“Not intentionally, not ever.” He cradles my face in his palms and gazes down at me intently. “But when the nightmares come, I get pretty violent, Bryn.”

“I’ll be fine.”

He shakes his head but I hold on tight.

“If you abandon me now, after the battle we just went through together? I’ll kick your ass.”

His lips twitch before he rests them on my forehead and takes a deep breath.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

He laces his fingers with mine and leads me over to the bed, tucks us both in, and pulls me against him, my back to his front.

“Thank you, Caleb. For everything.”

I hear him sigh before he leans over and kisses the sensitive skin beneath my ear.

“Goodnight, Legs.”

Chapter Seven

“Good morning!” Nat announces and kisses my cheek as she moves past me into my living room.

“Morning, sunshine,” Meg grins and kisses my other cheek.

“You two are entirely too chipper for eight thirty in the morning.” I shut and lock the door, as Caleb has instructed over and over again, and lead the girls into the kitchen.

“Oh good, you have creamer,” Meg murmurs as she digs in my fridge.

“I bought it just for you.” I grin over at the pretty auburn-haired woman and then hug Natalie, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and holding her tight. “How are you, little mama?”

“Good,” she grins and hugs me back. “I’m hardly sick at all with this one.” She covers her still flat belly with her hand and rubs in a clockwise circle.

“You could have brought Livie with you,” I mention as we all fill our mugs and sit at the table. This is our weekly coffee date. I don’t have to be to work until ten, so we usually meet for a quick cup of something hot and gossip. “Jules stuck at work?”

“Luke loves his mornings with Liv, so they’re good,” Nat waves me off. “And yes, Jules is in early morning meetings.”

“Stacy is home with two sick kids.” I grimace and take a sip of hot coffee, leaning my elbows on the table.

“How are yours?” Meg asks and joins us.

“Much better, thank God. They finally went back to school this morning.” It’s been a week since the girls were sick. “As much as I love them, I was about to put them up for adoption if they didn’t go back to school soon.”

“Good morning, ladies.” Caleb saunters into the kitchen, wearing a dark blue Navy t-shirt and black shorts. He smiles at the girls and then turns that smile at me, his eyes warm and tender, as though he’s remembering every little amazingly sexy thing he did to me this morning.

“Good morning,” we all respond in unison.

“What are you up to?” Meg asks.

“I’m gonna work out for a while out back,” he grins at Natalie. “Thanks for letting me install the equipment.”

Natalie smiles and shrugs. “No problem.”

Nat offered her Alki Beach house to the girls and me right after Jules moved out to live with Nate and I couldn’t love her more for it. It meant that I didn’t have to put my name on a lease anywhere and the girls and I don’t have to live with my folks.

Caleb offers us a mock-salute and leaves through the back door to the fenced yard behind the house where he’s set up all sorts of odd equipment to work out with.

“How are things with him?” Meg asks and gestures to the back door with her head.

“Fine,” I shrug and take a sip of coffee.

“Are you sleeping with him yet?” Nat asks casually, and I gape at her.

“No,” I lie and take another sip of coffee. “He’s here to protect the girls and me.”

“Right,” Meg rolls her eyes and pushes out of her chair to refill our mugs. “That’s why he looks at you like he wants to rip your clothes off and do you here on the kitchen table.”

It’s fun when he does me on the kitchen table.

But I don’t voice the response aloud, I simply shake my head and laugh.

“Whatever.”

“Deny it if you want to,” Meg smirks and glances out the back window. “Damn,” she whispers.

“What is it?” Nat asks and rises from the table to see what Meg is looking at. Her eyes widen and she glances back at me and then outside again. “Holy shit.”

I know exactly what they’re watching.

Or, who.

And yes, it is a sight to behold.

“How do you ever get anything done around here?” Meg asks as I rise and lean against the sliding glass door, coffee cradled in my hands, and watch the sexy man in my backyard. “I’d just stand around and watch him all day.”

“Uh, Meg,” I glance over at her and laugh. “You have one of these at home,” I remind her, referring to Caleb’s pro-football star brother, Will, who is also Meg’s live-in boyfriend.

“And it’s a good thing he’s gone most of the day or I wouldn’t get anything done either.”

“It’s starting to rain,” Nat observes, but it doesn’t seem to faze Caleb. He lifts two thick, heavy ropes in both of his hands. The ends are attached to Nat’s photo studio out back. With a firm grip on the ropes, he begins to wave them up and down, quickly, the rain pounding down on him, causing his shirt to cling to every muscle as it flexes and moves with the motion of the exercise.

“Hot damn,” Nat whispers and I silently agree. He continues to pump his arms furiously, effortlessly. “What does that exercise do?” Nat asks.

“Works his arms, back and abdomen, and it’s cardio too,” Meg responds and takes a sip of coffee.

Just then, Caleb drops the ropes, bends down to grab onto a medicine ball and lowers his tall body to the sit-up position.

“Maybe he’ll bend over again,” I murmur, earning giggles from the other two women.

“It’s a good thing Jules isn’t here,” Nat mutters and licks her lips as her eyes watch Caleb hold the medicine ball in front of him, sit at a forty-five degree angle, and twist from his left to his right, over and over again. “She’d never let us watch him like this.”

“Jesus, that medicine ball is fifty pounds,” Meg whispers, amazed.

“Watch this part,” I urge them as Caleb tosses the ball to the side like it’s a beach ball and assumes the push-up position and begins to perfectly execute the push-ups, easily completing more than a hundred of them in two minutes.

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