I wasn’t sure which one was worse.

Frannie

“Jesus,” he whispered, looking almost frightened. “That was so fucking intense.”

I smiled and wiped my lower lip with the back of one wrist.

Suddenly he reached down, grabbed me beneath the arms and hoisted me onto the desk in front of him. “Are you okay?”

“More than okay. I loved it. I’m all hot and bothered right now.”

His jaw dropped for a second. “You’re telling me doing that turned you on?”

I shrugged, giving him a shy smile. “Yes. I like hearing you. And feeling you. And being able to give you all of my attention without any distractions. Usually when you come, I do too, and I’m too carried away to focus on you.”

“I happen to like when you get carried away,” he said, reaching for the button on my pants. “So now I think it’s my turn to give you all of my attention without any distractions.”

“Mack, no! You’re supposed to be catching up on work.” I tried to push his hands away, but instead he succeeded in tipping me backward by the shoulders so I was on my back, legs dangling off the desk.

“Fuck work.” He removed my shoes, and grabbed my pants, yanking them all the way off, along with my underwear.

I propped myself up on my elbows. “And it’s late. Won’t Mrs. Ingersoll be expecting you?”

“Fuck Mrs. Ingersoll.” He dropped to his knees and threw my legs over his shoulders.

“But … what about … the kids …” And then I couldn’t talk anymore, because his tongue was doing things that took away my ability to form coherent thoughts.

After a few long, slow strokes up my center and several seconds of soft, swirling circles over my clit, he picked up his head. “I’m not thinking about the kids right now. And I don’t want to. I spend all day every day doing things for them, and I will for the rest of my life. But right now, it’s about what I want. And that is to bury my face in your pussy and make you come with my tongue. Then I’d like to fuck you on my desk. Does that work for you?”

“Uh. Yes,” I said, my body already wet and aching for him.

“Good. After that, I will go back to being a responsible person.” He returned to what he’d been doing before, but this time, he slid one long finger inside me as well.

“You will?” I asked weakly, my eyes popping at the sight of his dark hair between my thighs.

“Maybe.” He looked up and pushed two fingers in this time, his breath hot and quick on my tingling skin. “I’m not too good at keeping promises.”

After checking that the coast was clear, he walked me up to my apartment—the back way, so we didn’t have to go through the lobby. My mother was still at the desk, and he wanted to avoid her.

“I’m telling you, she is fine with us,” I said as we climbed the stairs. “She asked me over the weekend if there was something going on.”

“What did you say?”

“I said we were taking it slow for the sake of the kids, but that we’ve been getting to know each other better. She said that was smart.”

He tucked his hands in his pockets. “My mother reacted a little differently.”

I stopped halfway up the staircase. “You told her?”

“No, but when she called on Sunday night, she sort of suspected, based on how much the girls talked about you. Then she asked a bunch of questions, and my answers must have made it even more obvious.”

Moving slowly, I resumed going up the steps. “So what did she say?”

“Just a bunch of things that I already knew.”

“Like what?”

He shrugged as we reached the landing. “Mostly that I need to be careful.”

I felt like there was a lot more he wasn’t saying, but I didn’t want to push. From the look on his face, it was clear he wasn’t happy about the conversation. “Well, I definitely think you’re being careful.” Then I winced. “Although Winnie did catch us in the closet. And Millie might have seen us in the kitchen.”

His frown deepened. “Yeah.”

“We’ve probably gotten a little careless. We can do better.”

“I wish we didn’t have to worry about it. But that conversation with her has been eating at me this week. She made me feel guilty—well, guiltier—about what we’re doing.”

“Moms are good at that. They know exactly how to push our buttons.”

“It’s not fair to you.” He shook his head. “What the fuck are you doing with me? You’ve got so much to give and I’ve got nothing.”

He looked so upset, I grabbed him in a hug. “Hey. That’s not true. We knew this would be tricky at the start, but we’re making it work.”

“My ex called on Sunday too.”

I stiffened. “She did?”

“Yeah. She knows about us too.”

“You told her?” Surprised, I released him and stepped back.

He shook his head. “No. She made the accusation based on how much Millie was texting about you. I didn’t deny it.”

“You didn’t?” I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or not. It seemed like a step in the right direction, but he looked upset about it.

“No. But maybe I should have. I don’t know.” He rubbed his face with both hands.

I swallowed hard. “Well … what did she say?”

“A lot of ugly shit about me, which I don’t care about, but then she threatened never to visit the kids again. Which would be fine with me, but she’ll find a way to twist everything so it’s my fault the kids don’t have a relationship with their mother.”

“Oh, Mack.” I twisted my fingers together at my waist. Clearly this had been weighing on him for days. “I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?”

He shrugged. “Because this isn’t your problem. I don’t want you to have to deal with my hostile ex-wife. Hell, I don’t want to deal with her. But I have to. I’ll always have to, because she’s my kids’ mom. That will never change. And neither will she.”

I could see him getting more and more worked up, and I put my arms around him again. “Hey. It’s okay.”

“It’s not. And it’s just one more reason why you should walk away from me and find someone easier to be with.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Mack. You know that, right?”

His arms came around me, warm and tight and strong, which was reassuring.

But he said nothing, which was not.

On Thursday, April came by the desk during my morning shift. “Hey, I’m meeting with Stella Devine tonight at six to go over some details. Want to join us?”

“Sure. Your office?”

“Bar, actually.”

I nodded. “I’ll meet you there.”

My shift ended at five, and I ran upstairs to change out of my work clothes and grab a bite to eat. At six, I went down to the bar, where April, Stella, and her sister Emme were sitting at a rectangular high-top table. Stella and Emme both had glasses of sparkling wine, and their faces were glowing after their day at the spa.