Elec could honestly say that he had never been quite so content and relaxed in his whole life. They'd had ribs on the grill, corn on the cob, and potato salad for dinner, and they'd gotten soaking wet running around and slamming water balloons into each other.
He liked hanging out with Tamara and her children. A lot. Like to the point where he thought he would get a lot of pleasure out of making this situation permanent. About being able to be at home with them whenever he wasn't traveling and having the right to call this amazing woman his wife, this fire pit his fire pit, these kids his stepkids.
Damn, he was in trouble.
And he was hopelessly, head over heels in love with Tamara. "Your marshmallow's burning!" Hunter yelled, because almost everything Hunter said was in the form of yelling.
"Whoops." Elec pulled it back out of the flame and blew on it.
"Eew," Hunter said, licking sticky goo off of her fingers. "It's all burnded."
"Burnded?"
"Yeah. Really burnded."
He laughed. "It is burnded. But it still tastes good." He slid it off the stick and popped it into his mouth. It was good. It was all good. "Now let me up, baby doll, I'm going to help Pete catch some fireflies."
They had already found a frog earlier, down at the edge of Tamara's property, and now the fireflies were out in full force. He thought Pete would get a kick out of capturing a few and watching them flit around in the jar for a minute before releasing them.
"Tamara, do you have a jar we could use?"
"Sure," she said, tucking a stray hair back into her ponytail. "I'll go grab one."
"I'll come with you." He turned to Hunter. "Go on and play in the grass with your brother away from the fire until we get back, alright, baby doll?" He didn't want a log rolling out and hitting her leg.
"Okay." Hunter held out her arms to be picked up, so he did, figuring he'd just carry her to the grass himself.
Hunter gave him a sticky marshmallow kiss on the cheek and Elec felt his heart squeeze.
Oh, yeah, he was in trouble. But it was an amazingly good kind of trouble.
He followed Tamara into the kitchen and watched her bend over at the sink and fish out a glass jar. The angle did great things to her ass in her plaid shorts, and he wanted to run his fingers across her thighs and backside at the same time he knew it would just result in frustrating the hell out of him.
But now that he had her alone, he wanted to ask her something. When she turned, he said,
"What are you doing next weekend?"
She shrugged. "Just hanging out, I guess." She held the jar out to him. "Why?"
Elec took it and said, "How about you come down to Daytona with me for the Fourth of July weekend and race?"
Tamara stared at him. "With the kids or alone?" she finally asked.
"I was thinking that you could come down a few days ahead of the race by yourself, then the kids could join us. You can stay with me until they get there, then I'll get the three of you a hotel so we're not sharing a bed in front of them."
Her hair had slipped again and she tucked it back impatiently. "Who is going to stay with my kids while I'm gone and bring them down?"
"Your in-laws," he said, willing himself not to fidget. If she said no, she had legitimate reasons and he couldn't take it personally. "Don't they always come to Daytona for the race?"
She nodded.
She didn't give him an answer for a second, and Elec knew she knew what he was asking her. To tell her in-laws the truth. They weren't going to be able to hide it much longer anyway since he was spending time with her kids. But he knew it was a lot to ask of her and he wasn't going to be surprised if she said it wasn't possible.
But Tamara glanced toward the back door, then toward him, and she nodded. "Yes. I would love to go to Daytona with you."
Well, hot damn. They were going to be sharing a bed for two or three nights. All night.
His body reacted to the thought and he got an immediate erection. "That's awesome. Good.
We'll have a great time."
Tamara glanced down at his erection, her eyebrows raised. Then she burst out laughing.
"I'm guessing we will."
"What can I say? I'm a guy. We don't hide our emotions."
"Yeah, right. Emotions is what you're calling that these days?" She rolled her eyes.
Elec leaned in and kissed her gently. "God, I . . ."
"What?" She pulled back and looked up at him, her eyes wide.
He chickened out. "I can't wait to be alone with you."
He could only hope that was disappointment in her eyes. But she just nodded. "Me, too."
Elec held up the jar. "Now let's go catch us some fireflies."
CHAPTER FIFTEE
TAMARA had decided her best bet was to go to Beth, who would be more rational than Johnny about her request, but she was still shaking like a leaf and having a hard time forcing the words out of her mouth.
"What's the matter, Tammy?" Beth asked her as she cut some blue hydrangeas off the bush to take into the house.
Tammy was sitting on Beth's back patio watching her kids run through the sprinkler and trying to work up the nerve to confess the truth to her mother-in-law. "I have a favor to ask you, Beth," she said, settling on the roundabout approach.
"Sure, sweetie. You know if I can help in any way, I will."
She did, which was why she felt like garbage asking Beth to watch her children so she could play porn star in Elec Monroe's coach. "I was thinking of going to Daytona this weekend, on Thursday, actually. By myself. I was hoping you could watch the kids and then bring them down on Saturday with you when you and Johnny come down."
Beth looked at her in surprise. "Why are you looking to go early? Are you planning a girls weekend with Suzanne?"
"No . . . I've been seeing someone. A man."
"Is it Geoffrey again?" Beth said, and her opinion on him was clear on her face. She placed another bloom in her basket, her floral gloves, tight ruffled blouse, and Capri pants tidy.
It amazed Tamara that Beth could manage to look like she was going for cocktails when she was working in her own garden.
"No, it's not Geoffrey."
"Thank goodness. So who is it? How long have you been seeing him?"
"About five weeks. Which I know isn't really all that long, but he's such a great guy, Beth.
And he's been so good to me, I just can't tell you how much fun I'm having with him."
"That's wonderful, Tammy." Beth smiled. "I can tell by the look on your face that this one is going much better than the last one."
"It is. So, so much better." That she could say in all honesty.
"So who is it?" Beth asked, turning back to the bush and taking hold of a stem.
"It's . . ." Tamara bit her fingernail and willed herself not to vomit. "Elec Monroe."
Beth dropped her shears in the bush. Her head whipped around. "Elec Monroe, are you serious?"
"Yes," she practically wailed. "I didn't mean this to happen, we met again by accident, and I tried to tell him no when he asked me out, I did, but then I just couldn't resist him, and he's just wonderful ." Oh, Lord, she was gushing. Tamara leaned against the porch post and tried to control herself. "Beth, I keep trying to be rational, but all that's happened is that I've gone and fallen in love with him."
She had.
And it was utterly ridiculous that the first time she would admit that to herself or out loud, it was to her mother-in-law, the woman whose son she had previously been married to.
She had lost her mind.
"Oh, my," was Beth's opinion.
"What am I going to do?" Tamara asked, giving a heavy sigh.
"What do you mean, what are you going to do?" Beth turned and took both of Tamara's hands in hers and squeezed them. "You say he's been wonderful to you?"
"He has."
"And the kids? Has he met them?"
"Yes, and he's fabulous with them. He plays with them, and has them wash their hands before they eat, and makes sure Hunter isn't falling into the fire pit. He brought them gifts when they had chicken pox-an art farm for Petey, a die-cast car for Hunter. He listens to what they like, and he never does anything inappropriate with me in front of them."
Not in front of them was another story, but she wasn't going to go there.
"Does he make time for you?"
"I would say all his free time goes to me. And he calls me and texts me from the road."
Beth smiled at her. "Then, sweetie, I'd say where you're going is to Daytona for a romantic weekend with your new man."