Vegas, Baby - Volume 2

A knock broke the heady atmosphere and reminded us that we weren’t as alone as we felt. “Go away,” I growled loudly. “We’re busy working!”

“Working? If that’s work, you’re doing it wrong,” Belle snorted from the other side of the door. Another deep voice rumbled something, and I assumed it was Griffith. “What? I’m just saying,” she replied innocently to whatever he’d said.

I sighed and pulled out of my wife’s warmth but smiled widely when I heard the high-pitched squeal of my baby girl. Ariel and I dressed quickly, then once I was satisfied that she was covered up, with the exception of her panties in my pocket, I opened the door.

Ariel rushed out and scooped Faith out of Belle’s arms and started cooing lovingly. She acted as though they’d been apart for months, and it was cute as hell. As I watched them, and pictured our life in seven months when we’d have another little one, I would double dog dare anyone to find a more perfect life than ours.Extra EpilogueArielEavesdropping on my hubby when he was doing stuff with our girls was one of my favorite pastimes. I loved listening to my favorite people in the world as they interacted with each other. It always made me all gooey inside over how sweet my big guy was with his baby girls. Especially when he was doing something adorable—like letting our oldest daughter boss him around while they baked the Madeleines I’d taught him to make years ago. Pressing my back against the wall of the mudroom leading to our kitchen, I bit my lip to stop a giggle from bubbling out.

“You’re not doing it right, Daddy.” Faith heaved an exaggerated sigh, and then the stand mixer whirred back to life. “You have to beat the eggs and sugar for two more minutes or else they won’t have enough air whipped in them.”

After all of the baking lessons I’d given Maddox throughout the years—it took lots of attempts because we tended to rip our clothes off whenever we were alone together—he was well-versed in how to make my favorite little butter cakes. But he had no problem acting as though he didn’t know what he was doing since Faith enjoyed bossing him around so much. “It’s a good thing you’re helping me make these. My surprise for your mom would’ve been ruined without you.”

“Silly daddy,” Hope giggled. “Mommy won’t care how good they taste if we’re the ones who made them for her.”

“Because she loves us this much.” I closed my eyes, easily picturing Maddox spreading his arms wide like he always did when he said that.

“But we can still make them the right way,” Faith insisted.

She reminded me of her daddy when she got super stubborn and bossy. I slapped my hand over my mouth but was too late to quiet my laughter. The mixer turned off, and my sexy husband’s arms wrapped around me. He claimed my lips in a brief but hard kiss before calling out, “We’re in luck, girls! Mommy is here to help us.”

“Yay! Mommy!” Hope yelled, running over to take my hand and drag me into the kitchen. “We’re at the best part.”

I glanced at the counter and wasn’t surprised to see three mixing bowls lined up perfectly in a row. Faith grinned at me, holding her favorite pink spatula. “Hi, Mommy. We’re getting ready to add the dry stuff into the eggs and sugar.”

I ran my hand down my oldest daughter’s dark-red hair and smiled. “Everything looks perfect. Good job, sweetie.”

“I did the lemon zest,” Hope boasted, tugging on my hand.

Smiling down at her, I licked my lips. “Mmm, the hint of lemon is what makes the recipe so yummy.”

“And the vanilla,” Faith chimed in as she lifted the bowl with the dry ingredients to start folding it into the beaten mixture of eggs, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla. Maddox came up behind her to steady the bowl, and she twisted her head to flash him a big grin. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“I wanna do the next part.” I settled my hand on Hope’s lower back while she climbed back on a stool so she could reach the mixing bowls. The girls were only seven and eight, but Faith had already outgrown the need for one. Hope wasn’t too far behind, which wasn’t a surprise since Maddox and I were both tall. She had another inch to go before she could safely work in the kitchen without a stool.

I helped Hope mix half of the batter into the melted butter, and then Maddox watched over Faith while she poured that back into the batter and blended it all together. Once everything was combined into one bowl, I clapped my hands together. “Okay, girls. This needs to chill for about an hour. How about you go ahead and wash up and play outside until it’s time to brush the pan with melted butter?”