Page 67 of The Fiancé Hoax

“We made breakfast!” Lily said. “Just Eva and me.”

“You did? Wow, this looks amazing, girls!” Eva pulled me down into the chair across from Cooper. I sat obediently.

Cooper smiled at me. “Hungry?”

“Very hungry.”

I blushed and quickly looked down at the table. We had both worked up an appetite last night, but we weren't going to talk about it now.

“Let's eat!” Lily grabbed her spoon and dug into her bowl of mixed berries.

“Yum, this is perfect,” I said, putting the cloth napkin in my lap. “Could you pass the butter?” Eva pushed the dish in my direction, and I added a pat to the breakfast waffle on the plate before me. “I didn't know you girls could cook waffles.”

“Yeah, it's easy,” Eva said between mouthfuls. “Monica taught us how to use the toaster.”

I smiled. Right. Toaster waffles. I felt a little silly, thinking they knew how to cook regular waffles from batter. I still had a lot to learn about kids, I supposed.

Still, the girls had gone all out. They had set four places perfectly, made the waffles, and filled the bowls with berries. Pretty impressive.

I took a sip of orange juice.

“Daddy helped us pour the juice,” Lily said. “But we did everything else.”

“Well, I'm very proud of you both,” Cooper said. “It was a really nice thought to surprise us with breakfast today.”

Eva cleared her throat theatrically.

“Wouldn't it be nice if we had breakfast like this together every day?” She looked between me and Cooper. “Forever?”

My eyes met Cooper's.

He shifted in his seat. “Yes, having breakfast together is a nice treat. It's a little hard to pull off on weekdays, though. You girls have school and I have to get to work.”

I swallowed a bite of waffle without a word. Cooper always knew how to answer diplomatically.

“Well, there's dinner, too. We could have dinner together. Every single day. The four of us.” Eva lifted her eyebrows expectantly.

Cooper gave her a smile meant to acknowledge her, but he didn't say anything. And soon, the topic of conversation changed as the girls babbled excitedly about their weekend activities.

I snuck a few glances at Cooper. He did the same, and our eyes lingered on each other.

Our new plan to maintain a sexual relationship thrilled me.

But I agreed with Eva. Sharing a meal with the Pierces everyday sounded just about perfect.

18

COOPER

I stood in the hallway of my kids’ elementary school wearing a goofy grin on my face.

That happened a lot lately. I couldn't help it. Felicity had that effect on me.

Nearby, Eva was chatting excitedly with her friends. I was one of the adult chaperones for her class museum trip, and her teacher was running late in getting everything ready for us to leave.

Normally, the delay would irritate me. But not today. I had a surprisingly good attitude about it. After all, what was the rush?

It was four days after Felicity and I had agreed to a physical relationship, and I was already feeling more content. Each night since then, after we put the girls to bed, Felicity and I had amazing sex in my bed. Usually multiple times.