Teague (The Family Simon 4)

Harry scampered off to do his mother’s bidding and Teague watched as she licked her lips nervously, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ears. She picked at an invisible piece of lint and cleared her throat. She was doing everything but looking up at him and he moved closer, tugging on her chin so that she no choice.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “We’re okay, right?”

“We…yes, we’re okay,” she replied softly. “I just…last night…I’m kind of embarrassed. I mean, we’ve only known each other a few weeks and I…I’ve never…I think it was a mistake,” she said in a rush.

That pretty pink blush was now a deep red. He was going to have to shut this down right now.

“Last night wasn’t a mistake, Sabrina. Last night was about two people who needed to be with someone who mattered.” He needed her to understand and he hoped like hell he was making sense.

She tore her eyes from his, but Teague angled his head so that she couldn’t escape him. “Hey, I need you to know this. When it comes to women, I’ve never been the guy to stay…and trust me, last night I didn’t want to leave you. That’s a new one for me.”

He ran his thumb along her bottom lip. “I don’t know what this means, what us means exactly. But what I do know is that I would have spent the entire night with you. I wanted to have you again, Sabrina. I wanted to be inside you again because when I was inside you, all the noise stopped and a little bit of the darkness in my life disappeared.”

Damn. Had he just said that out loud? Shocked to realize just how much the night had meant, Teague took a moment to get his own shit together.

“Look I don’t know much, but I do know that last night wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about. It wasn’t casual or meaningless. And considering that we’re both kind of flying blind here, maybe we should just leave it at that and see where the day takes us.”

The kids burst into the cottage and ran past them, Morgan shouting, ‘Tigger’ as Harry giggled behind her.

“So we’re good?” Teague asked again, watching her carefully. When was the last time this had mattered so much?

After a few moments, she smiled—it was a hesitant, slow sort of thing—but it was enough. “We’re good,” she said softly.

“Okay,” he replied with a grin, loving the way she blushed when he winked. “I’ve got to put fuel in the boat and then we’re good to go.”

The four of them spent the day on the lake, cruising the sights, tubing and fishing. It was relaxing and busy and by

the time they docked in a town at the northern end of Lake Muskoka called Bala, the four of them had a hunger going on that would make a giant proud.

They decided to have dinner at a place called The Brig and Teague agreed to meet Sabrina and the kids once he secured the boat. It was starting to sprinkle raindrops and the wind had definitely picked up.

His cell phone buzzed at least five times while he was locking up and irritated, he withdrew the damn thing from his pocket. He headed up the dock and glanced at his phone. Three missed calls. Two from Richard Bowen, and one from his brother Jack.

He ignored Richard and returned his brother’s call only to get Jack’s voicemail. Teague left a brief message and pocketed his cell just as he entered The Brig. The place was hopping and he had to wait for the hostess to locate Sabrina and the kids. The fact that she assumed Sabrina was his wife and the twins were his children didn’t bother him at all. In fact when he spied the three of them sitting at their table, he thought that any man would be proud to call them family.

Should he be concerned with the direction his thoughts were going? That was anyone’s guess, but for now, as he’d told Sabrina, he was just going with it. Today had been too damn good to get caught up in all that background noise.

They ordered stone-baked pizza, nachos and cheese, and just as dessert was served, the sky—now trouble-gray as his father called it—opened up and one hell of a downpour erupted. Lightening flashed and ominous thunder broke overhead.

Harry and Morgan were wide eyed as they gazed out over the once calm lake. No longer serene, the water was rough and by the looks of it, the storm wasn’t letting up anytime soon.

Teague slid his hand over Sabrina’s. She was as white as a ghost. “You all right?”

“Right as rain,” she said slowly, her eyes on the water.

“Hey.” His voice was gentle and she dragged her gaze from the water. “We’ll sleep in the boat. It’s protected here in the harbor. We can go home in the morning. Or if that doesn’t work, I’ll look into renting a vehicle to get us home.”

“Sleep on the boat?” Harry piped in, slapping the table. “Did you hear that Morgan?”

“I want to sleep on the boat too!” Morgan’s big blue eyes flashed. “We could pretend it’s like that boat from the movie.”

“What boat is that?” Teague asked.

“Titanic,” they shouted together.

Sabrina sat back in her seat. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” Harry asked.