Complete Abandon by Julia Kent Read Free Book Online

aimlessly but ready to explode on impact, far off course. And then he realized people were speaking to him.
    “Helloooo!” Josie waved one arm, the other struggling to put on the baby carrier Laura was offering. “Earth to Mike!”
    He ran a hand through his freshly-clipped hair. It felt good to have shorter hair, no beard, and a clean, pressed shirt. What joy the little things in life held. “Sorry. Thinking.”
    “Too much of that is bad for you,” Laura joked, eyes panicked. Dylan was loading their overnight bags into the jeep, and he could tell from the tension in Laura’s voice that she was about to—
    “C’mere,” Mike said, pulling her into his arms. The sobs poured out. Alex now held Jillian and deftly turned away so she wouldn’t see her mother crying. Finding a blanket, he put it on the floor, and then gently set her down. As Mike soothed Laura and smoothed her hair, he realized he hadn’t been this close to her, bodies touching the full line from shoulder to knee, in far, far too long. Recent hugs had been more perfunctory. Kisses had been simple pecks.
    That was far too little.
    No more of too little.
    They deserved caresses and pats, longing looks and playful smacks, deep kisses in the kitchen, pushed up against the counter, tongues and hands exactly where they should be, holding flesh and promises of rendezvous later in the night between the sheets. He wanted frenzied quickies during naptime and slow baths in the huge Jacuzzi on the deck, the first whispers of snow in the mountains hinting at a winter wonderland, making love beneath an audience of stars in the inky sky.
    Watching Alex play with the baby, who was decked out in a red and white striped outfit with hearts sprinkled randomly in the cloth, he closed his eyes as Laura reached up and wiped her eyes, laughing sheepishly. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked. “I want to go away. I need to be with you and Dylan.”
    Josie grunted next to them, wide chocolate eyes beseeching as the tangled multi-colored cloth and brass rings of the baby sling twisted her arm behind her. “Is this really some sort of strange sex toy? Because I’m totally tied up now.”
    That got Laura chuckling, a genuine sound of amusement that made Mike feel better about having her pull away from him, the loss of the heat of her skin against his making him all the more determined that tonight needed to be theirs—nothing but the three of them.
    “Let me unravel you,” she said as she helped her friend align the contraption. Alex turned back and waggled his eyebrows at Josie in a comically overdone lascivious look that made Mike burst out laughing, his body suddenly content. More than content—right. He felt right. Everything would be just fine, he knew, if he and Dylan could get Laura out of her head space and into a more sensorial, explorative frame of mind.
    With the set up she was about to discover, there was no way she could stay in her own mind.
    He and Dylan had put a lot of effort into that .
    Laura unraveled Josie and was poring over a four-page, single-spaced, handwritten set of notes, complete with diagrams and charts, for how to take care of Jillian for the next eighteen hours.
    Josie shot Mike a look that said, Kill me now .
    He shrugged. She mouthed, You owe me .
    No kidding , he mouthed back.
    “You guys taking mime lessons?” Dylan asked, hands full of Laura’s purse and her coat.
    “Done packing?” Mike asked, avoiding the silly question.
    “We’re ready to go!” Dylan replied.
    Laura looked up, eyes wide, hands reaching for Jillian. Alex gently transferred the babbling baby to her mother. Laura’s half smile vanished, her cheeks going pale, as the moment had come.
    She had to trust Josie and Alex to watch the baby.
    But most of all, she had to trust Mike and Dylan to go back to that time when it had just been them. To give herself a portion of a day to be Laura. Just Laura .
    They wouldn’t be Mommy and Daddy and Daddy and roommate and