With forced effort, I pulled the silverware tray out of the dishwasher and focused on that. Serafina grabbed the cookie dough and slipped over to the fridge, her obnoxious slippers wide enough to sweep the floor with.
“I promised Mom I'd let Ava eat some of the cookie dough if you're cool with that, before we make the cookies.”
I shrugged. “Why even bother to bake them?”
“A man after my own heart.”
Something in that phrase caught me. That was Serafina. Her tongue was fast, blithe, and never embarrassed. I couldn't fathom how she did it. Before I could make an awkward response like marry me right now, she peered around and asked, “Speaking of, where is Ava?”
“Outside with a sprinkler.”
Her head turned to look that way, and I caught her profile. Lovely, sloping nose. Elegant neck. Wild, curly hair. Somehow, it just fit her. The urge to grab her wrist and slam her against my chest was almost overpowering, so I turned back to a stack of clean dishes that sat on the counter before I went full caveman.
“Your parents left?” I asked over my shoulder as I tucked some bowls away.
Serafina dropped onto a stool as the sound of a happy, girlish shriek came from outside. Ava darted by, skirting the edge of the sprinkler like she didn't want to get wet, even though that had been her exact request twenty minutes ago.
“Yeah.” She propped her chin in a hand. “Their flight leaves this evening and they wanted to stop a few places before they went.”
“Any word from Talmage?”
I managed to ask the question without adding the bastard at the end, the way I did in my head. Only her familial, genetic relationship with him and the pain in her eyes every time this topic came up stopped me. Still, I wasn't about to act like he didn't exist. Both of them needed to know I was tracking him.
“No.” She tapped her other fingernails on the counter. “Which is probably just as well, for now. I texted him before I came over, but haven't heard back.”
“If you ever need to go see him, let me know. I'd be happy to go with you if you needed or wanted someone else there.”
The tension in her bled away. She smiled and it warmed her eyes.
“Thanks, Ben. Such a great friend.”
I don't want to be your friend, I almost said.
I held her gaze, feeling like a sucker punch to the gut when she didn't look away. If gazes could ignite, my house would have been on fire. Despite the softness about her that always drew me in, I sensed an untamed wildfire beneath all that curly hair.
Seconds later, a dripping wet Ava stormed into the room.
“Sera!” she cried, then ran into Serafina's awaiting arms and clutched her legs tightly. Wet impressions remained behind, but Sera ignored them to wrap her arms around her. The moment broke. With a long exhale, I turned back to the dishwasher. Watching Serafina with my daughter gratified an instinct deep inside me.
“You are an expert sprinkler-runner,” Serafina said, crouched down next to her. “I've been watching and I'm impressed.”
“Thanks!” Ava's nose scrunched as she stopped jumping long enough to peer on the counter. “Did you bring dinner?”
“I did.”
“Hooray!” Ava leaped again, whooping, and disappeared out the back door. Laughing, Serafina followed to the doorway. She stood there and watched for several minutes, her hip cocked to the side in an attractive curve as she occasionally called out a score from 1-10—it was almost always 15. I finished the dishes, feeling marginally better for having done some work in my own home, then followed over. I stood a few steps away, just to keep my hands where they belonged, and not on the small of her back. Or the curve of her ribs. The hollow of her neck.
The very soft pillow of her lips.
“Ben?”
Jerked from my thoughts, I looked up to see Sera watching me with an amused smile. “Did I lose you?” she asked.
“Sorry, what?”
She tilted her head outside in a motion that suggested she'd already said something while I mused about kissing her until she was weak in my arms.
“Ava. She doesn't have a lot of friends around here, does she?”
My gaze filtered through our backyard. There was no fence and only a small patch of grass that Ava ran through now. The property opened onto the curve of the river not too far away, and contained mostly scrub and bush. Along the river