Mine to Promise (Southern Wedding #6)(51)

“Hey.” His voice sends shivers up my body. “What time will you be over to drop off Avery?”

“Where are we going?” I ask him, and he just laughs.

“I told you it was a surprise.” He laughs again.

“Okay. What should I wear?” I ask him and his laughter stops.

“If I tell you nothing, what will you do?” His voice comes out so low that if he was in front of me, he would see my cheeks get all pink.

“I’ll be at Sofia’s at six,” I tell him, not answering his question. “Bye.” I hang up the phone and go over to my bedroom, opening up the closet.

“What screams I want to have sex with you, but I don’t want you to know I want to have sex with you?” I ask the hangers in front of me. I move one hanger at a time, contemplating what I’m working with. The only thing I have that is even remotely sexy is the light-green skirt I bought through one of those Instagram ads one night. I grab a white, silky, sleeveless, tank bodysuit that goes very low in the back.

I take a shower, making sure everything is cleaned up. I can hear them laughing in my head. “If I get into an accident and they have to cut off my clothes, do they want to see that? No.” I try to avoid looking at myself in the mirror because deep down inside, I know the reason I did that was just in case. I let my hair loose, using my hands to shake out the curls, and opt to just add some mascara to my lashes.

I slip on the tank body suit, clipping the two snaps together before I slide on the skirt. It is tight on my hips and goes down to my midcalf in the back, but the front is cut up to the middle of my thigh. My whole right leg is out, and when I walk, the other leg comes out, too.

“You’re pretty, Mommy,” Avery says when she comes into the bedroom.

“Thank you.” I smile at her before slipping into see-through, low chunky heels.

At five thirty, I grab Avery’s bag and my clutch purse I planned for tonight as we make it down to the car. I try not to second-guess every single thing as I drive over to Sofia’s.

I pull into the driveway and see Stefano is already there. I open the back door, and Avery jumps out as I grab her bag. She runs in ahead of me to the front door, ringing the bell and then looking over her shoulder at me.

The front door is pulled open by Sofia, who smiles down at Avery, and then looks at me and her

mouth hangs open as her eyes go big. “She came to play.” She puts her hands over her head and claps them.

“I want to play!” Avery yells, jumping up and down.

“Uncle Matty got you a present,” Sofia says as Avery runs into the house as if she’s here all the time.

“Well, well, well.” Sofia folds her arms over her chest. “Damn, girl, you.”

“Oh my God.” I hear from behind her and see Matty putting his fist in front of his mouth, hiding the smile. “He’s going to lose his mind. I hope the Ring cam catches it.”

I don’t have a chance to ask him what he means because Avery comes running back. “Momma, they bought me a tea set,” she says, “to have tea.” She grabs her bag. “It’s a good thing I brought the tiara.” She unzips the top of her bag and takes out the tiara gently and puts it on her head. “I knew it was going to be a special day.” She turns to Sofia and asks her, “Can we do the tea party now?” Sofia just nods her head.

I look from them over to Stefano, who is just looking at me, his eyes moving up and down as he takes me in. If I thought my nerves were shot before, that look just pushes me out into orbit. It also makes other parts of me really happy that I shaved. “Daddy,” Avery says, walking to him, “I’m having a tea party.” She started calling him just Daddy two days ago. At the beginning she would call him Dad Stefano, but then one day, she was just like Daddy.

He takes his eyes off me and squats down in front of her. “That’s fun. Tomorrow, how about we have one at the house? I’ll come and get you after breakfast.”

“Okay,” she agrees with him before she turns to Matty. “I can’t have too hot water. I’m going to burn my skin off,” she informs Matty, who just nods at her.

“Okay, get out of here,” Sofia tells Stefano, who walks outside and I take him in. He walks down the steps wearing blue dress shorts and a light-blue button-down linen shirt, with the top two buttons open at the top.

“Hi,” he says softly when he stands in front of me. All I can see is him and all I can smell is his scent, and it makes my mouth water at the same time certain parts of my anatomy want to feel his touch. “Where are your keys?” he asks me, his teeth clenched together. My hand comes up and shakes a bit when I open it. He grabs the keys from my hand and turns to toss them to Matty. “See you guys tomorrow.” He then slips his hand into mine before turning and rushing us both back to his car.

“Call me if you need anything,” I instruct over my shoulder at Sofia as my feet try to keep up with Stefano, but the door slams in my face. “That was rude.” I look over at him but don’t take my hand out of his.

“No,” he says, stopping by the passenger door of his car, right in front of me, boxing me in. He puts his hands beside my head, stepping in closer to me. “What would be rude is me pushing you against this car and finding out what you are wearing under that dress.” His voice is low as he presses into me a bit. “That would be rude.”