Weston leaned down to peer into his son’s face. “Isn’t Auntie Jenna silly, Carter?” The sight of such a tatted up badass being sweet and silly with a little baby would have made me laugh if it wasn’t already busy making my ovaries go boom.
“Auntie Jenna?” she gasped, her eyes going wide as she stared at Carter and me. Then her gaze swiveled between the baby and her brother, going back and forth as understanding dawned on her face.
“What?” she squealed. “How?”
“The usual way,” Weston chuckled.
“Ugh,” Jenna groaned. “Thanks for the image. You know what I meant.”
“Jenna, this is Aspen,” he answered, as though it would explain everything. “Aspen, this is my baby sister Jenna.”
“Aspen? The reason you ditched me the whole weekend you were in town last year?” Her eyes swung to me and Carter before returning back to Weston again. “I can’t believe you didn’t have her call me while you were gone. I could have helped out with all the pregnancy and baby stuff! You’re such a jerk!”
She punched him in the shoulder and elbowed him out of the way before wrapping her arms around Carter and me.
“I’m so sorry my brother is such a dunce, Aspen, but it’s great to finally meet you.” She was a whirlwind of energy, lifting Carter from my arms and moving towards the kitchen. “Luckily, I made a big breakfast casserole so I’d have leftovers for my fiancé tomorrow for Sunday brunch. That means there’s plenty for the three of us, and I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it up to him in the morning.”
“Shit, Jenna,” Weston hissed. “You’re going to ruin my fucking appetite with talk like that.”
“It’s no less than you deserve for keeping Aspen from me for so long and showing up on my doorstep with a surprise baby,” she teased.
“It was kind of a surprise to him too,” I corrected. “There was some kind of mix-up with his email and he never got any of the messages I sent while he was gone.”
“Ohmigosh, seriously?”
Weston explained what had happened over breakfast, filling us in on how he’d asked his handler to look into it for him. The glint in his eyes and growl in his voice made it clear he was beyond pissed at whomever had kept us apart all this time. I would have been afraid of what he’d do to them if I didn’t want time alone in a room with them myself.
“I finally understand why you asked me to hook you up with a realtor,” she said, looking over her shoulder as she loaded the dishwasher. She nodded her head towards a stack of papers on the corner of the counter. “I found the perfect person to help and he’s already sent over some listings I thought you’d like.”
A realtor? Was he moving here?
Weston rifled through the papers and chuckled. “He’s going to have to start all over because none of these will work.”
“Then it’s a good thing I had him include one home I would kill for you to take a look at. Check out the one on the bottom,” Jenna told him with a smirk.
“Oh yes,” Weston murmured as he perused the listing. “This will do quite nicely.”
“Yippee!” Jenna cheered, looking at her watch. “That’s great because he’s going to be here any minute now and that’s the first place he’s going to show you.”
“I’m glad to see you’re still as crazy as ever.”
“Crazy smart, you mean,” she corrected.
“You’re going house hunting?” I asked, feeling a little left out of the loop.
“Yes,” he replied, pulling me into his arms. “And you’re coming with me.”
“Can Carter stay with Auntie Jenna? Pretty please?” his sister begged. “I’d love to spend some time with my nephew.”
“That’s up to his mommy,” Weston answered. “What do you say, Aspen? Can we go look at houses while our little man hangs out with my sister?”
“Sure, I guess so,” I agreed, my answer drowned out by the ringing of the doorbell.
Before I had the chance to rethink my decision, Weston bundled me into the realtor’s car for the short ride down the street and around the corner from his sister’s house. When he pulled up in front of a huge two-story home with a white picket fence surrounding the yard, my jaw just about dropped open.
“Are you sure this is the kind of house you want to look at?” I asked nervously, in a low voice so the realtor wouldn’t overhear me.
“Damn straight it is.” He hopped out of the car, pulling me along with him. “Looks like the perfect place to raise a family to me.”
The realtor started his pitch as we walked into an entryway with vaulted ceilings. I tuned him out as I took in the space. Crown moldings, hardwood floors, and open floor plan. It was gorgeous. The kitchen looked like it had been designed for a gourmet chef with gleaming stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. There were two master suites, one upstairs and one on the main level, plus three more bedrooms. Plenty of room for a growing family and guests. The back yard had a pool with a childproof cover. There wasn’t a single thing I’d change about the whole place.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, feeling a little unsure of myself. It truly was the perfect home to raise a family. Carter would be happy here when he spent time with his daddy, but I couldn’t help feeling sad at the thought of being away from him and Weston. All alone in my apartment. It was hard to wrap my mind around it.
“We’ll take it,” Weston announced to the realtor, wrapping an arm around my waist.
“We?” I repeated.
“You didn’t think I was going to move into this place without you, did you?”
His shocked tone made me embarrassed to admit that’s exactly what I’d been thinking, but he realized it all on his own.
“Oh, beautiful. You’re not going to get rid of me that easily,” he growled. “Fuck that, you’re not getting rid of me at all.”
7
Weston
Aspen looked a little shell-shocked all the way back to Jenna’s house. It was probably a little overwhelming; the amount of things I’d thrown at her in one day. But, I was eager, chomping at the fucking bit, to start the rest of our lives.
When we arrived, Jenna reluctantly handed Carter back over to Aspen, exuberantly offering to babysit any time. I chuckled, used to her over the top energy and personality. I was relieved to see the smile hovering around Aspen’s lips and the amusement in her beautiful eyes as she took in Hurricane Jenna.
I’d had enough of sharing my family, so I bustled them out of my sister’s house and drove back to the apartment. By the time we pulled into the parking lot, Carter was fast asleep in his car seat. Aspen reached for her door handle and I laid a hand on her arm. “I’ll get it,” I murmured.
Her cheeks turned a little pink but she sat back, folding her hands in her lap. I quickly made my way to her door and opened it, taking her hand and helping her from the car. “Thanks,” she said and her eyes looked soft and dreamy as she stared up at me.
I smiled and kissed her briefly, then shut the door and moved to the back, detaching the carrier and hefting it out. Reaching behind it, I grabbed Carter’s circus animal diaper bag and threw it over my shoulder. Once the doors were shut and locked, I turned to see Aspen watching me with an unreadable expression on her face.
“Something wrong?” I asked as I neared her.
She shook her head and smiled. “You’re a natural, slipping pretty seamlessly into the role of Daddy.” Her eyes darted away and a blush stole across the apples of her cheeks. “It’s sexy,” she mumbled, her voice so low I almost didn’t catch it.
“Sexy, huh?” I smirked.
She made a huge production of rolling her eyes and flouncing around to head to the apartment. “Don’t let it go to your head, Weston,” she warned without a backward glance.
Choosing not to rock the boat, I followed behind her, my eyes glued to the sway of her curvaceous hips. I wanted to b
ite her cute little ass and grab onto those hips while I fucked her from behind. My dick sprung to life at the image of a bright red handprint on the creamy skin of her ass. At the steps, I shook away my lustful day dreams and walked up carefully, then down the hall, and through the front door.
“Should I put him in his crib?” I asked her softly. I tried not to think too much about the time I’d missed, but little things like this reminded me and I hated that I didn’t know. Does he sleep better in the carrier or the crib? Is he a light sleeper? Does he like to be rocked, sung to, snuggled? I wasn’t even sure if it was his actual nap time.
Aspen meandered over to where I was standing and gazed down at our little boy, adoration washing over her face. Fuck, she was gorgeous. She ran a finger down his chubby cheek and smiled when he scrunched up his little button nose before settling back down.
“You can leave him in the carrier, no sense waking him up to put him in the crib.” She raised her eyes and something in my expression must have clued her in to my internal struggle. “He’s not a light sleeper, but Carter has an uncanny ability to recognize he’s in my arms no matter how long.” She giggled and it was adorable. “Our boy is a major snuggler and even if I’m just moving him from one place to another, I swear, the second I put him down, he starts fussing.”
She sighed lightly and adopted a rueful smile. “I’m sure it will bite me in the ass when he gets older, but I just can’t resist it when he wants to cuddle. It won’t be long until he thinks I have girl cooties.”
I leaned over far enough to whisper my lips over hers. “I’ll always want your cooties all over me, beautiful,” I told her with a wink.
She laughed, her smile warm and inviting. I was still struggling with the idea that this was all a dream and eventually, I’d wake up and it would be gone in a poof. I was desperate to make sure I never lost this again. I needed a ring on her finger, for her and Carter to share my last name, and to put another baby in her belly. Everything and anything that would make it clear to the world that they were mine.