“It’ll be fine,” Dove reassures her. “The best photos are when you aren’t looking at the camera anyway.”

Avery is undeterred and continues to cajole her daughter, but the baby isn’t listening. She’s too busy pulling her feet up to her mouth. The imbalance topples the girl over, and Avery rushes over to give aid while I take photos of it all.

I sense a warm body crouch down beside me, the warm vanilla scent telling me that it’s my beloved. “You hungry, darling?” she asks.

“Hmmm,” I murmur and press the shutter button again. I am always hungry, but not for food. In the ten years we’ve been together, my appetite for my wife has not diminished. I could fuck her ten times a day, pass out in exhaustion, and wake up the next day more ravenous than ever.

“Not for that,” Dove snickers quietly.

“You know me well,” I say and move the lens a little to the left.

“After all these years, I should hope so.” Her hand palms the back of my head. “Your hair is getting long.”

“Should I cut it?” Maya, our daughter, examines the chessboard in front of her. Her small head dips forward at the same time as her grandfather’s head. Their two crowns almost meet as Maya’s hand creeps forward to move her bishop. Dove has made a tentative reconciliation with her father. He’s funded a large educational trust for Maya, and in return he gets to come to family functions a couple times a year. There’s still pain there, but Dove’s moving on. I support her in whatever way I can, such as low-key threatening the old man whenever he looks like he’s going to say some dumb thing. Apparently, telling him that I can give an interview at any time to a national magazine about the pain my family is going through due to his abandonment of Dove is enough to keep him in line. Thankfully, I haven’t had to use that threat in a while, and the more time he spends around Dove and Maya, the more I can tell he’s full of regrets.

“No. I like it long. Looks extra sexy.”

“Watch me grow it to my knees.”

“That length is not sexy.”

“You love Legolas. I think you paused on every frame he was in for at least an extra ten seconds.”

“How would you know? You fell asleep during the last movie.”

“It was the fourth time you’d watched it.”

“True.” She straightens, and I mourn the loss of her touch. “It’s a good movie, though.”

“The best.” I tuck the camera away and tuck her hand in mine. I like having her touch me at all times. It centers me. Before her, I was like one of those lost cities. Tumbleweeds were rolling around my heart like it was an empty town square. Now it’s lit up with her love and Maya, which is better than any prize for literature or photography a person could ever be awarded. I rub a hand across my chest. Feels good to be me.

“You okay?” She leans a head against my arm. I shift and push her against my chest, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“Never better. How ‘bout you?” I tilt my head toward her father.

“If you asked me seven years ago when Maya was born, I think I’d have said he can go rot in his misery, but I feel like he’d have won then. His actions dictated my emotions and my response, whereas I’m in control, and it doesn’t have anything to do with you threatening to humiliate him on a national scale.”

I draw back so I can see her face. “You know about that?”

She rolls her eyes. “Yes. Avery overheard—"

“More like she was intentionally creeping outside your dad’s study,” I complain.

“—you threatening him,” Dove continues as if I hadn’t interrupted, “but she told me that he had already decided to apologize but couldn't figure out how to do it without sacrificing his pride. Your threats made it easier for him because he could tell himself he was doing this because of you and not because he was wrong.”

I make a face. “He was wrong.”

“I know, and he knows it too, but he doesn’t like admitting that out loud. Besides, with Avery having Hannah, it’s best that we’ve all reconciled so we can spend holidays and birthdays together, and our girls aren’t confused about why one of them has a granddad and the other doesn’t.”

“That’s a good point,” I concede. “I only wanted to protect you,” I explain in case she’s mad I threatened her dad behind her back.

“I know you did, darling.” She pats my chest. “You’re always looking out for us.”

“My pleasure.” I draw her hand to my mouth and press a kiss against it. Suddenly, Maya raises her little arms in the air. Clutching a piece, she runs over, yelling, “I won! I won! Mommy, Daddy, I won!”

I sweep the peanut up into my arms. “You’re amazing, girl.”

Over her head, I arch an eyebrow in direction of her grandfather. Leo shrugs. I guess the win was legit. Maya is a genius.

This is the life that every man dreams of having. Oh, they may mouth off and say that all they want to do is bone a different woman every night, but at the end of the day, they want to come home to someone who loves them, whose eyes light up when they enter a room, whose heart aches when they are gone. Everyone wants to be that one person who matters to another single person, otherwise we just end up as empty as these lost cities, shells of what we should be or could be.

I found my home in Dove and Maya.

My loves! It is October already. I feel like this is both the longest and shortest year of my life.

This book is part of a neighbors’ series where people living next door to each other fall in love. I have another story in the series coming out next month and then a holiday one.

I hope you are all doing well and staying safe.

Ella