Love Notes & Lifelines (Single Dad Hotline Book 1) by Avery Maxwell

Author:Avery Maxwell [Maxwell, Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: That’s What She Said Publishing
Published: 2024-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BECK

My body is so stiff even a feather could crack me in two. Something primal, something white-hot and explosive, swirls through my body when Leo puts his hands on Stella.

Daisie whines at my side and scratches at the door.

“Relax,” Tabby says behind me. She places Ruby in her jumpy contraption and begins pulling out ingredients from the pantry, saying something about cupcakes, but I can’t pay attention. Not when Leo is draped around Stella’s limbs like a pretzel.

My mind went completely blank when I caught sight of Stella and Leo on the beach—blinded with jealousy is probably a better description.

These feelings for Stella are dangerous. Rationally, I know this, but it doesn’t negate the fact that I have them, or that Tabby sees it.

“I am relaxed,” I say through clenched teeth. I drop my arms to my sides when I hear myself and shake the tension out of my hands. Even my arms ache from crossing them for so long with every muscle straining as though I’d lifted three hundred pounds.

“I see that,” she says. Her laugh gives me a flashback to our youth, before everything went to hell, and it messes with my head. Allowing the good memories makes it harder to hold on to the betrayal that sent me away in the first place.

“What’s he doing?” I give up pretending and allow the growl in my voice to take root.

She glances up and shrugs. “He’s helping her with yoga poses.”

Tabby dumps pickle juice into her bowl and I scrunch up my nose in disgust, but Daisie, the damn traitor, sidles up to Tabby, sniffing the floor for castaways.

“I thought you were making cupcakes?” I clip on Daisie’s leash then open the door before she can barrel through it on her baby giraffe legs.

“I am,” she says gleefully.

A smile slides from one ear to the next and another memory hits me in the chest. This one is of her, Cally, and Aunt Imogen in this very kitchen. They always allowed her to experiment, even though seventy percent of the results sent us running for the trash can.

I can’t handle the messy emotions she draws from me, so I stare back out the open door with Daisie yanking and pulling on the leash. It takes me longer than it should to see that Emmy’s waving. Happily, excitedly waving with her entire body.

Mine isn’t nearly as energetic, but my heart kicks in my chest. The damn crazy pediatrician was right—she needed to be home. Daisie yelps, so I pull her to me and release the leash, knowing she won’t venture too far from Stella and Emmy anyway.

“How did Cally choose the pediatrician in Raleigh?” The answer doesn’t matter, but it’s been bothering me. Nothing about that woman would have appealed to the Cally I knew.

“Oh,” Tabby singsongs as I take up residence at the kitchen island. “She didn’t. I did. She was too sick to travel when she started making arrangements.”

That makes a lot more sense, and it also dumps a new bucket into my well of regret.

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