by, Parker allowed Cullen to explore. Other women and some men couldn’t help but stare at him.
She didn’t blame them. That man is fine.
While running, Cullen pitched forward and fell on the concrete. Skylar headed for him immediately, but Parker had reached Cullen and crouched before him. While she wasn’t in a position to overhear the words between them, there was no mistaking the care and gentleness moving back and forth between her guys.
My guys?
Crap. She was worse off than she’d initially thought. Everything she’d been worried about was coming true. Becoming attached. Being unable to simply look at this in black and white. The lines had become muddled, and she loved the thought of being a family again. But not with just anyone. Cullen and Parker. She’d fallen into this mess, and it was going to gut her when it fell apart and was taken away.
Parker never looked away from Cullen as he lifted him back to his feet. His muscles flexed, showing off his impressive body and strength. It wasn’t hard to witness what he brought to his job. But right now, with this boy—who might not even be his son—he was incredible. Parker dusted him off and looked over the injuries. There was an undisguised love in his eyes and his tone. Parker wiped his fingers over Cullen’s eyes, moments before the boy did it himself and nodded.
She wasn’t the only one who was going to have a hard time if it came back that Cullen wasn’t his. Parker loved him, even if he didn’t say it.
Cullen ran back to the enclosure. Parker rose with an easy push to his feet.
Skylar averted her gaze the moment he glanced in her direction. Him witnessing how he made her feel, especially when it pertained to Cullen, wasn’t anything she needed.
He strode to her and straddled the backless bench she’d claimed for herself. Leaning forward, he brushed back some hair from her shoulder, exposing her ear and neck. “You’re driving me crazy, baby. Watching you is turning me into a randy teenager. How are you doing? Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Her entire body trembled as he pressed his lips to hypersensitive skin.
“Let’s go.” He helped her up. “Someone is excited to see more animals.”
Yeah, someone.
Such a kid at heart.
…
Parker dropped their lunch trash in the receptacle. Even from this distance, he could pick up on the husky laughter of one Skylar Radford. Even here. At the zoo. He was so in tune with her, it was as if there existed a single line from her to him. It fucking scared him just how much he was coming to depend on her.
I’m a single man playing at being engaged.
Even thinking that, the words sounded, off. Wrong.
When he’d been called “Papa,” that had been a blow he hadn’t been expecting. He’d already lost his heart to this kid; there wasn’t any way to prevent that. He understood now how people changed when they held a child, their child, in their arms for the first time.
Right now, Cullen sat on Skylar’s lap, chatting away as he pointed in the direction of the aviary.
This was a vision offering him a chance at forever. His son’s sun-kissed skin and the rich chocolate-brown hair melded perfectly with the riotous natural curls in varying shades of brown and black on Skylar as well as her smooth dark skin.
The entire plan had shifted. The ruse had altered. It had become so much more and far faster than he thought possible.
Skylar was his first thought in the morning and his final at night. Cullen a close second, but he was trying desperately to keep the boy at a distance, in case the results came back that Gemma had lied.
He had the letter at home, but hadn’t been ready to open it. The boy had come to be such an important part of his life, and he wasn’t ready to chance losing him. Whatever words were on that paper had the power to change his life. He wasn’t ready to face that. Not yet. Even though the longer this kept on, the harder it was going to be for all involved.
He removed his hat and shoved a hand through his hair. Control had been taken from him. And he wasn’t sure he was on board with that.
On one hand he was, because he wasn’t ready to admit or accept how much she’d come to mean to him. On the other, he wasn’t ready to give up the single life.
Was he really, though?