Play With Fire (The Men of Fire 1)

Little feet start pounding up the pathway sounding like the hounds of hell are chasing her. “Buuuull,” I hear, quickly followed by ‘bang, bang, bang, bang.’

Getting to my feet, I make my way over to the door but obviously not fast enough. ‘Bang, bang, bang.’ “BULL! Open up im’ma here,” Ryan yells out just as I swing the front door open.

I look down at this little girl who is huffing and puffing with her hands on her hips. Not a second later, she throws herself at me, wrapping her arms around my legs. She looks up at me with eyes full of excitement—eyes exactly like her mothers.

“Took ya time,” Ryan huffs as I lean down and pick her up. Her arms automatically wrap around my neck, and I find myself grinning at her, absolutely loving the way she’s welcomed me into her life.

“I’m sorry.” I press a kiss on the tip of her nose as the biggest, dopiest, smile breaks across her little face. She’s so fucking beautiful. She and her sister have quickly become two of the most adored kids in my universe. I fucking love it, and I don’t care if that has Jet wanting to call me a pussy.

I look up just as Amelia pulls Coby from the back of her car and props her up on her hip. She gives me a wide smile, and something tightens in my stomach. Maybe Jet is right. I am turning into a fucking pussy.

Zoey walks around and joins Amelia, and they start walking up my driveway. I laugh to myself. This is going to be great. Zoey has no idea that all the boys are going to be there, and something tells me that she’s going to have a few things to say when she sees Jet grinning back at her.

I step out with Ryan in my arms, knowing Amelia would have a few bags in the back of her car for the girls, and it’s more than likely that Zoey would have packed her whole closet for the few days that we’re away.

We get to my truck, and Amelia can’t help but run her eyes over it, taking in the bright pink quad bike strapped down in the back. Her movements stop as she gawks at the little motorbike with the big pink bow. “What the fuck is that?” she panics, pointing at the bike in question. “Don’t tell me that’s for Ryan.”

“Sure fucking is,” I grin proudly, stepping up beside her and pressing a quick kiss to her lips as my little parrot mimics ‘sure fucking is’ making both of our eyes bulge out of our heads as Zoey cackles behind me.

Ryan squeals in my ear and thrashes around in my arms as her excitement gets the best of her. I put her down, and within seconds, Coby is flying from Amelia’s arms into mine. “Ryan’s going to love it,” I tell her, “But don’t worry. I bought all the safety gear she could possibly need, and I’ll make sure that she knows what she’s doing. She’s going to be one badass little Rockstar.”

“I don’t know,” Amelia says, biting on her bottom lip.

“I won’t let her go,” I promise her. “If she falls, she falls on me.”

Ryan grabs the bottom of Amelia’s shirt and pulls on it over and over again. “Pwease, Mommy. Pwease.”

“Fine,” she groans. “But no photos. If this gets back to Bryce, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

I grin. I can’t wait for the day that she can finally stop revolving everything that she does around that bastard.

Coby reaches for my truck, so I place her in the back and take complete advantage of my empty arms. I pull Amelia into me and love the way her body melts into mine. Every damn time. I’ll never grow tired of it.

Zoey groans as she waves her finger between us. “Don’t get me wrong, I really love you two together, but there’s no time for all this romantic bullshit. I thought we were in a rush.”

I look over Amelia’s head at Zoey. “Trust me, I’ve got all the time in the world for this.”

Zoey rolls her eyes before turning on her heel and heading back to Amelia’s car to get her bags. I laugh as I release Amelia and go to help. Zoey grabs one small bag just to be an ass while I get the five others, unable to help the laugh that tears through me at her cocky little grin.

Before I know it, the five of us are piled into my truck, and we’re halfway there. The past hour has flown by with Amelia and Zoey’s endless chatter and Ryan singing along to ‘Frozen’ on her iPad. Coby doesn't share her sister's same excitement. She looks as though she just realized that Ryan cut her favorite dolly’s hair last week. For the most part, the girls are doing really well. They just need to last another hour.