“I listen to her almost every day. I love her voice.”
“Yeah, it’s really smooth.”
“And soothing.”
“And sultry.”
I smiled. “Yes, that too.”
“Have you ever seen her in concert?”
“Nope. I hope to one day, though. She’s my favorite music artist.”
“Why haven’t you gone to see her, then?”
“Because I’d be attending the concert alone. I don’t know of anyone who’d be interested in going with me.”
Zac raised his hand and grinned. “Um…hello?”
I laughed and then pointed out what we both already knew. It’d be frowned upon if we attended anything together. As muchfun as I felt like Zac and I would have, we could never take that risk.
“Unfavorable circumstances can hamper a lot of things that we wanna do,” Zac said, glancing down at my lips.
Our conversation stopped right where it was, but what didn’t stop was the mounting desire that I could see burning in Zac’s eyes again. I knew he could see it burning in mine too. We needed to change course because, once again, we were pushing the limits. Zac and I were playing with this undeniable fire between us by the things that we were saying and also by the way that we were looking at each other. But damn, it felt so incredible to be wanted by him like this.
“So would you or Malcolm like something to drink or eat?” I asked, steering things in a different direction.
“I’m good. Thank you, though. Are you thirsty or hungry, son?” Zac asked Malcolm.
He cut his eyes over at his daddy and shook his head yes, then said he was thirsty.
“Would you like water or orange juice?” I asked him.
“Water.”
I started to get up but Zac held up his hand for me to stop. “I’ll get it for him. Just tell me where.”
“Over there,” I said, pointing at my mini-fridge next to the storage room. “I have bottles of water in there and also some bottles of Topo Chico with lime if you’d like to try one.”
Zac jerked his head back, smiling. “Topo Chico with lime, huh?”
“Yeah. Have you heard of it before?”
“Yes. I have some at home, and on occasion, I use it instead of tonic water with Hendricks. It’s lighter and crisper.”
“Oh, I know. On occasion, I use it too.”
Zac chuckled, and so did I, about this other likeness between us. Then he said, “If you don’t mind, I’m gonna have a Topo Chico. I like it just by itself.”
“Grab one for me too while you’re at it. There’s a bottle opener on the side of the fridge.”
“Okay.”
After getting a bottle of water for Malcolm and our two drinks, Zac sat back down across from me. We began talking again and before I knew it, Malcolm had drunk two-thirds of his water. He handed his bottle to me and then rested his little body against mine once more while his daddy and I continued getting to know each other even better with our back-and-forth questions and answers about random things while continuing to listen to my music playlist.
I didn’t know how much time had passed when Zac pointed at Malcolm and I looked down to see him sound asleep in my arms. I started running my fingers through his silky blond hair, and when I looked back up at Zac, the corners of his mouth were curled up.
“What are you grinning about?” I whispered.