A Mom for Callie by Laura Bradford

weeks before we started drifting apart. It was as if I was just there to fill a role…to be the little woman at home rather than a true partner.”
    â€œHe was all about the firehouse, wasn’t he?”
    His question surprised her and she could only nod.
    â€œSome guys are like that. Cops, too. But we’re not all like that.” She closed her eyes at the feel of his finger under her chin, opened them again as he guided her face upward. “Don’t get me wrong, my job is important and I take my duty very seriously. But I’m a father, first and foremost. And Callie will never doubt that.”
    The sincerity with which he spoke made her swipe at her eyes, a futile attempt to stop the threat of tears in their tracks. In an instant his arms were around her, pulling her close, his chin coming to rest on her headas she buried her face in his neck. When her sobs subsided, he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away just enough to make eye contact. “The state of your marriage was his responsibility, too, Betsy. But more than that, you have to see that fire was not your fault. Forcing yourself to express a sentiment you no longer felt wouldn’t have changed what happened that day. For you or for him. People grow apart. It happens. It happened with Lila and I, too. We wanted different things.”
    â€œYou wanted a family. She wanted a career.”
    He seemed to ponder her words as he shifted his position on the blanket and pulled her backward, reclining her body into his. “A simplistic summation, but true nonetheless. And it sounds as if the same was true of your marriage, as well, yes?”
    She nodded, his words hitting home in her heart. He was right. Like him, she’d wanted a family—a feeling of connectivity and completion and being one another’s priority. But just as the stage had been for Lila, Mark’s world had been his department and his badge. “I supported his work as a firefighter, I really did. I admired him for it. It was the other stuff—the constant need to be at the firehouse whether he was on duty or not, the near nightly poker games with the guys at the station, the disinterest in my life—that dragged me down.”
    â€œAnd I supported Lila’s dream to be on stage. I just hadn’t realized how much she cared about the spotlight and the chance to be a celebrity. It was like a lightbulb switched on inside her when she was on stage…and then turned off the second the attention was gone and she was left with Callie and me.”
    There was nothing to say to that, nothing to offer other than a nod. They’d both been disillusioned in love,both been pushed aside for something that was seen as more important, more worthy. And they’d both spent entirely too much time second-guessing and regretting. She was about to put words to that thought when she felt his hand snake around her neck and begin caressing her cheek, his lips finding her earlobe and beginning to nibble. The warmth of his body matched her own as she turned to meet his lips with her own, desire heightening with each passing moment.
    As their tongues met and explored, she felt his hand slipping down her body, his fingers finding the swell of her breasts. Her sighs were met with a lowering of his hand to her nipples, their hardness pushing against the fabric of her camisole.
    He pulled back, grabbing hold of her hand and pulling her to her feet beside him.
    â€œWhere are we going?” she asked, her voice breathless.
    â€œI think it’s time for that dessert, don’t you?”
    Her eyes skimmed their way down his body, her throat instinctively tightening at the telltale bulge in his jeans. “I—I have chocolate. And vanilla.”
    Pulling her against him, he wrapped his arm across her shoulders and walked beside her through the hedge that separated their two homes. “Anything else?”
    She was having trouble concentrating.