AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Finish it,” she said. “Finish what you were going to say Gavin Manning, so I can put you in your place.”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked at me as if I could save him from his pregnant wife’s wrath. I shrugged and gave him a look I hoped conveyed I had no clue what to say, but was rooting for him. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before finally just giving up.
Carrie pointed at him, still glaring. “Yes, I am two years older than I was when I was pregnant with Katy, and yes, I am thirty-two, but if you ever use the phrase ‘geriatric pregnancy’ or ‘advanced pregnancy,’ I swear you will wake up the next day with your balls in a vice. And not in a good way.”
He winced and held up his hands in surrender. “I swear, babe, I wasn’t going to say that. I was there when you informed the doctor that you were still a few—um, I mean, several years away from that. I was going to say that two years ago, you just had Micah, and now you have Micah and Katy. Two kids under the age of five are a lot when you’re also creating a human being inside your body.”
He tentatively put his hands on her hips, his thumbs brushing her stomach in a touch both innocent and intimate enough to make me wonder if I should excuse myself. His voice dropped low enough that I almost didn’t hear what he said next, and when I did, I wished I’d followed my instincts.
“Your very perfect and beautiful body that I will definitely spend some time later today worshiping until you forget all about this.”
Okay. I was fairly certain they’d both forgotten that they had company.
I cleared my throat at the same time Katy made another sound in her room, and the moment was broken. Gavin kissed Carrie’s forehead and the love that shone on both of their faces filled me with something a lot like wistfulness and envy. I’d seen that look on the faces of more than one member of my family recently, but it’d never been something I’d coveted. Until now, maybe.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Gavin said to me before heading for his daughter’s room.
Carrie’s cheeks were pink, and she had a pleased look on her face as she turned toward me. “Sorry. We got a little carried away.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve gotten used to the public displays of affection recently. Half my family seems to have had encounters with Cupid over the last couple of years. It’s nice, though, to see a couple who’s been together for a while still be like that.”
I hoped I didn’t sound like I was complaining, because I wasn’t. I didn’t begrudge my family anything. While my cousins and step-cousins hadn’t lost both their parents like my siblings and I had, they’d all lost one parent, and all of us had struggled when we’d first put together our blended family. And then there were the ones who’d had their own individual struggles. Eoin’s near-death experience with an IED. Alec’s ex leaving their daughter on his doorstep. Maggie’s abusive asshole ex-boyfriend. They deserved to be happy, and for many of them, that’d come in the form of the people they’d found to love.
This was just the first time I’d ever thought that the same thing might make me happy.
“I heard what Gavin was saying about Sienna,” Carrie said. “I will not tell you he’s wrong to be protective of her, but I do think he’s wrong to tell you to leave her alone. My gut says the two of you will be good for each other.”
“Thanks.”
Carrie smiled. “But if you hurt her, Gavin will be the least of your worries. Remember my threat to him?”
“Balls. Vice.” I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And I like his balls, so imagine what I’d do to you if you pissed me off.”
She said it all so sweetly that my brain didn’t want to accept it for the threat that it was.
“Mama!”
Gavin returned, his adorable little girl squirming in his arms as soon as she spotted her mom.
“Hey there, my little Katy girl,” Carrie beamed, reaching out for her daughter. “Tell Daddy to let me take you so he and Mr. Fury here can keep doing the work they’re supposed to be doing.”
“Let Skylar help you,” Gavin said. “Please.”
“I will,” Carrie promised as she settled Katy on her hip. “If you two need anything, holler.”
“We will,” Gavin said, reclaiming his seat beside me.
For a moment, I thought he’d pick up where he’d left off before Carrie had interrupted us, but he just opened his laptop.
“Ready to go back down the rabbit hole?” he asked.
I nodded, and we dove back into trying to uncover more about Arthur Dalton. Gavin was using his contacts to track down anyone who might know something, while I did what I did best - following the money.
A couple of hours later, I let out a string of curses that I really hoped the kids couldn’t hear. Gavin looked over as I leaned back, staring at my screen in disbelief.
“Is that frustration because you keep hitting brick walls, or did you find something?”
