Brooklyn’s cup with apple juice and grab two beers before sitting down for dinner.
Brooklyn has already smeared pizza sauce all over her face and is trying to feed Maddox some of her pizza. He’s a good sport about it, even takes a pieces straight from her messy hand and eats it like he’s never had anything better. Brooklyn laughs which makes both of us laugh. He looks adorable with pizza sauce smeared over his bottom lip. It makes me want to lick it off.
After the entire pizza is devoured, mostly by the man sitting across from me, I start to steer Brooklyn towards the bathroom for her evening bath. Maddox is in my kitchen cleaning up our dinner remnants. I’m not used to having someone in my kitchen helping me out with the cleaning. Every time my brothers are here, they have no problem leaving the mess in the kitchen and taking over the television in the living room. I try to tell him to leave it and that I will do it later, but he’s not having it. “No way. You go give Bean a bath, and I’ll wash up these dishes.”