She stopped herself abruptly.
She might’ve owned Reese Ebersole once upon a time, but she did not now. She remembered how it had been, though. At the sight of him leaning against the counter with a glass of red wine in his hand, one he was not drinking because he was holding it out to her as she entered the kitchen…at the sight of this man who’d left such a space, unfillable by anyone else, all Corinne could think about was owning him again.
“Hey,” she said as he crossed to her. She offered her cheek for a kiss, aware that her kids were there with them, even if they didn’t seem to be paying much attention. She took the glass of wine and sipped. “Mmm. When did you get here?”
“About ten minutes ago. Peyton was telling me about her school project.”
Corinne hid her surprise. Of the two kids, Peyton was far more reticent than Tyler, who was already slinging off his coat and chattering at Caitlyn about the television program the two of them were currently binge watching. “She was?”
Peyton looked up from her ever-present cell phone. “Yeah, Reese said he could get me some contacts for job shadowing. I need to do three different careers.”
“I can take her to Philly with me one day, get her shadowing in the promotions department for this small kosher grocery store chain I own. If that’s okay with you,” he added, meeting Corinne’s gaze.
“Isn’t seventh grade a little too early for job shadowing?” she asked Peyton, who rolled her eyes.
“Mom, I’m in advanced careers class, remember?
“Ah. Right. In that case, that sounds great. Hey, dinner smells awesome. Thanks, Caitlyn.” Corinne let herself relax against Reese for a moment as her sister pulled the pan of meatloaf from the oven with a flourish.
Everything about this felt comfortable. Easy and natural, she thought as the kids finished setting the table with a minimum of arguing and Reese poured the adults all another glass of wine and the five of them settled around Corinne’s kitchen table to eat. She’d never seen Reese interacting with kids, and in their time together they’d both been so focused on themselves the subject of marriage and kids had never come up. He was good with them, though. Friendly without being overbearing or trying too hard. He made them laugh. Caitlyn too.
He fit in this family.
When he caught her gaze across the table, both of them smiled.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Dinner finished and cleared, the kids had been supervised with evening chores and homework and then bed. Corinne had refused a third glass of wine with a laugh and taken Reese into the den to watch a movie while her sister courteously disappeared upstairs. Now Corinne sat with her feet on Reese’s lap while she scrolled through the Interflix list. His fingers curled around her instep, kneading away aches and pains she hadn’t noticed until he was making them better.
“This,” she said quietly and let the remote settle into her lap. “This is so nice.”
He turned his head to look at her. “Very domestic.”
“It’s where most people end up,” she told him.
Reese smiled a little, working his fingers up a bit higher on her calf, massaging tight muscles. “I never really thought I would, to be honest.”
“No?”
He shook his head. “No. I worked too hard. Didn’t ever put in the time with anyone, really.”
“You didn’t ever even come close to getting married?” Corinne shifted so he could get to her other calf.
“No.” He paused. “Are you sorry you did?”
It was her turn to shake her head. “I have two amazing kids. So, no. I don’t regret it. I’m sorry about the way things turned out, if only because at the end it was ugly for a bit, and it never feels easy to hurt someone. But I’m not sorry I got married.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. “What happened?”
“Oh.” She laughed. “We fell out of love, I guess. And then he fell in love with someone else.”
“He cheated on you?”
“I never asked him, but yeah. I think so.” Corinne shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s happy with his new wife and the kids are okay, and I…well. Here I am with you.”
Reese let his hand slide a little higher to caress her knee. “Do you ever think you’ll want to do it again?”
“Get married?” Surprised, she blinked. “I don’t know. Do…you?”
His answer was a smile. She poked her toes into his side, hard enough to make him wriggle away. He captured her foot and lifted it to his mouth to kiss.
It was way too early to even think about such a thing. She moved to kiss him, though, then rested her head on his shoulder. His hand came up to pet her hair, slowly. She breathed in the good, clean scent of him.
“This is so nice,” she whispered.
His kiss pressed against her hair. “Yeah.”