“Who knows? I keep hoping one of these days he might really talk to me. We used to be close when we were kids. We grew apart when I went to Boston and he got married.”

She could hear the unspoken regret in his words. “Maybe now that you’re back in town, you can bridge that gap.”

“I suppose we’ll see.”

“We should clean up this mess.”

“You’re right. We probably should.” He made no move to get up. Rather, he stared at her and ran his fingers through her hair. “I didn’t expect to get time alone with you in the middle of game night madness.”

“I didn’t expect that either.”

“I’m worried about Hannah and the baby,” he said. “Thirty-two weeks is early.”

“It really is, but they’ll get the best possible care. Hopefully, the baby will be fine.”

“I can’t imagine any other outcome. Poor Hannah has already had more than her share of grief in this lifetime.” As he spoke, he continued to play with Emma’s hair and stare at her mouth with obvious desire to kiss her.

She should send him home. She should go upstairs and sleep next to Simone in case she needed her during the night. She should clean up the huge mess from game night. She did none of those things. Rather, she licked her lips in anticipation of his kiss and then wrapped her arms around him as he came down on top of her right there on the sofa with the fire crackling in the background.

Chapter 9

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.

—H. Jackson Brown Jr.

This kiss picked right up where they’d left off earlier, with all the same hungry desperation she’d come to expect and crave from him. For the longest time, they only kissed, and then his hand slipped under her sweater and up to cup her breast through her bra.

Her nipple was still sensitive from earlier, and the stimulation had her moaning against his lips.

He broke the kiss to nuzzle her neck. “I can’t believe how badly I want you again, Emma.”

Needy for more of the incredible way he made her feel, she tried to get closer to him.

“Let’s go upstairs,” he said.

“We shouldn’t.”

“I know, but we have so little time left together, and they’ll be gone most of the night. Even if the hospital tries to kick them out, they’ll want to be with Hannah.”

“You’re like the devil leading me astray.”

“So that’s a yes?”

Emma hesitated, but only for a second. “Yes. But we have to clean up first, or they’ll know we jumped each other the second they left.”

Groaning, he took hold of her hand and pressed it against his erection. “You’re really going to squander this perfectly good boner?”