“But…” Ade’s whole face lifted again. “But I see you all the time now and it makes mehappy!” He bounced slightly on his knees like the words gave him permission to be excited again.
Adair smiled, for real this time but behind it was that ache. Thatshit-I-know-I-wasn’t-thereasmuch as I could have beenache. ThatI’m-trying-nowache.
“I’m happy too, lil’ man,” he said, pulling Ade in and messing up his hair just to hear him laugh again. “Daddy’s tryna be around more. I mean that.”
“Okay,” Ade nodded seriously. “Can we still play one more game though?”
“One more,” Adair promised, picking the controller back up.
After, he started Ade’s bath then went to clean up their dinner mess, still thinking about the way his son’s little voice had dropped earlier.“I don’t see you even when we were home together.”That shit lodged itself in his chest like a nail. Not just because it was true, but because his boy had said it with noanger. No resentment. Just sadness. Kids didn’t lie. They just told you what they felt.
Before that conversation, for dinner, he made fish sticks and mac and cheese and sat with him while they ate at the table.
Ade talked a mile a minute about something he saw on YouTube Kids, something about underwater volcanoes and space jellyfish. Adair nodded, laughed in the right places, and soaked it all in. Not just what Ade was saying, but who he was becoming. Every day, he got taller. Wiser. More thoughtful. It wasn’t just a phase. It was childhood unfolding in real time and Adair didn’t want to miss it anymore.
Once he was done cleaning the kitchen and living room, they did bath time, pajamas, two books—both of which Ade insisted on reading out loud tonight and a soft light left on in the corner. By the time Adair pulled the covers up to his chin, Ade was already half asleep.
“Love you, Daddy,” he murmured.
“Love you more, man. Get some rest.”
Adair lingered in the doorway, watching him breathe. Then he turned off the hallway light and went to this bedroom. He stood there remembering the last she was in there. The last time he got to touch her.
God.
That night had gutted him. In the best, worst, most intimate way. It wasn’t sex. Not even close. It was something rawer than that. She’d let him in. Not just physically but spiritually. Like her soul cracked open just enough for him to see inside again.
The way she moved under him. The way she whispered his name. The way her hands clutched his back, her lips trembled against his neck, her thighs trembled around his waist. She’d tried to be guarded. Had warned him with her silence that this didn’t fix anything but her body said something else. Her body told the truth and so did his. He’d spent years trying to forgethow she tasted. How she sounded. How she arched into him when she was right there, on the edge of moaning and meaning it but that night?
That night erased the space between them.
Space that he wanted to close within them completely.
Adair wanted her back.
Not just in bed.
Not just in co-parenting.
He wanted her back in his life.
And for once…he wanted to do it right.
He went to the living room and grabbed his phone. For a second, he stared at the screen, before he tapped it, his mind shifted—just for a beat.
The firm looped the past in once Corrine’s name landed on that meeting invite, and Sabine saw it, it was going to hit like a punch to the chest.
Adair would be the one who let it happen. He couldn’t let that be the first time Sabine found out. Couldn’t let her walk into a professional space—herspace—only to be blindsided by a woman who once played a role in destroying their marriage. No matter how clean the deal looked on paper, emotionally? It was messy.
He needed to get ahead of it.
Needed to say something before their first sit-down. Before she looked across a negotiation table and saw everything she’d finally started to rise from staring back at her in designer heels and a smug little smile.
Because no matter how much he was trying to make this about business, Sabine had every right to take it personal. He opened his contacts and scrolled until he found Narri. He hesitated a little because he hated his ass. Rightfully so but he needed her now.
Thankfully she answered on what seemed like the last ring.
“What?” she said, dry as ever.