“Miles! Watch your language!” his wife shouted.

“Oh, that’s okay,” said Felicity with a grin. “We’re used to it.”

Mack and the girls went home, and I promised to come by after work. I had orders for six dozen macarons that I had to get over to Cloverleigh for an event later tonight, but after that, I was free.

Miles left shortly after Mack did—the two had hit it off and promised to get together for beers soon—but Natalie stuck around to chat while I finished filling and boxing the pastries.

“I can’t believe he came here that way,” she said, shaking her head. “Are you totally in shock?”

“Pretty much. When I left his house yesterday, I was fairly certain things were done. He seemed unhappy but unwilling to budge.”

“Thank goodness for those girls, huh? What smart kids.” She laughed. “Every time I think about that little one yelling, ‘Because he loves you! He told us!’ I crack up.”

I smiled and placed a pale green cookie on top of the pistachio filling. “Winnie. She’s such a doll.”

“So you get along with them all?”

“A hundred percent. I know I can’t replace their mom, and there will probably come a day when I’ll side with their dad on something and they’ll hate me for it, but—”

“Welcome to being a parent,” she said. “Speaking of which.” She put both hands on her belly. “This one is all kinds of crazy this afternoon.”

I laughed. “It’s been that kind of day.”

Since I was nearly finished, I told her to go home and put her feet up, and volunteered to make sure everything was locked up tight for the night. As I loaded the boxes of macarons in my car and closed up the shop, I felt the most incredible sense of accomplishment. I had done this—gone after something I wanted for myself and made it happen.

And now I had Mack and the girls too. Was the road always going to be this smooth? No way. We’d probably never feel like we got enough time together. And there would be times, I was sure, that it would be me apologizing for letting him down. But we were in this together, and we were in love.

It was enough.

After dropping off the macarons, I ran up to my apartment and took a quick shower before heading over to Mack’s house. When I arrived, they were unpacking bags of Chinese takeout.

We ate sitting around the dining room table, each of us taking turns at the end of the meal reading our fortune cookies.

“Find beauty in ordinary things,” read Millie.

“You will live a happy life,” said Felicity.

“You will be hungry again in one hour,” said Mack.

As we laughed, Winnie handed me hers. “Can you read mine?”

“Sure,” I said. “It says, ‘When one door closes, another opens.’”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“Well, I think it means that you shouldn’t dwell on the bad stuff in life, because something good is about to come along.” I ruffled her hair.

“What does yours say, Frannie?” Felicity asked.

“Beware of single dads who can’t cook?” suggested Mack.

Millie snorted. “For real.”

I cracked mine open and read it aloud. “Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.”

“I like that,” said Winnie. “But what’s a willing heart?”

“A heart that’s open to anything,” I said as something occurred to me. “And guess what? When I was young, I had three open-heart surgeries. So I think mine is open for sure.” I winked at the little girl.

“So nothing is impossible for you,” Felicity said eagerly.

I shook my head and smiled. “Nope. Nothing.”

Later, after we’d watched a movie with the kids and put them to bed, Mack and I turned off the lights in the living room and snuck in a little time alone together.

“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked as he stretched out on the couch and pulled me on top of him.

“Positive.” He wrapped his arms around me and I lay with my body along the length of his, my head on his chest.

“This is nice,” I murmured, loving the sound of his heart against my ear.

“It is.” He kissed the top of my head. “Although I wish you were naked.”

I laughed. “Not with the kids in the house.”

“I know. But I’m going to get impatient with this high school stuff pretty soon.”

“We have time.” I picked up my head and looked at him in the dark. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He tucked my hair behind my ear. “I’m not either. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to rip your clothes off and fuck you senseless right now.”

“You’re so romantic.”

Laughing, he pulled me up his body and kissed my lips. “Sorry. But beneath my pink glittery heart T-shirt is an animal with a hairy chest and a hard-on.”

“Oh yeah?” Shifting to one side of him, I ran my hand down the front of his jeans. “What do you know? You’re right.”

He groaned as I rubbed the thickening bulge through the denim. “Are you sure we can’t sneak into my bedroom for a few minutes?”

I hesitated, and he sensed his opening.

“Won’t that feel so good inside you?” He grabbed my wrist and held my hand over his cock, pushing it against my palm. He kissed me, his tongue stroking my lips. “Don’t you want my mouth on you? We can be so quiet,” he coaxed, his voice low and tempting. “Come on. Let me make you feel good.”

“You’re terrible,” I whispered as his mouth moved down my throat and his hand snuck between my legs.

“I know. But I love you.”

My entire body hummed, and I closed my eyes. “I love you too.”

“So come to bed with me. I’ve missed you so much. And I promise I won’t always be so terrible—we’ll behave tomorrow night. Tonight, let’s give in.”

Of course I gave in.

And of course, he didn’t keep his promise, and we didn’t behave the next night either.

Or the night after that.

In fact, there were very few nights over the next several months when we were able to resist one another, and eventually, he started asking me to sleep over. We tried to hide it at first, sneaking me out before the girls got up, and we thought we were doing a pretty decent job until one Saturday night at the dinner table Winnie said, “Frannie should just move in here. Then she wouldn’t have to leave so early in the morning and she could make breakfast sometimes.”

“Totally,” Millie agreed.

I nearly choked, and Mack turned a shade of red I’d never seen before, but later we discussed it and realized they were right. We wanted to be together all the time, and it would make life easier if I lived at the house. I made sure that Mack talked it over with the girls when I wasn’t around, and he assured me that they were completely enthusiastic about the idea. “Not only are you a much better cook than me, but you know how to do all kinds of braids, you smell better, and you’re much more patient.”

“And you’re sure it’s what you want?” I asked, standing beside him as we loaded the dishwasher after dinner one Friday night. In the living room, we could hear the kids arguing about whose turn it was to choose the movie. It was our typical weekend evening, and maybe some girls my age would have found it boring, but I’d never been happier. Our relationship wasn’t perfect—we had misunderstandings like any other couple, times where we took one another for granted, times when dealing with his ex or our work schedules or bickering kids made us short with one another—but we were always quick to apologize, and every time we kissed and made up, we felt closer than before. Life wasn’t easy, but it was beautiful.