I swallowed hard, trying to find the words I'd been practicing in my head all day since I picked them up. "I want to talk to you guys about Grace." This piqued Ruby's interest, her eyebrows shooting up, but Jax just looked attentive, waiting for my next words. "I've invited her over for dinner tonight, and I wanted to talk to you about it."
"I like Grace," Jaxy said matter-of-factly. "I don't care if she comes to dinner."
"Jax, Daddy's talking to us because he wants to date Grace, not just have her over for dinner."
"What does that mean?" he asked his sister, all his eight-year-old innocence showing through.
"It means Daddy wants Grace to be his girlfriend and he wants us to be okay with it."
I watched as his eyebrows drew close together, crinkling in the middle, thoughts obviously running through his mind.
"So, he's going to hold her hand and kiss her and stuff?"
"Yeah," Ruby answered. "And she'll probably be over here a lot, and Daddy will be taking us to Grandma and Grandpa's more, since they'll want to go out on dates."
"Grandma gives us cookies every time we go to her house!" Jaxy exclaimed, all too excited by the promise of sugar. His eyes turned to me, a huge sneaky grin across his face. "You can go on as many dates with Grace as you want, Daddy. We don't mind."
My eyes darted between my two children. Had Ruby just given Jax the deep and meaningful "Daddy's Going to Date Again" speech I'd been dreading all day? I knew Ruby was a little more clued in to what was happening between Grace and me, but I expected a little more of a reaction from Jax. Who was I to argue with the logic of cookies at Grandma's house? My mom's cookies were phenomenal.
"It's not just cookies, Jax," I replied softly, wanting to make sure he understood as much as an eight-year-old could. "I'm spending time with Grace because I care about her, and I want everyone to be comfortable. Does that make sense?"
Jaxy shrugged. "I know you care about her. She's really nice." At this point it became obvious Jaxy thought I was being ridiculous, his tone indicating that he already knew everything I was trying to tell him.
"So, you're okay if we see more of her and she spends time with us?"
"Sure," he answered, shrugging again. I reached out and ruffled his hair. He ducked away from me, laughing, then turned his attention back to his video game. It seemed as though I'd been worrying myself over nothing. And that was good; I was glad the kids seemed all right with Grace and me spending time together, but it didn't mean that further down the line things might still get tricky. This was only the first hurdle, but I was glad it was over.
"What are you making for dinner?" Ruby asked.
"Huh?" Her question pulled me from the thoughts bouncing around inside my mind.
"Dinner? With Grace? What are you making?"
"I was just planning on grilling."
Ruby rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh.
"What?" I asked, laughing at her complete and utter annoyance.
"You always grill when someone comes to dinner."
I shrugged. "I'm good at it." That was the truth-I was good at it. But more importantly, it was something I knew I couldn't mess up. It was easy and simple, but tasted damn good.
"But it would be more impressive if you made an effort."
Well, damn.
"When did you get so smart?"
Another roll of Ruby's eyes made me laugh.
"Come on, Jax. Daddy's got to go to the store. We're going to make something delicious for dinner."
Chapter Thirteen
Grace
I knocked on Devon's door and tried to ignore the flurry of nervous butterflies swarming in my belly. When the door flew open, it was Jax's smile that greeted me, and that went a long way to ease my anxiousness.
"Hi, Grace. Come on in. Daddy's in the kitchen with Ruby."
"Thank you," I said as I stepped into the house, unable to keep the smile from my face.
"Dad," Jax yelled, even though the kitchen wasn't very far away. "Grace is here!"
I was still laughing as I walked around the corner and into the open dining room between the kitchen and living room.
"Hi," Devon said, looking up at me hurriedly. "You're early."
"Am I?" Quickly pulling my phone from my purse and glancing at the time, I gave him a puzzled look. "It's five till. You said five o'clock, right?"
"Yeah," he said, his eyes not on me anymore, but on whatever he was working on in the kitchen instead. "I thought I had five more minutes." He said the words, then glanced at me, giving me a flirty wink.
"Dad," Ruby said, her tone admonishing, then popped up beside her father. "That's no way to make Grace feel welcome."
"They've been in there all afternoon. Dad's making dinner and Ruby's making dessert."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. We spent, like, an hour at the grocery store." Jax groaned as he said the words, as if the grocery store was the worst way he could have spent sixty minutes.
Before I could respond I felt a hand at my shoulder and when I turned, Devon was there.
"Sorry," he said, just before pressing a soft kiss to my cheek. When he pulled back he was wearing his sexy smile, making a shiver run down my spine. "I'm glad you're here."
"Jax claims you've been busy."
"Ah, yes." His hand slid down from my shoulder to the small of my back, leading me forward. The closer I got to the kitchen, the more I could smell what they were cooking.
"Daddy was going to grill for you, but I told him that was a terrible idea for a date." Ruby spoke while all her attention was on whatever she had pulled out of the oven moments ago. I raised my eyebrows and looked at Devon. He noticed my puzzled look and leaned in to whisper in my ear.
"I had the dating conversation with them earlier today. Everyone's on board."
"Oh," I said, even more surprised by his sentence than Ruby's mention of the word date. I wanted the kids to be comfortable with Devon and me together, but I'd thought that would come with time. I assumed we'd be easing into everything, giving them time to adjust. Apparently, the Roberts clan was more of a rip-the-Band-Aid-off kind of family. The kind of people who jumped in the pool without testing the temperature first. "Uh, grilling would have been fine," I stammered, trying to cover for the fact that ever since I walked in the door it was one surprise after another.
"No," Devon said softly, "Ruby's right. I'll grill for you some other time. But tonight I shall dazzle you with all the culinary expertise three hours and YouTube have earned me."
I lifted one eyebrow. "Is it too late to claim I'm ill?"
"None of that," he said, laughing. "Ruby has helped a lot. I'm sure it's edible. Well, mostly sure."
"It smells amazing, whatever it is."
Devon gave me another smile, then turned to Jax. "Buddy, take Grace's things and put them on my bed, okay?"
"All right," he said, holding his arms out toward me like a stiff little robot. All I had was my purse so I placed it in his hands and watched with a smile as he dutifully marched it back to Devon's bedroom.
"Would you like some wine?"
"Sure, I think one glass would be fine before work."
"I think white goes with the meal better. Is that all right?" He peered at me over the top of the refrigerator door, and I was stunned for a moment by the effort he was putting forth. I'd thought I was coming over for dinner, something casual and light, and while nothing felt heavy, I was shocked by the time and attention Devon and his children had put into this one meal.
"White would be lovely."
"I wanted to make chocolate lava cakes, but I needed to make sure they would turn out all right, so I made just one first. Kind of like a test cake," Ruby said as she grabbed a fork. "If I did this correctly and followed the recipe right, when I cut into this cake, hot chocolate sauce should pour out of it like a volcano." She looked determined, but also a little nervous to cut into the small round cake, but she finally sliced into it with her fork. She let out an excited cry as the chocolate sauce poured out of the cake. "I did it!" She bounced up and down on her feet while putting the one bite of cake in her mouth. "And it tastes good," she said, the words muffled slightly by the dessert.
"That's impressive, Ruby."
She gave me a proud smile.
"She really wanted to make something fancy for dessert. I was just going to buy a cheesecake or something, but she wouldn't let me."
I watched as I tried to hide a grin as Ruby rolled her eyes. "Men," she said with a sigh.
"All right," Devon said, giving Ruby a soft and playful flick on the tip of her nose. "Go make sure the table is all set." She walked out of the kitchen just as Devon handed me a glass of wine. "I've put together for you a creamy broccoli, bacon, and chicken pasta."
My eyes widened at his words. "You have?"
"Yes, and I know I'm the one who made it, but it looks delicious. And the good news is, it was easy to make so if it tastes as good as it looks, my kids and I thank you for the new meal in our rotation. Pizza, burgers, and hot dogs were getting a little old." He took a sip of his own wine, and then led me to the table, which was set with mismatched plates and cups with paper napkins folded underneath the silverware. The effort he went to for dinner didn't go unnoticed, but it was also endearing that it was still a glaringly bachelor setup. He led me to one end of the rectangular table and pulled out a chair for me, pushing it in as I sat. Before I realized what was happening, he placed a kiss on the side of my neck. My breath caught in my throat, and then a shiver shot down my spine as he spoke against the sensitive skin of my neck. "You smell amazing."