Unfortunately, this also left the upper part of my body—the upper part of the swimsuit—visible.
The wide grin on Remy’s face dropped the second his eyes registered what they were seeing. “What the actual fuck?”
Standing up with the dripping, giggling baby in my arms, I shook my head rapidly.
“I’ve got a suit on, I swear. I just didn’t want him to drown in the big tub because I don’t feel confident bathing him in it and couldn’t find the little one.”
Remy’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times as his eyes moved from his son back to me, then dropped down to my knees.
How I’d forgotten about the swimming suit—how was it even possible to forget about it—I don’t know, but as he did that, it hit home.
“It was a gag gift from Addy,” I screeched. “I don’t have moobies.” He looked at that part of the suit, then raised an eyebrow. “Or a hairy chest and Amazon forest down there.”
It was Toby who began laughing first, his crazy baby giggles echoing off the tiled walls. His dad’s mouth twitched as he continued staring at the suit, and then a bark of laughter burst out of him, and he threw his head back as his body shook with it.
Pulling the baby in front of me to hide the suit and kicking myself mentally for not doing it sooner, I buried my face in the side of his neck. “This is so embarrassing.”
Instead of giving me sympathy, he just continued laughing, his daddy’s hilarity fueling it further.
A duck egg blue towel appeared, and still laughing, Remy wrapped it around the front of his son’s body and tried to pull him away from me.
“Let him go, baby,” he chuckled, his eyes dancing when I glared up at him. “I’ll dry him off while you get changed.”
Shaking my head, I refused to give up my hold on the little boy who right now was my lifeline. “No, I’ll do it. You go and do whatever it is you do at this time of day.”
Toby was thoroughly enjoying this and let us know by squealing excitedly as we practically played tug of war with him.
“I won’t look, I promise. I’ll turn my back as soon as I have him.”
Narrowing my eyes at his laughing, lying face, I snapped, “The mirror’s behind you. You might turn away, but you’ll still be able to see it in the reflection. Just let me get out with him in front of me, or maybe you could get me a towel?” I brightened at the brilliant idea, a smile replacing my scowl.
“No can do, sorry. There’s only one towel in here because I put the others in the laundry.”
Looking behind him at the towel rack, I sighed at my shitty luck. “Curses.”
Weighing up my options, I came up with a solution. Still holding onto Toby, I carefully stepped out of the bath onto the mat, and once I was sure Remy had a proper hold of his son, I let go and dashed out of the bathroom.
Yes, I skidded on the corners and had to hurdle my puppy, but I made it to my room without face planting or getting stuck anywhere that may have required me to be cut out of it by a fireman. Again, my luck wasn’t great just now, so something like that happening wasn’t just me being dramatic.
I was going to kill my brother for taking my swimsuits, and then I was going to do the same to Addy for setting me up. I mean, you didn’t give someone a bathing suit that looked like the one I had on without the prospect of something like this happening to them, did you? At least, I wouldn’t.
Taking it off, I kicked it away from me and jumped into my bed and under the comforter, uncaring that my body was still wet. Life would be a breeze if that was the worst of my problems.
Ten minutes later, I could still hear Remy laughing as he got Toby dressed. The humiliation finally began to lessen, and I found my mouth twitching with a smile. I hadn’t heard him laugh like that over the last eight months, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t worth it… ish.
NINE
SANTANA
It’d been a week since the swimsuit incident, and I was working hard to exceed my daily word count, help on the ranch, and look after Toby. Given that Remy looked like he was going to explode or puke when he had to multitask, I didn’t mind juggling the three things, but I was exhausted.
With Toby down for his nap, I read through what I’d written late last night, my face scrunched with disgust. It was shit.
“Maybe it was the adrenaline from how we were hiding from whoever had killed Yan, but what I felt for her as I moved in and out of her was almost overwhelming.