She scooped my hair back in that way she had. Gentle and loving, with a little extra tug for good measure to make me look up at her. “I love you, August.”
My eyes stung as I gripped her hips.
“I have for a long time. You make it so easy.” She gave me a wry smile. “Most of the time. When you’re not being grumpy or stubborn.”
“Even when I’m being grumpy, I’m always going to love you, Kin.”
Her lower lip trembled before she pressed them together.
“I really don’t care if it takes ten years for you to really believe it. I’m going to show you every day.” I pressed another kiss to her belly. “And this little ladybug will always be loved.” I let her shirt fall back into place and pulled her astride my lap. “Just as much as her mama.”
She cupped my face, kissing me softly. “How in the universe did I get so lucky?”
I stood with her in my arms. “I’ll remind you of that on the grumpy days.”
She laughed and wound her legs around my hips, her blue eyes lit with something other than tears now. “How long do we have?”
“You guys ready to go?” Ivy’s voice floated down the hallway.
I groaned. “I can’t wait for them to move into their house.”
“You certainly changed your tune about that.”
“Sharing a wall with my sister was only good to keep track of Rhiannon while Lucky Charms was out of town.”
“He still works out of town, Becks.”
“Now that I know about this drop in thing with the various apps, I definitely don’t need her all up in my business. Especially when that means you and I get to have way more naked time.” I squeezed her ass and let her slide down my body.
She gave me a squeeze back before she smacked my butt. “To be continued.”
“Count on it.” I nipped her lower lip. “We’re back here,” I called out.
“Are you clothed?” Ivy’s voice was suspicious.
“No,” I answered.
The footsteps stopped halfway down the hall.
Kinleigh shoved me away. “We’re decent.”
“I’ve got ice cream in the car for your brownies. Don’t want it to melt. It’s already hot in April, which means we’re in for one hell of a summer.” She peeked in the doorway. “What are we doing? I mean, you’re clothed, so what else are we doing in here?”
“Come look at what August made. He’s really outdone himself with this.”
I flushed as Kinleigh waxed poetic about my craftsmanship. I wasn’t exactly the guy who looked for praise, but it was nice to hear how much she loved it.
Two of the most important women in my life chattered about the future and expansive ideas about how much work they would be adding to my pile. They had their heads together over Ivy’s phone like the sisters they were.
Ivy tugged her out of the room with talk of baby ice cream flavors and ways to overlap our respective companies. It looked like I’d created a monster with my initial idea. But it spoke of the future and that was just fine by me.
“August?”
“Yeah, coming.” I opened the top drawer of my dresser and pulled out the last thing I’d worked on this week. I tucked the small gift into my inside pocket and followed them down the hall.
We rode together in Lucky Charms’ loaded SUV. Rhiannon was back to her old self with the antibiotics taking care of her ear infection. The girls were still bouncing ideas back and forth. I managed to add a few to the mix, but they were definitely blowing past me with a business plan.
I’d probably have a contract proposal for the bank by noon tomorrow with the way they were talking.