Worth the Fall(64)

What could she say? He was here, his heart beating under her palm as he waited for her answer. How much should she tell him? How much could he understand? She fiddled with the buttons of his shirt and blew out a shaky breath. Some people didn’t invest their money. She didn’t put stock in people.

It felt wrong to expect the worst from Matt, but her childhood fears had blocked out a natural faith in people and replaced it with something else.

“Abby?” Matt brought her face up with a gentle finger under her chin.

She shrugged, guilty. “Bad habit, I guess.”

He studied her with eyes that saw everything, seemed to know everything.

The kids poured out of the house like a noisy parade, saving her from having to say more. Matt gave her a look that said this conversation wasn’t over and hit her with another quick, searing kiss.

Gracie flew across the yard to them. “Matt, wook at me!” The purple shirt and leggings she’d worn to the game were bunched and half hanging out the leg holes of a pink leotard. A straw hat sat on her head and long white gloves covered her arms, only half her fingers in the holes.

“Ooh, ladybug. You look gorgeous.” Matt went down on one knee and fingered the clump of plastic beads draped around her neck.

She beamed and flung herself against him.

“Don’t you want to take one thing off before you put on another?”

“No, it’s fashion,” she said, climbing onto his knee.

Annie approached, wearing a flowing gown and a beaded crown. She didn’t run up to him but stood quietly off to the side, waiting to be noticed. Matt didn’t disappoint.

“Well, well. I always knew you were a princess.”

Annie looked down at the dress. “It’s Cinderella.”

“Nice crown.” He touched the top of his head. “Huh. I must have lost mine. A prince needs a crown too, don’t you think?”

Gracie pulled at his hair. “You not a pwince. You a fwog!”

Matt never took his eyes from Annie, giving her that single-minded attention he was so good at.

“What do you think, Annie? You think you could turn this frog into a prince?”

Annie considered it with a look of uncertainty.

“Ribbitt. Ribbitt,” Matt croaked.

Annie’s serious face cracked into a grin, and in one swift move he leapfrogged past her. Gracie squealed wildly. Even Annie was laughing as the three of them went into the house for what Gracie announced was going to be girl time.

Abby stared after them. A croaking Navy SEAL, going to play frog and prince with two giggly girls. No. She didn’t want to expect the worst of Matt.





Chapter 23


Matt sat on the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table next to a crushed goldfish cracker. They’d fed, bathed, and put the kids to bed with a tag-team effort, and now the house was quiet, except for the TV.

Abby lay beside him in his T-shirt and boxers. Breasts in easy reach, bare legs draped across his lap, and her crotch snug against his thigh. She liked the loose fit. He liked the idea of her wearing his clothes. Pictured her in one of his dress shirts, hanging to her thighs, unbuttoned at the bottom, revealing her pregnant belly. Maybe unbuttoned at the top too. Hot.

He wrapped his fingers around her cute little foot, alternately squeezing and rubbing as he sipped a beer and tried to concentrate on football. She was tired and he wanted this time with her, just to talk, but the view was very nice.

He continued a slow massage of her feet, her ankles, and her cute little toes as they watched Florida trounce LSU.

“You know.” She shifted, finding a more comfortable position. “Jack thinks he’s going to be a first-round draft pick.”

“He might. He’s a hard worker.”

“It didn’t hurt that you told him and everyone else he was the best one out there.”

That’s because in his mind Jack had been the best one out there. Her eyes were closed, and she let out a sound between a sigh and moan when he turned his attention to her arch. “I guess you know this already,” he said, “but Annie’s smart as hell.” A smile played across Abby’s incredibly kissable mouth. “Like freakin’ genius smart. You should hear the questions she’s asking me when I’m tucking her in. Ocean currents, the moon and tides and magnetism. When I was six I was eating glue.”

Abby laughed. “She reads a lot. And you’re pretty smart yourself to have noticed. It took a slew of teachers and psychologists years to figure that out. They called her language delayed, antisocial, even borderline autistic.”

Well, that just pissed him off and he blew out a disgusted breath. “Idiots. Maybe there’s a better school.”