Call Her Mine (Harmony Pointe #1)- Melissa Foster Page 0,58
not going to lie. Sure, I was jealous, but I love you, so I think that’s natural. And sometimes I feel pangs of that, but not nearly as much as I did the first two days. And I know that’s on the way out, because I feel so much for her, and for you, and every day my love grows bigger. Soon there’ll be no room for them. Besides, yes, you had sex with another woman, and that act resulted in a beautiful little girl. But you didn’t have a baby with her, Ben. Maybe I’m just fooling myself, but I think there’s a world of difference between having a baby with someone and welcoming that baby into a joint, loving home and what happened with Hotel Hookup that led to B.”
He pulled her closer, taking her in a long, sensual kiss. He brushed his thumb over her cheek, marveling at her, and said, “Do you want to know why I only dated blondes who looked like Barbies?”
“You should really quit while you’re ahead,” she warned.
“I’m not a quitter.” He smiled and said, “It was because they were the opposite of my type of woman. They were the opposite of you, Rels. They weren’t real or naturally beautiful. They didn’t have a genuineness that called out to me or a snort-laugh that made me happy every time I heard it. No woman could ever know me the way you do, and I’d never give them the chance to try.”
“Aaaaand you’ve just jumped to the head of the race.” She practically crawled over the center console to kiss him. He threaded his fingers into her hair, and she moaned into his mouth. He intensified the kiss, losing himself in her as she murmured with pleasure.
A knock on the window startled them apart, and Aurelia hit her head on the visor. “Ouch!”
Ben reached for her head, rubbing the sore spot as his mother’s smiling face peered into the window. He unlocked the doors as Aurelia scrambled to the passenger seat.
His mother opened the back door and said, “You two go back to what you were doing. I’m just here to meet my granddaughter.”
Aurelia blushed and mumbled, “Ohmygosh.”
His mother unbuckled the baby and gushed, “Hello, sweet little one. How’s my precious girl?” She lifted her into her arms, closed the door, and headed up the driveway.
“Good to see you, too, Mom,” Ben said with a shake of his head, earning a laugh from Aurelia. He waggled his brows and patted his lap.
“Hardly!” she said as she threw her door open.
They grabbed the bags and the Pack ’n Play, and Zane met them halfway up the driveway. He had gotten the short end of the stick when it came to supportive parents, but even when they were kids, years before he and Willow became an item, Ben’s parents had made him feel like part of the family.
Zane laughed incredulously. “Congrats, dude. Look at you going full-on Daddy Day Care. Have I completely lost my running partner?” He gave Ben a slap on the back, then took the bags from Aurelia and embraced her. “I hear you two are finally an item. I guess that means congrats to you, too. Come inside. Willow and Roxie have been waiting with bated breath for that baby, so if you two want to take advantage and head to Ben’s old bedroom for a no-baby-around make-out session, be my guest.”
“We’re good in that department, thanks,” Ben said with a shake of his head.
They followed Zane inside, and Ben set the Pack ’n Play down in the living room, where his mother and Willow were loving on the baby.
“Oh, honey,” his mother said. “You are not going to need that tonight. The girls and I are going to be fighting over this little darling all night long.”
His father came out of the kitchen, smiling approvingly at Ben, as if stepping into fatherhood had given him a boon of some sort. Dan Dalton was tall and slim, and he looked more like the professor he’d been before retiring than the contractor he’d become after following his passion for custom-home building.
“Let me guess,” his father said as he came down the hall. “Your mother confiscated the baby.” He hugged Ben, then embraced Aurelia for a beat longer, whispering something that made her smile—and blush.
Bodhi, Bridgette, and Louie came through the front door.
“Uncle Benny!” Louie ran toward him, and Ben swept him into the air and hugged him. His eyes were as wide