Room For More(19)

I poured my own cup of coffee and sat down next to her. “If it makes you feel any better, I have about thirty mosquito bites on my ass.”

She was taking a drink and nearly spit it out as she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Oh my God.” She tossed her head back and laughed hard once she swallowed her coffee. “Do you really?”

“Hell yeah. I was scratching all night,” I pouted.

“Awww.” She reached over and nuzzled her nose into my neck. “Want me to kiss it and make it better?”

“You’d kiss it for me?”

She pulled back and shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

“In that case, did I say the mosquito bites were on my ass?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “What I meant was that I have mosquito bites all over my—”

“Brody!” Lucy jumped into my arms just as I was about to tell Kacie where I’d like her to plant her lips.

Kacie elbowed me in the gut as she got up to refill her coffee cup.

“Where’s my other Twinkie?”

“She doesn’t want to brush her hair, so she’s hiding in the bathroom.” She giggled.

I watched as Kacie bent over and pulled a frying pan out of the cabinet, wondering if she had any idea how truly captivating she was. She had on a long gray robe thrown over her Minnesota Wild tank top and gray pajama pants. A few stray pieces of her long copper hair had escaped the messy bun at the back of her head, making her neck look irresistible. She grinned at Lucy’s crazy babbling as she slid over to the fridge and grabbed a few eggs. Call me a pussy or a pansy or whatever you want, but this woman’s sexy simplicity drove me crazy and I didn’t care who knew it.

“Did you hear me, Brody?”

“I’m sorry, baby. What?” I looked down at Lucy.

“I said I didn’t know you were coming today.”

“You know what, I didn’t know it either.” I grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl and started peeling it for her. “I decided late last night to drive up and see you guys.”

“Are you staying here with us today?”

“I wish I could, but I have to go home.”

Lucy’s shoulders slumped and her tiny bottom lip jutted out as her glance fell to the floor, nearly killing me. “I’m so sorry, kiddo, but I have practice today.”

Piper skipped into the kitchen and jumped right into the conversation. “Can we come and watch you play hockey sometime?”

I spun on my stool to face her. “Yes! You want to come and watch sometime? I would love that!”

“Yeah!” They both jumped up and down, pumping their little arms in the air.

“Maybe one weekend when your mom doesn’t work, you all can come and see a game. Maybe spend the weekend at my house?” I rushed through that last part while avoiding eye contact with Kacie.

“Really?” Piper asked excitedly, her eyes almost bugging out of her head.

“Can we, Mom?” Lucy followed up.

“Uh…” Kacie looked from Piper to Lucy to me. “Maybe. We’ll see, okay?” The girls pouted as Kacie quickly changed the subject. “How do you guys want your eggs today? Scrambled or over easy?”

“Scrambled,” they called out before running to play in the family room.

I sat quietly, trying to read Kacie’s body language. She was facing away from me, her head down as she whisked the eggs quickly—a little quicker than I was comfortable with, frankly. Women always do things faster when they’re mad.

Walk. Cook. Type. Talk.

Watching her arm whip around mixing those eggs had my heart racing.

Was what I said that bad?

“Kacie?”

She jumped at the sound of her name and spun to face me, tears in her eyes.

“Holy shit, are you mad? I’m sorry.” I hopped off my stool and rushed around the island.

She shook her head. “No, no. I’m not mad, but me bringing them to your place just makes all of this… very real.”

“You have two very smart little girls, Jensen. They see us hugging. They’ve seen me kiss you. They’re not stupid; they know what’s going on.”

She sighed. “I know and I’m okay with that. I’m just worried about them getting too attached.” Her head was facing down, but she peeked up at me with her huge green eyes. “Me too.”

“Kacie, get attached. Please, get attached. I sure as hell know I am. You’re what I want. You and the girls. This is it for me.” I brushed a fresh tear from her cheek. “I know we’re taking our time, especially where the girls are concerned, but you’re my more, remember?”

“You’re my more too.” A tiny smile formed on her pink, kissable lips. “And I don’t even have to ask them. They’re crazy about you. They talk about you constantly.”