Charlotte

We walk hand in hand back to the car, and I get a bit of nostalgia for a moment. The way I feel walking next to him is like I did back in college. So much has changed, I am older now, but my heart still feels the same way as if it still hasn’t grown out of its feelings for him.

I know I haven’t since I talked to him and spent more time with him again—seen how he is with Kimberly. If anything, I want to see more of that. It’s not like she really noticed she was absent a father, but I knew she would as she got older, and now she doesn’t have to. For some reason, I trust him—that he will stick around as he said, and he wants to be with me and get to know Kimberly. I don’t have a reason not to trust him, and I am only eager for the future at this point.

“What are you doing?”

Lowell opens my door for me but lingers behind me as I get in the car. He parked at the very end of the parking garage, and no one is around as far as I can see from here.

“You remember that night by the Dairy Queen?” He smirks that half grin with a twinkle in his eyes which makes me weak in the knees even though I am sitting.

“Yeah…” I stop putting my seat belt on when he takes my purse and tosses it into the driver’s seat. I giggle to myself when he climbs in the car, with difficulty, and shuts the door behind him.

He pushes my seat down to lay flat, and it’s the motion that puts me right back into that night. We had gotten ice cream together over spring break, so it was packed, and since we were parked near the end of the lot, he… well, we, both thought it was a good idea to get it on in the back seat. It wasn’t since a patrol officer caught us, but we didn’t get in any trouble since everyone loved Lowell.

I’m not sure that would be a good idea now.

“Lowell, this is not a good idea,” I say through my laughs, coming from his struggle to get both my pants off and his jeans undone.

“No, it’s a great idea.”

He kisses me before I can say anything else.

His lips mold to mine so perfectly I wonder if he is still kissing me until I feel it in my toes. My body responds right after, heat seeping between my legs and tarnishing the last of my panties. They don’t stand a chance around him anymore. I drag my hands up his muscled arms and toss his shirt off letting it fall onto the console next to us as he shifts so my knees come up around his hips, and he settles between my legs.

As his tongue curls over mine, I slide my hands under his boxers finding the warm girth of his cock instantly. I drag my hand up clenching him as he groans into my mouth. His fingers slip between the fabric of my panties and against my wet sex, my clit sings in response, and I jut toward him.

Our kiss breaks, and we breathe heavily against each other until his lips move down to my jaw planting welts into my skin to make me mewl in response. I lose my grip on him when his fingers work harder and drive me into a lost frenzy as I taste my orgasm on my tongue and feel it in my bones as it overtakes me.

My free hand clenches the side of his waist, his muscles rippling under my palm. All he does is push my panties to the side and inch closer to me until his tip spears my entrance, and he slowly pushes himself inside. I stretch around him groaning at the feeling of being full and wanting so much more of him.

“Lowell…” My breath hitches. He pushes his hips but doesn’t reach any farther. I quake to feel him closer to me, to feel more of him inside of me.

He grunts, and it takes some work for him to switch us so I am on his lap. I settle down further and gasp at the sudden sensation of him piercing me so deeply I can feel it everywhere.

“You feel so fucking perfect.” Lowell grips my arms and drags me down to him, kissing me in a fervor. His lips coax gently against mine until our passion takes over.

My hips drive over him clenching the inner muscles of my pelvis as I ride him as fast as I can in the small space. His hands move, clutching my ass and guiding my movements further, meeting me with a jut of his hips and force of his cock in me.

I disappear with him onto another plane without even wanting to be found again. I want to exist with him and only him when we are like this. I don’t know what else I might do except give in and accept it. Thrive in it.

He kisses me, and I’ll be damned if I break it to even breathe—it’s that good. Not just his taste or his tongue sliding against mine, his lips attaching to mine—it’s everything else that comes with it. A deep connection spills over between us, inside of me, against each other.

Every part of me thrums for the release I desperately need but want to prolong to be with him longer. His grunts grow shorter as my moans drag out, and I succumb to the boiling pressure inside me coming so intensely I might have seen stars.

His lips splay over mine, our breath mingling as his hitches with his orgasm. He comes, burning me as he empties deep inside me.

“Char…” he whispers, almost to himself. I barely hear him.

I halfway smile, my forehead pressed against his as I feel the heat of our bodies still swarming.

“We got lucky this time.” I giggle.

Eventually we separate, not easily—and I accept the sodden feeling I have in my pants with a smile on my face.

“Mommy, I think I don’t want to go to school anymore,” Kimberly shouts over the music in the back seat of my car. I laugh and turn the music down.

“Why is that?” Monday mornings are rough because she isn’t a morning person. Or a school person. I’m not a morning person either so the combination clashes, hence my sweats. Most of the other parents were either dressed for work or not in a casual tracksuit like me. They’re pretty judgmental, but I tolerate it in the name of superior education.

“I hate it,” she whines.

“It gets better. Don’t you want to be smart?” I glance at her in the mirror. Her cute little face is tied up in a scowl. She’s always had the chubbiest cheeks and big eyes, so in some ways, she resembles a cartoon character. It’s hard to look at her and not grin sometimes.

“Like you?”

“You think I’m smart?”

“Yes, Mommy. You’re a genius.” She giggles. I smile back, and tell myself she is too young to be sarcastic—I think. I drop her off and then head home to eat some breakfast and then change to go to the salon.

I spend a few hours there going over reports again and talking with customers. Lowell entertains me all day over texts in between his practice and some mention of a magazine interview. I miss him, and I only saw him yesterday.

When it’s time to get Kimberly, I head to her school and leave Dani in charge until the salon closes. On the drive home, she tells me a colorful story of her and her friend, Lindsay, finishing their in-class project first and getting extra recess time. She lives a simple life.

I make the last turn and enter my driveway passing Lowell’s car parked on the side street. It didn’t take much convincing from him after he asked if he could come over for dinner. I have to go over each and every report from the salon to figure out where the discrepancy is, so Kimberly having some company didn’t sound like a bad idea. And if we want to start a routine for her together, dinner every night is a good place to start.

We clamor to get inside, and she runs up to the front door to put in the code herself. It’s her favorite pastime. When she did it over and over after I first got it, the cops showed up since it is linked to the police station, and she was putting the code in wrong.

“Kimberly, come here.”

Lowell is walking up behind us, but he is way down the driveway.

“Yes, Mommy.”

I crouch down to her, smooth her hair down in its ponytail.

“I know things are different with your father being here now. But I want you to be happy. We both do.”

“Okay. I like when Daddy is around.” She grins. I smile back at her and nod.

“Okay, good.”

She grins again, her brown eyes dart behind me, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way they light up then when she sees Lowell.

“Hey, princess,” Lowell smiles and lifts Kimberly up as she gets closer to him. Her orange sweater swims around her small frame, but she seems even smaller in his arms.

“Hi!” She shrieks when he lifts her into the air and brings her back down.

I smile and turn away to walk back inside and maybe not cry if I watch them for too much longer. Behind me, I hear them talking about school and laugh to myself.

“How about you go wash up for dinner, okay.” Lowell sets her down by the staircase. She agrees and dashes up the steps disappearing at the landing. I still hear her shuffling around in her room.

“She is so cute, I might die.” Lowell grins at me. I smile back with my whole body. I still feel his body on mine from our romp in the car. Even in my house, I feel like a different person around him.

“Happens to the best of us.”

He saunters over to me linking his arms around my waist and drawing me to the hard planes of his body. He’s wearing dark jeans and a light brown sweater which hugs his toned, muscular arms and broad shoulders. He tilts my face at my chin and kisses me, soft but still firm. I sigh against him, hug him around his waist, and lean into the kiss until we break away.

“So, you have work to do. I can make dinner and make sure she does her homework.”

“Really?” I look up at him.

He grins. “Yeah, I have to do the real work at some point.”

I giggle. “Okay. Well, I already started a pot roast that’s in the fridge, so you can heat it up. And she has to do her homework. Don’t let her convince you otherwise.”

“Okay.” He chuckles. “She might still. But okay.” He laughs. I playfully swat him, and he traps my hands between us kissing me once more.

“Okay, if I start now, I might finish before bedtime.”

“Our bedtime?” He wiggles his brows. I bump my hip against him laughing as I shake my head and walk away.

I could get used to this new domesticity. I hope I don’t do it too fast. Maybe I have bad luck like that, but it’s how I learned from my mistakes in the past. With Lowell back in college, I thought I could have that whirlwind romance, and I almost did. Now I can have the happy ending, only later than I imagined.

The only difference is that now, I’m ready to fight for whatever might get in the way.