I’m half watching a TV show on my laptop, half scrolling on my phone, when I hear Jane walk into the apartment.
Guilt hits me. I shared that stuff about her mom and dad…but I didn’t give her name, wouldn’tevergive her name.
I go out into the living room. She’s in the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water, looking a little sweaty and a little drunk.
“Fun night?” I ask.
She greedily sips from the glass and places it down. “Not too bad.”
“How’d it go with lover boy?”
She smiles, then tells me about her night as we enter the living room. We laugh together, then, once we’re settled down, I tell her about the not-a-date with Logan. I make a special point of telling her the truth about what I said.
“But you didn’t use my name?”
“No,” I tell her quickly.
She shrugs, then sits back. “Then whatever. I can’t believe you went on adatewith Logan Locke.”
“Don’t tease me,” I mutter.
She sits up, frowning. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
I shake my head. “I’m being sensitive about it. It’s…it’shim. I keep thinking – oh, maybe he does want me, or at leastsomethingfrom me. Something more than helping me with the counseling course.
“But then I remind myself of those photos…he was out with Maxine Waterson a couple of nights ago. I remind myself of reality, I guess. That’s what it is.”
Jane stands and walks over to the couch, sitting and then wrapping her arm around me. I hug her in return.
“Reality sucks sometimes,” Jane says.
I laugh dryly. “Amen to that.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
Logan
I regretted it straightaway, letting her leave the car like that, though I knew it was right.
But it was difficult, harder even than playing in the Superbowl.
That was a practical matter. I had to make my body do certain things in order for our team to win. Nothing else mattered but the game, and I could give it my entire focus. I want the same for Lucy and me, my body to do hungry things to make her pregnant, and nothing else to matter but us. And she deserves my entire focus.
As I sat in the car, watching her walk toward her apartment building, I felt my cock harden, a tight mass of tension right at the base, my helm hot and leaking precome.
It was her ass and her thick thighs in those jeans. It was the outline of her bra strap through her shirt.
But mostly, it was justher.
Everything about her, her laugh, her shy smile, and the way she looked at me when I talked about Anna. It was the conversation about children, the promise it seemed to contain.
It was us.
Now, I’m driving toward the community center, knowing full well it’s going to be empty. It’s going to be just me and Lucy, which is exactly what I avoided yesterday evening.
When I didn’t run after her, drag her up to her apartment and strip her excitable young body naked, I was avoiding this, the thing I’m doing right now, being alone in a private place with my Lucy.
But what am I, some goddamn robot?