Claim My Baby (Crescent Cove 2)

We’ve gotten to know each other better.

Another snort. There was an understatement.

“Are you playing a game on your phone? Go to sleep, crazy woman.” Oliver pushed at my shoulder and I kicked his shin.

“I wish. Parental units. Go back to sleep.”

He obeyed stupidly fast. Damn man. Except last night, it took me forever to sleep.

It seems so. Ok, we’ll head to the cabin instead. See you in a few hours.

K. Cya then.

Another text came through.

Please make sure u r fully dressed.

I rolled my eyes. Lord, this was going to be a fun day.

Dumping my phone on the nightstand, I padded across the hall to the bathroom. I did what I needed to and hurried back to bed.

C’mon, hot chocolate sauce dream, don’t fail me now.

I must’ve fallen asleep fairly easily for a second time in a row, because the next time I stirred, the scent of coffee and bacon filled the air. Bacon, for God’s sake. If anything could make me leap out of bed, that was it.

The only problem with that scenario was that I leaped up, grabbed the first thing I saw that would work as clothing—one of Oliver’s ubiquitous white button-down shirts—and shrugged it on, then padded downstairs to the kitchen. My nose so consumed me that I forgot the impending guests.

Except whoops, impending had passed. My parents were now here, and they were sitting at Oliver’s quaint circular kitchen table, forking up bacon and eggs and staring at my bare legs.

And bare hoohaa. Dear God.

I yanked at Oliver’s shirt, thanking my lucky stars that he was tall and I was short. He cast me a sidelong glance as he slid more bacon onto a platter. “Morning, princess. Sleep well?”

17

Sage

A grunt was about all I could manage in his direction. Some warning that they’d arrived might’ve been nice. But that was Oliver. He just handled things, which was sometimes nice and sometimes worthy of a smack.

I smiled weakly at my parents. My mom was already rising from her chair, a big smile wreathing her face. Maybe she hadn’t noticed my lack of pants?

Then I glanced at my dad. His dark brows were beetled together and he was shaking his head.

That was definitely a no for his side.

“Hi Mom. Hi Dad. How was your trip in?” Under normal circumstances, I would’ve gone over to greet them, but my lack of underwear was skeeving me out.

My mom rushed toward me and wrapped me in a giant hug. I supposed the lack-of-panties thing didn’t bother her as much, considering where I’d come from. “Hi honey. Oh, how we’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too. So much. It’s so good to have you here.” I hugged my mom longer than I usually did, because it gave me an opportunity to keep my eyes closed and pray for this whole scene to vanish. “So, tell me how your trip was. Did you meet up with any rough weather on the way in from Sedona?”

“Oh, some rain here and there, a little snow.” My mom moved back and waved a hand. “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“A little snow? There was two feet in Ohio.” My dad stood and came over to join us, giving me a hug as well. His was much shorter, and he had a message to relay in an undertone near my ear before he stepped back. “You have some ’splaining to do, Lucy.”

“That’s true, but we’re hardy New Yorkers. To us, wasn’t barely more than a dusting.” My mom smiled and glanced swiftly at Oliver’s still turned back before raising her brows at me. Her version of my dad’s sentiments.

If I was going to get through this day, I needed bacon. Stat.