Page 96 of If I Didn’t Have You

Chuckling, I ran my hand down her thigh. “I may need a minute, but then I’m all yours.”

27

CLARA

“You have no idea how traumatizing that was for us,” Jeff whined as he followed me around the kitchen. “Do you have any idea what seeing you like that did to me?”

“And yet, you’re still standing next to me,” I said, straining the spaghetti for our family dinner.

“Yes, but I feel like I should have a blindfold. I saw your ass, Ma!”

I flushed bright red, but refused to feel bad about any of it. It was my house, and if I wanted to have sex with my husband on the living room floor, then that’s what I would do.

“Jeff, I think you’re forgetting that you walked in uninvited.”

“Since when have I ever needed an invitation?”

“Well, I guess from now on you’ll think twice about coming inside without knocking.”

I dumped the spaghetti into the large serving bowl and coated it with my homemade sauce. It had been months since we last had a family dinner, but unlike previous times, I wasn’t putting in a ton of extra work. The garlic bread was from the frozen section of the General Store, and while there was Italian sausage to go with dinner, I didn’t bother to make a salad or anything else that I might usually do with a feast like this.

“Carry the bowl to the table.”

“But—”

“Jeff, I’m not discussing this with you anymore. You walked in on a private moment. Get over it.”

He looked absolutely shocked that I wasn’t giving in, or that I hadn’t apologized. Well, he’d have to get used to that.

Like a little kid, he grabbed the bowl and carried it over to the table, plopping it down while he threw his little temper tantrum. The rest of them shuffled in a few minutes later, all of them avoiding eye contact.

Lizzy buckled Willa into the high chair, avoiding my gaze like the plague. Krista simply smirked at me, tossing a wink in for good measure. Liam and Bailey, well…both of them looked uncomfortable, but probably for different reasons. They’d both been in the same position once. And as for Michael, he went right to his seat and sat down, his jaw clenched hard as he did his best not to storm out of the house.

“Gamma!” Rosie ran over, holding up her hands for me to pick her up. “Up! Up!”

“Rosie, use your big girl words,” I scolded.

“Ma, she just wants you to hold her,” Michael grumbled.

“And I just want her to try to use sentences instead of demanding things from me,” I retorted. “Now, grab the garlic bread and put it on the table.”

Grumbling, he got to his feet, muttering under his breath.

“What’s that?”

“I said, I’ve been working all day. You demanded we come for family dinner, and then you put me to work.”

Cocking my head to the side, I chose not to let his attitude slide like I usually did. “And I just made dinner for all of us. So, you can either help out, or you can go home and cook your own damn food.”

He stared at me in shock for all of two seconds before grabbing the food and carrying it to the table.

“Anyone else have a problem with helping out?”

“No, ma’am,” my boys answered immediately.

“Gamma! Gamma!” Rosie whined, reaching for me.

I picked up my Rosie girl and snuggled up to her, but when I carried her over to Blake, she whined for me to hold her.