said instead as he started down the front porch steps. “I’ll call you as soon as I get a reservation so you’ll know what time to be ready.”
Aria stopped in the doorway, crossing her arms as she leaned against the doorframe, one bare foot propped on top of the other, looking so comfortable that it was hard to believe they’d only been living together for a week.
“ Okay, but call me on my cell,” she said. “Mom’s coming to get Felicity in about an hour. I’ve got to help Lark and Melody prep food for the wedding tomorrow and the bridal shower on Sunday, so I won’t be home.”
Home. She called his place home, and it didn’t seem weird or scary or strange at all. It felt…right.
“ All right, catch you later,” Nash said with a wave, trying not to think about what his life would be like in a few months, with no baby toys littered across the living room carpet, no Aria standing in the doorway waving goodbye, no redheaded girls grinning at him in a kitchen that seemed sunnier just for having them in it.
He refused to think about that today.
Today, he would concentrate on the evening ahead, an evening where it would be okay for him to pretend to be in love with Aria March.
Or, maybe, more accurately, okay tostop pretending that he wasn’t falling for his first love all over again, even harder than he had fallen the first time.
Chapter Eight
It was the wine. The wine was to blame.
Aria had had an entire glass of Cabernet before dinner and then another with her signature David’s steak, and she was a bit of a lightweight when it came to wine.
That had to be it. The wine was the reason she felt warm all over, the reason her heart beat faster every time Nash leaned over to whisper in her ear, the reason her stomach fluttered when his fingers brushed back and forth across her bare shoulders in an idle caress as they studied the menu and waited for their meals to be delivered to the table. Too much wine was why her chest felt so tight she could barely breathe as she watched Nash carry Felicity into the bathroom to change the baby’s diaper before they ordered desert.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Nash was grinning at her daughter like Felicity was a treasure he’d never expected to find, or that her daughter was laughing up at Nash like he was funnier than peekaboo, Sesame Street , and the deer head jack-in-the-box Grandpa had bought her all put together.
Seeing her baby in the arms of a man who clearly loved Felicity was enough to break Aria’s heart in the best way. Nash had been nothing but kind and funny and just plain wonderful since the afternoon they said their “I dos.”
And the way he looked at Aria herself…
Well, the way he looked at her made Aria feel more beautiful than she had in years, and a part of her couldn’t help wishing this was more than an elaborate game of pretend.
“ It’s just the wine,” Aria whispered to herself, forcing a friendly smile as Nash emerged from the bathroom with a freshly changed Felicity in his arms.
She did her best to ignore the electricity that leapt between her and Nash as their eyes met across the crowded restaurant.
In gray dress pants and a black button-down that emphasized his dark lashes, Nash looked even more amazing than usual. The man had eyelashes like a baby llama, long and sooty and curled just the slightest bit at the edges. They were gorgeous. He was gorgeous. There wasn’t a woman in the restaurant who hadn’t darted an appreciative glance Nash’s way while their date’s attention was elsewhere.
Not that Nash would have noticed. He seemed only to have eyes for Aria and Felicity.
“ So how was it?” Aria asked as Nash settled Felicity into her high chair and moved the baby’s toys back within reach. Felicity had been amazingly good all evening, gumming on pieces of their food and playing with her toys like she dined at fancy restaurants every other day.
“ From dirty to clean in thirty seconds
Aria stopped in the doorway, crossing her arms as she leaned against the doorframe, one bare foot propped on top of the other, looking so comfortable that it was hard to believe they’d only been living together for a week.
“ Okay, but call me on my cell,” she said. “Mom’s coming to get Felicity in about an hour. I’ve got to help Lark and Melody prep food for the wedding tomorrow and the bridal shower on Sunday, so I won’t be home.”
Home. She called his place home, and it didn’t seem weird or scary or strange at all. It felt…right.
“ All right, catch you later,” Nash said with a wave, trying not to think about what his life would be like in a few months, with no baby toys littered across the living room carpet, no Aria standing in the doorway waving goodbye, no redheaded girls grinning at him in a kitchen that seemed sunnier just for having them in it.
He refused to think about that today.
Today, he would concentrate on the evening ahead, an evening where it would be okay for him to pretend to be in love with Aria March.
Or, maybe, more accurately, okay tostop pretending that he wasn’t falling for his first love all over again, even harder than he had fallen the first time.
Chapter Eight
It was the wine. The wine was to blame.
Aria had had an entire glass of Cabernet before dinner and then another with her signature David’s steak, and she was a bit of a lightweight when it came to wine.
That had to be it. The wine was the reason she felt warm all over, the reason her heart beat faster every time Nash leaned over to whisper in her ear, the reason her stomach fluttered when his fingers brushed back and forth across her bare shoulders in an idle caress as they studied the menu and waited for their meals to be delivered to the table. Too much wine was why her chest felt so tight she could barely breathe as she watched Nash carry Felicity into the bathroom to change the baby’s diaper before they ordered desert.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Nash was grinning at her daughter like Felicity was a treasure he’d never expected to find, or that her daughter was laughing up at Nash like he was funnier than peekaboo, Sesame Street , and the deer head jack-in-the-box Grandpa had bought her all put together.
Seeing her baby in the arms of a man who clearly loved Felicity was enough to break Aria’s heart in the best way. Nash had been nothing but kind and funny and just plain wonderful since the afternoon they said their “I dos.”
And the way he looked at Aria herself…
Well, the way he looked at her made Aria feel more beautiful than she had in years, and a part of her couldn’t help wishing this was more than an elaborate game of pretend.
“ It’s just the wine,” Aria whispered to herself, forcing a friendly smile as Nash emerged from the bathroom with a freshly changed Felicity in his arms.
She did her best to ignore the electricity that leapt between her and Nash as their eyes met across the crowded restaurant.
In gray dress pants and a black button-down that emphasized his dark lashes, Nash looked even more amazing than usual. The man had eyelashes like a baby llama, long and sooty and curled just the slightest bit at the edges. They were gorgeous. He was gorgeous. There wasn’t a woman in the restaurant who hadn’t darted an appreciative glance Nash’s way while their date’s attention was elsewhere.
Not that Nash would have noticed. He seemed only to have eyes for Aria and Felicity.
“ So how was it?” Aria asked as Nash settled Felicity into her high chair and moved the baby’s toys back within reach. Felicity had been amazingly good all evening, gumming on pieces of their food and playing with her toys like she dined at fancy restaurants every other day.
“ From dirty to clean in thirty seconds
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