Maybe Matt's Miracle(40)

I kiss her quickly, and she scowls. “Needing me and wanting me are not the same as loving me,” she says, chewing on her lower lip. Her eyebrows furrow, and I kiss the crease between them, then smooth it with my thumb.

“Are you in love with me yet?” I ask.

“Are you in love with me yet?” she asks me.

“Yeah,” I say softly. “I am.”

“Me, too,” she chirps. Then she giggles, and I can feel her belly rumble beneath mine. I really need to get off her or I’m going to be inside her.

“My mom is in rehab,” she says. I move over and bring her back to my chest.

“Really?”

She folds her hands on my chest and rests her chin on them. “Really,” she says.

“How do you feel about that?” I ask. I trail my fingers up and down her naked back.

“That’s the kicker,” she says. “I feel hopeful.” She heaves a sigh. “Sucks, doesn’t it? No matter what they do to me, I still want them in my life.”

“You want what could be,” I say. “That’s pretty normal.”

“I want to be the kind of mom she wasn’t.” She blinks her pretty blue eyes at me.

“I think you’re already succeeding at that.” I stay quiet for a minute. “I always said the same thing. I wanted to be the dad my dad wasn’t. He just took off. And I swore I would be better and do better.” I mentally shrug. “Now I can’t have kids, so I guess it’s a moot point.”

“I don’t want to jump the gun or anything,” she says. She winces. “But if we ever got to the point where we wanted to make this permanent…”

“I’m already there,” I blurt out.

She laughs. “Do you think you might want to be a father to my kids? Like an all-the-way kind of dad? They have dads, you know that, but they’re not active in their lives.”

My heart swells in my chest, and I have to blink hard. “Yep,” I say past the lump in my throat. “I’d adopt them, if they’d let me, and be an all-the-way kind of dad.” I roll her over and settle between her thighs again. But I just want to look into her face. “And you can be an all-the-way kind of mom, and we can be ecstatically happy with the three we were blessed with. I already love them.”

She brushes my hair back from my face. “You do, don’t you?”

“I think I fell in love with them around the same time I fell in love with you. On day one.” I laugh because I’m baring my soul here and it feels damn uncomfortable.

Sky rocks her hips under me, and I slide through her wetness. “Make love to me, Matt,” she whispers.

But then there’s a clatter, and the sound of screaming voices in the hallway. “Oh crap,” she says, scurrying to sit up. “Seth must have gone and gotten the girls early.” She pulls the sheet off me, leaving me bare on my back in the bed. She stops and looks down at my dick. “Um…” she says. She points to my manhood, and I swear it pulses like it’s putting on a show for her. “What’s that?”

“That would be my dick, and if you don’t stop looking at it, I’m going to lock the door and use it to do wonderful things to you.”

She scoffs. “I’ve seen a dick before,” she says. “I meant the piercing.”

“That’s for you to lead me around by,” I say. I chuckle.

She laughs and covers her mouth. “Does it, like, get in the way?”

I shake my head and go get my boxers. “You’ll love it. I promise. It has magical powers.”

She arches her brow. “All that from a piercing?”

“I was talking about my dick having magical powers.” She steps into her panties, and I heave a sigh. So close to the Promised Land. “I’ll show you one day when we don’t have kids around.”

“You mean like never,” she says with a laugh.

I laugh, too, and swipe a hand down my face. “Never say never,” I murmur. I put on my boxers and jeans, and then the door opens, and Mellie and Joey roll in just as I tug my shirt over my head. They jump onto the bed, and my moment with Sky is over. Or has it just begun? Hell, I can’t tell.





Skylar



I park my car in the parking lot of the rehab center and drop my forehead to the steering wheel. I don’t know why I’m here. Except for the fact that Dad asked me to come. I could have said no. I should have said no.

But I didn’t.

I approach the desk and ask for my mom’s room, but they lead me to the garden. The nurse leaves me outside the double doors and shuts them behind me. Ahead lies a large brick patio with deck chairs. It is littered with big, poufy furniture that looks really comfortable. I look around. I don’t see Mom. But then a woman gets up from a lounger, and I look closely. It’s my mother. Her face is stripped bare of makeup, and her hair is down around her shoulders. It’s held back from her face with a clip, and I can’t remember ever seeing her look so natural. Only it’s not natural for her all. It’s completely unnatural.

“Mom?” I say. She motions toward the nearby rocking chair.

She sits down and pulls her legs up, hooking her arms around her knees as if she wants to draw up inside herself. She doesn’t lean forward to give me those air kisses that don’t mean anything. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act without them. I sit down and grip my knees tightly.