“I’m already there,” I blurt out.

She laughs. “Do you think you might want to be a father to my kids? Like an all-the-way kind of dad? They have dads, you know that, but they’re not active in their lives.”

My heart swells in my chest, and I have to blink hard. “Yep,” I say past the lump in my throat. “I’d adopt them, if they’d let me, and be an all-the-way kind of dad.” I roll her over and settle between her thighs again. But I just want to look into her face. “And you can be an all-the-way kind of mom, and we can be ecstatically happy with the three we were blessed with. I already love them.”

She brushes my hair back from my face. “You do, don’t you?”

“I think I fell in love with them around the same time I fell in love with you. On day one.” I laugh because I’m baring my soul here and it feels damn uncomfortable.

Sky rocks her hips under me, and I slide through her wetness. “Make love to me, Matt,” she whispers.

But then there’s a clatter, and the sound of screaming voices in the hallway. “Oh crap,” she says, scurrying to sit up. “Seth must have gone and gotten the girls early.” She pulls the sheet off me, leaving me bare on my back in the bed. She stops and looks down at my dick. “Um…” she says. She points to my manhood, and I swear it pulses like it’s putting on a show for her. “What’s that?”

“That would be my dick, and if you don’t stop looking at it, I’m going to lock the door and use it to do wonderful things to you.”

She scoffs. “I’ve seen a dick before,” she says. “I meant the piercing.”

“That’s for you to lead me around by,” I say. I chuckle.

She laughs and covers her mouth. “Does it, like, get in the way?”

I shake my head and go get my boxers. “You’ll love it. I promise. It has magical powers.”

She arches her brow. “All that from a piercing?”

“I was talking about my dick having magical powers.” She steps into her panties, and I heave a sigh. So close to the Promised Land. “I’ll show you one day when we don’t have kids around.”

“You mean like never,” she says with a laugh.

I laugh, too, and swipe a hand down my face. “Never say never,” I murmur. I put on my boxers and jeans, and then the door opens, and Mellie and Joey roll in just as I tug my shirt over my head. They jump onto the bed, and my moment with Sky is over. Or has it just begun? Hell, I can’t tell.

Skylar

I park my car in the parking lot of the rehab center and drop my forehead to the steering wheel. I don’t know why I’m here. Except for the fact that Dad asked me to come. I could have said no. I should have said no.

But I didn’t.

I approach the desk and ask for my mom’s room, but they lead me to the garden. The nurse leaves me outside the double doors and shuts them behind me. Ahead lies a large brick patio with deck chairs. It is littered with big, poufy furniture that looks really comfortable. I look around. I don’t see Mom. But then a woman gets up from a lounger, and I look closely. It’s my mother. Her face is stripped bare of makeup, and her hair is down around her shoulders. It’s held back from her face with a clip, and I can’t remember ever seeing her look so natural. Only it’s not natural for her all. It’s completely unnatural.

“Mom?” I say. She motions toward the nearby rocking chair.

She sits down and pulls her legs up, hooking her arms around her knees as if she wants to draw up inside herself. She doesn’t lean forward to give me those air kisses that don’t mean anything. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act without them. I sit down and grip my knees tightly.

She lays her head back against the seat and tilts toward me. “I’m glad you came,” she says quietly. “Surprised, but glad.” She smiles.

I’m immediately jarred because there’s no malice or artifice. And instead of looking at my clothes, my makeup, or my hair, she’s looking at my face. I purposefully didn’t dress up today because I wanted to give her plenty to pick on, with the hopes she would leave my kids alone.

“Why are you surprised?” I ask.

She shrugs. “If I were you, I wouldn’t have come.” She looks into my eyes, and my heart leaps into my chest, and then it gathers in my throat. I have to swallow hard to move past it.

My mother’s feet are bare, and I see fuzzy slippers lying beneath her on the pavers. They have Oscar the Grouch on them, and my mind is blown. “Nice slippers,” I say.

Mom smiles. “Your dad brought me those.” She snorts. I have never heard any such noise come from my perfect mother’s nose. “They’re kind of fitting for the situation.”

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She puts her feet down, sliding them into those crazy slippers she normally wouldn’t be caught dead wearing, and runs her hands up and down her arms. “I’m better today. The first week was kind of hard. A lot of puking my guts out and even more time spent wishing I could.”

My mom just said the word puke.

She narrows her eyes at me. “What’s on your mind, Sky?”

I shake my head. “Nothing.” If I could verbalize it, I still wouldn’t. She’s been fragile my whole life, and just because she doesn’t seem fragile right this second doesn’t mean she’s not.

“Your dad comes by every day,” she says quietly.