“Excuse me, Rory?”
“Yes, Gracie.” I crouched down so I wasn’t towering over her. I didn’t have to crouch too far. I was the closest adult to her height-wise.
“Can we play princess again?” Her big eyes were so sweet that my heart melted a little.
“Yes, we can absolutely play princess again.”
“Me too!” Fiona yelled, raising her hand.
“You, too,” I said, messing with her red curls. She laughed and hugged me around the neck. I picked her up and carried her into the living room and sat down with her on my lap.
“They’ve been talking about you non-stop, asking when you were coming back. I think you’ve got some new best friends,” Tate said, picking Gracie up and throwing her in the air. She screamed for him to stop, but once he did, she begged for him to do it again. Fiona sat on my lap and tried to touch my earrings.
“Pretty,” she said.
“Thank you.”
“Does anyone want anything? The girls and I made cookies.” At the sound of the last word, the girls both perked up. We all agreed that we wanted cookies, so she brought them out. They had obviously been made by little hands and weren’t uniform in size, but they were delicious. I’d have to ask April for that recipe so I could badger Sloane into making them.
Speaking of Sloane, I was going to start paying her back for bringing the clothes over to the hotel tomorrow at the spa and then again when I bought her brunch. I didn’t know how long she was going to milk it, but knowing Sloane, pretty long. I was going to let her, because I missed her and I did need some girl time.
The conversation flowed easier this time, and Lucah and I started talking about hiding our relationship, the early days, and the job interviews. The girls were quiet because they were stuffing their faces with cookies when their mother wasn’t looking. Or maybe she just pretended not to see.
“I’m shocked you didn’t file a restraining order against him,” Tate said as I recounted some of the things he’d said in the interview. I left out the part that Lucah had pretty much set my panties on fire when he’d walked in the room. They really didn’t need to know that.
“I thought about it. He was just so sure of himself. I didn’t find out until later it was because he already had the job and the interview was just a formality. I couldn’t understand why all these people were telling me I should hire him. I thought he’d either paid them off or slept with all of them.” I could say that in front of kids, right?
“Who’s to say I didn’t?” Lucah said, grabbing another cookie, breaking it in half and giving me part of it.
“Even Hal Marksman?”
“Never underestimate the power of older men,” Lucah said, winking. I could feel myself blushing as Tate and April watched.
“Well, I hope he called you the next day and didn’t just ditch you.”
“I’ll never tell. Ours is a special love that you can’t understand.” I shook my head and contemplated shoving a cookie in his mouth so he’d stop talking.
“And this is a topic that isn’t for little ears,” I said, poking him. “Sorry. I can’t control him now that I’m no longer his boss. Not that I could control him then.”
“You tried.” He patted my arm as if he was consoling me.
“I did.” He crossed his eyes at me. I did the same. Sometimes that was all you could do.
Then the girls saw us doing it and they wanted to try, so we spent the next ten minutes trying to explain it to them with hilarious results. There were more tantrums when the cookies were taken away, but then April got out her iPad and started a show for them to watch in a corner.
“That should amuse them for a few minutes until they fight about who gets to hold it. Two is a lot, but I have no idea what I’m going to do when it’s three.” Wait, what? April’s eyes went wide and she clamped her hand over her mouth.
“Oops. That wasn’t supposed to be public knowledge yet. I just took the test two days ago. We always wait until the second trimester, just in case. But I guess I already have baby brain.” Lucah got up and gave her a huge hug and I did the same.
“That’s so exciting,” I said, and I meant it, even though I couldn’t imagine having three under the age of five at once. God bless her.
“It wasn’t exactly planned, but it wasn’t exactly avoided, so I guess that’s what I get,” April said in my ear. “Just gotta roll with the punches life doles out, right?” No wonder she looked frazzled. She and Tate went to get more drinks and I went and sat on Lucah’s lap.
“Congrats again. Unkie Lu.”
“Thanks, Sunshine.” He gave me a soft kiss and then motioned for me to let him up when the girls started fighting with the iPad and Gracie tried to whack Fiona with it. He broke up the fight and got them resituated and propped the iPad up on a pillow so they could both see it.
Watching him with them made me wonder all kinds of things. About us, about our future. About our potential ginger babies.