Falling for Mr. Wrong(16)



“Ahhh… I’ve got an idea.” He leaned over his nephew, aiming the whipped cream at his chin, making a little beard, then finishing it off with a fake mustache. He then repeated it on himself. He grabbed Tyler’s hand and raced with him to the bathroom so they could have a look in the mirror, where Tyler clapped in delight. “I tell you what—let’s preserve this for the books.” He grabbed his phone and snapped a picture of the two with their whipped cream facial hair, then took a big lick of his nephew’s chin, whereupon Tyler did the same back to him. They quickly licked their faces clean in between more selfies, returning to dig into their main dessert.

“I want you to babysit every day!”

Noah laughed. “I have a sneaking suspicion your mother might feel differently after she sees these pictures.”

*

After they cleaned up their dessert mess, Noah ran a bath and helped Tyler into the warm bubbles. He splashed and played and got Noah sufficiently wet, and soon the bubbles dissipated and the water grew tepid. Which was when the child decided it was time to play with his penis.

“I guess they start ’em young with the right equipment.” Noah laughed. “Remember, grasshopper, that thing will be your best friend, so treat him well. And while you’re at it, use that only as a tool for good in the world. You rope a girl in with that thing, you fall in love, then don’t go doing stupid things you’ll regret, you hear?”

Tyler kept diddling his private parts, totally tuning Noah out.

“You know, your father was far more honorable than I was. And I wasn’t even the one with the huge life-changing news. Damn. He was the one who had to rethink everything. And yet there I was, happy in a relationship, but I got so damned scared, I ran. What a wanker.”

Tyler giggled. “Wankuh.”

Noah nodded. “Yeah. That.” He pulled the plug from the drain and plucked the child from the tub, wrapping him tightly in a soft towel.

“You ready for a couple of bedtime stories, my little man?”

Tyler nodded and ran naked toward his bedroom, his uncle in hot pursuit.





Chapter Twelve


For all these years, Harper had managed to avoid even attempting to spy on Noah on Facebook. She didn’t even know if he was on there. It didn’t matter. She didn’t want to know about him, about his life, whether he was married or dead or had joined a cult. It was much, much easier to pretend he didn’t exist.

But now, dammit, she could not eradicate thoughts of Noah from her brain. She almost felt like that stupid schoolgirl who was waiting for the high school quarterback to call after the one time he glanced her way. Only she hadn’t even given Noah her number. And she’d made it clear she was off-limits. And she didn’t know if she never wanted to see him again or wanted a command performance, stat. Though she was afraid the latter was what she was after. Crap.

She was sitting at the bar in her kitchen. She’d poured a tall glass of wine, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened her laptop. She clicked on the favorites bar and opened up to Facebook, the giant time suck that seemingly swallowed human beings whole, never to be seen again. Sadly Facebook seemed ready-made for a girl who was home alone on a Saturday night. A girl who’d yet to hear from the man she should have been pining for a little more than for the untrustworthy ghost from her past.

She was a little disappointed that Danny hadn’t even sent her a text, but then again, who knew how these things were supposed to unfold? Maybe she should be glad he didn’t view her as an insta-booty call. Maybe it was respectful that he was allowing some time before reaching out to her. Some time. It had been a full week. That was kind of like an epoch when it came to dating. Or at least it should be. She could have even called him but she was simply not that girl. It would have felt a little forced to glom onto him like that.

The screen opened onto her homepage, and she scrolled up to the top bar and typed in Noah’s name. Immediately a link popped up, and she clicked on it. Phew. He had it set so that everyone could see his posts, which would make her subterfuge imminently more achievable.

She was about to look through his photos but was instantly drawn in by the first one she saw: Noah and a child, their faces covered with shaving cream or something. They were both smiling in the selfie. The next one showed Noah licking the child’s face. Obviously not shaving cream. Must be whipped cream. But who was this child? He looked to be about three or four years old. Wait. Three or four. Oh my God. That’s why Noah left me! He got some other girl pregnant! Clearly while we were together. Oh God, oh God, oh God. He was fooling around on me even before he left? And I thought we were so happy. What a bastard. What a dirty, rotten bastard. It was bad enough he left me, but now I know why and honestly, I could kill the man.

It was too late to call anyone, so she typed a message to Allie.

SOS. Go check out Noah’s Facebook page. You’re not gonna believe it. He’s a freaking baby daddy.

She couldn’t bear to look at any more of Noah’s alternate life. The one that could and should have been hers, had he not betrayed her even more than she’d realized. She shut her laptop and rested her head on the countertop as tears filled her eyes.

*

Everything had seemed so perfectly normal that final day they spent together. Harper and Noah had gone to dinner at their favorite restaurant; then they walked along the boardwalk. Afterward, they went out to a small private beach that only the locals knew about and spread out a blanket between the sand dunes, which hid them from anyone who might also show up at the beach. They’d made love beneath a blanket of stars, brilliant pinpoints of light that seemed like beacons calling them into the stratosphere.

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