Belle shrieked as she spun out of Helena’s reach only to go running straight into her Grandpa Anderson. He laughed and swooped her up into the air, and she giggled and cried out as he spun her around before releasing her to the sand again. Sara demanded the same treatment, and Peetie obliged as Lyn and the grandparents looked on. I followed Belle with my eyes as she ran on ahead a little.
As I gazed at her, she morphed into a little boy with strawberry blond hair, looking at the water in awe. It was a memory of the day I’d jumped on a bus with him and taken him to Balloch so he could see the loch for the first time. He’d been six; I was only fourteen.
“I still can’t believe my wee brother is married.”
“He’s twenty-seven, Jo,” Cam reminded me gently.
“He’ll always be wee to me,” I whispered, feeling a little emotional. “You’ll get it with Belle. She’ll always be six years old to you.”
“Baby, are you all right?” He ducked his head to look at my face.
“It’s silly.” I shook my head, blinking back tears. “I just feel like… ever since I got everything I ever wanted, time has just sped up. Belle will be in high school before we know it. I love being a mum. I love us as parents. I don’t want that to stop.”
“It will never stop, Jo.”
“I know, but look at Cole. It doesn’t stop, but they don’t need you the same way after a while.”
Cam was silent a moment, I think surprised by my sadness.
But like always, he had the ability to surprise me too. “Do you…? Do you want another baby?”
I tensed against him, afraid to look him in the eye and give myself away. “You’re forty this year, Cam.”
“And you’re only coming on thirty-five. There’s still time… if that’s what you want?”
Hope began to bubble up within me as I turned to look at him. For months this had been pressing on me, but Cameron had never given any hint that he wanted to have another kid. It would be more financial stress. It would mean maybe having to look for another place to live. But I really wanted another baby. I wanted Belle to be a big sister like I had been, and to have her little brother or sister look up to her the way that Cole had looked up to me.
“Would you want another baby?”
Cam searched my eyes, a small smile starting to play on his lips. “Yeah, I’d want another baby. I just didn’t think it was something you wanted. You usually tell me when you want something, Jo.” He was grinning now as he saw the excitement enter my eyes.
“I really want another child,” I whispered. “I really do.”
He nodded slowly. “Then we’ll start trying.”
“Just like that? No discussion?”
“It won’t be easy.” He stared off down the beach. The others had gotten farther ahead of us, and Belle and Sara were skipping down the beach hand in hand now. “But it’s worth it.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on tight. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I kissed him, a long, slow, sweet kiss filled with every ounce of love and gratitude I had within me that after all these years Cameron MacCabe still had the ability to make me the happiest woman on the planet. Tears trembled on my eyelashes, and when he broke the kiss they splashed onto my cheeks.
Cam swiped at them with his thumb. “Happy tears?”
“Very.”
He grinned and hugged me tighter. “This will be fun.”
“Adding another kid to the tribe?” I sniffled, chuckling.
“I meant the constant sex… but yeah, that too.”
My laughter rang out down the beach as he tugged my hand and led me toward our family. At the sound of my laugher, Belle, blond hair flying wildly around her smiling face, immediately dashed back up the beach toward us.
Ellie
Leaning silently against the doorway of my mum’s kitchen, I studied Adam’s back as he stood alone at the sink washing the cups and mugs that couldn’t go in the dishwasher.
For not the first time I thanked God I married a man who didn’t mind kitchen duty.
“I can feel you there, you know,” he said quietly, the words tinged with amusement.
I smiled and stepped into the room. “Hannah and Marco are leaving in a bit.”
“We should probably head home too. I think Jarrod has worn out Bray.”
Slipping up behind him, I slid my arms around him, crossing them over his chest as I leaned my cheek against his shoulder. “I was thinking…”
“Hmm, that’s never a good thing.”
“I’m serious.”
Adam snorted. “So am I.”
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me do it. “You’ll like this line of thought. I promise.”
In answer he stopped drying a mug and turned so I had to rearrange my arms around his shoulders as he drew me chest against chest to him. I stared into his dark eyes, seeing a glimmer of discontentment in them. I’d seen that look a few times now over the past few weeks, and it was starting to make me anxious. It was only after we’d booked the kids’ holiday to Disney World that I began to suspect what was wrong.
“I’ve been neglecting you,” I whispered, brushing his hair from his face.
There were a few wrinkles around his eyes that didn’t used to be there, but they only made him look rugged and interesting. Bloody men. Why was it so many of them got better-looking with age while we women had to work our arses off to stay looking young?
“Ellie?”
I shook my head, focusing. “I’ve been working on my paper, and I’ve been spending all my free time with the kids, and you’ve been busy. You and I haven’t had any ‘us time.’”
He nodded, something like relief entering his expression, and I was suffused with guilt.
“You thought I hadn’t noticed?” I said.
“Like you said, we’ve been busy.” He shrugged.
“Adam, I’ve noticed we haven’t been on a date in months. I’ve noticed we haven’t had time for more than a quickie in months.” I pressed into him. “You have to tell me when you’re unhappy.”
“Els.” He wrapped his arms even tighter around me. “I’m not unhappy. I’ve just missed you. I never wanted to be like my parents and ignore my kids, but I also would like some time with my wife every now and then.”
“Me too.” I smiled slowly. “That’s why I asked Mum and Clark to take the kids tonight. We’ll pop home and get them some overnight stuff, bring it back here, and then you and I can do whatever the hell we want.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “Are you kidding? Because if you’re kidding, it’s really cruel.”
I giggled. “I’m not kidding. Just you and me, sweetheart.”
He kissed me, a soft kiss that promised more, and then he pulled back to whisper against my mouth, “We’ll drop off the kids’ stuff and then we’re going home so I can fuck you as hard as I want and you can come as loudly as you want.”
A streak of arousal shot straight between my legs, and I nodded, speechless.
His eyes heated. “Let’s go now.”
I grinned and nodded. “I have another present for you.”
“Please say see-through lingerie.”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Better.”
He looked doubtful that there was anything better than see-through lingerie.
“We’ll do Disney World with the boys in the summer and have a ball with them.” Because as much as he teased about the predicted chaos of the upcoming holiday, he loved hanging out with his boys. His real issue had been that he never got to see me… alone. “And afterward, you and I are going to Joss and Braden’s villa at Lake Como for four nights. They said we could have it, and Mum and Clark are happy to look after the boys.”
Adam stared at me a moment as if in disbelief. When he realized I was serious, he kissed me again, harder this time. We broke the kiss to gasp for breath, and he said, voice hoarse, “I fucking love you.”
“Kind of hard to hate me, sweetie,” I teas
ed.
“You’re not joking,” he grunted, backing me up toward the door. “Home, kids’ stuff, back here, home, screwing like teenagers. Now.”
Well, he didn’t need to tell me twice.
Joss
“Mum, are you writing?”
My fingers stilled on the keys of my laptop at the sound of my eldest’s voice behind me. “Is this the room in which I write?” I said without turning around.
“You didn’t look like you were writing.”
I turned in my chair to find Beth hovering in the now-open doorway of my office. “Did the closed door and the sound of keys tapping not give it away?”
My eleven-year-old grimaced in a way that was so like me. “Dad’s with Ellie, Luke is playing a video game, and I’m bored.”
“I thought you were reading.”
“I was, but my book is boring. Plus… it is a Saturday, you know.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.
I felt that glare hit me in the chest and a little ache spread out from it. I tried my best to balance my writing and my life with my kids and with Braden, but clearly sometimes I got it wrong. “Go and get Luke ready and I will go get your dad. We’ll go out for lunch and to see a movie. Sound good?”
“I really shouldn’t have to drop these hints about how to be a parent, Mum.” She raised her eyebrow at me in this seriously schoolmarmish way. I honestly didn’t know where she picked up this crap.
I raised my eyebrow right back at her. “Okay, smart-ass. Message received.”
She grinned triumphantly and dashed off to get her brother.
I chuckled as I saved my document and shut down my computer. My kid was getting too smart for her own good. It was difficult to rein in the smart-assness, however, when she had a mother like me and a father like Braden.
Finding said father in the sitting room, I stopped in the doorway to stare at him for a moment. Braden’s long and still deliciously well-kept body was sprawled over our couch. Our baby girl, Ellie, was sprawled across Braden’s chest. They were both sleeping.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and started taking pictures.
“What are you doing?” Braden mumbled sleepily.
I looked up from my phone to see him rubbing his eyes with one hand and stroking Ellie’s back with the other.
“Putting a photo of you and Ellie sleeping on Instagram. My readers will love it.”
Looking more awake now, he frowned. “What?”
“Didn’t you know, babe? You’re their favorite book boyfriend come to life.”
“You’ve been sharing photos of me with your readers?” he grumbled sleepily.
“I had to get some use out of you. You’ve increased my social media followers. Oh look. Twenty likes already.” I grinned over the top of my phone at him, and his eyes narrowed.
“You owe me for that.”
My body warmed just at the thought. “What did you have in mind?”
He smiled, slow, wicked, and sweet. “I’ll think of something.”
“Will I like it?”
“Are you flirting with me while our child is sleeping in the room?”
I strode over to them. “She can’t hear me,” I whispered, bending down to my haunches to stroke her soft hair. “She’s out.”
“I thought you were writing.”
I turned my attention from Ellie to Braden, falling like always into his pale blue gaze. “Beth misses me. Although she didn’t put it quite like that.”
“She wouldn’t.” He smiled affectionately. “She’s too much like her mum to admit outright when she’s missing someone. Always has to wrap up the feeling in sarcasm.”
I chuckled. “It makes life entertaining for you.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way, babe.”
Leaning over, I pressed my lips to his, intending it to be a soft kiss, but like always, it turned deeper.
“Yuck!” Beth’s voice broke us apart. “It’s bad enough doing that in front of me, but in front of Ellie?”
At her loud entrance, Ellie stirred on Braden’s chest and began to whimper at being awoken.
“Beth, your sister was sleeping,” I admonished.
She immediately looked guilty and crept on her tiptoes into the room as if her now-silent entrance would undo waking up her sister. Coming right up to my side, she knelt down and put her hand on Ellie’s back. “It’s okay, baby girl,” she said softly. “We’re going to go out. You want to go out?”
Ellie reached sleepily for her sister, and Beth took her into her arms with ease and stood up. “I’ll go get her changed.”
I tugged on the hem of Beth’s skirt. “Thank you, baby.”
Once they were gone, Braden sat up, running his hands through his mussed hair. “We’re going out?”
I nodded and sat down on his lap, mussing his hair even more with my hands. “Beth was bored.”
He frowned as he wrapped his arm around my waist. “I could have taken the kids out, left you here to write.”
“No.” I kissed him again. “Beth was making a point. I need to spend more time with you and the kids. I want to spend more time with you.”
“And tonight with me?” He brushed his mouth teasingly over mine.
“Every night with you,” I whispered back, and he kissed me harder.
“Yuck!”
We broke apart this time to find Luke standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Problem?” I arched my eyebrow at my eight-year-old.
“Yeah.” He said it like it should be obvious. “You’re not supposed to do that in front of your kids. That’s what Beth says. She says it’s, like, a rule.”
Braden chuckled. “Son, the only ones making rules in this house are Mum and Dad. Got that?”
He nodded obediently but still looked consternated. “Perhaps it should be a rule?”
I bit back laughter at the hope in the question.
“Believe me, bud,” Braden said, squeezing my hip for emphasis. “That’s the one thing that’s least likely to become a rule in this house.”
“But there’s a chance?”
I turned my face to Braden’s neck to hide my grin from Luke.
“No. There is zero chance.”
“When I turn eighteen, will I be able to make rules?”
Sensing where this was going, Braden chuckled. “Son, when you’re eighteen, a no-kissing-girls rule will be the last thing you want to put in place.”
“Maybe. But a no-kissing-Mum rule will definitely be put in place.” He disappeared from the doorway and we heard him yell for his sister, probably going in search of her to complain about us.
“They’re ganging up on us,” I murmured ominously, staring after our son.
“Oh, they can try.” Braden turned my face so he could kiss me again. When he pulled back, he grinned. “But they won’t succeed.”
I grinned at the humor in his eyes, the humor I shared, the connection we shared that got us through absolutely anything, and I knew always would. “We’ve got this.”
“We’ve got this,” Braden agreed, and then he kissed me once more as Luke walked back into the room, and our laughter bubbled against each other’s lips at the sound of our son’s outrage.
Grace
“You have to be nicer to Charlie,” I whispered in Logan’s ear as we walked hand in hand into the rugby stadium.
Maia walked ahead of us, clasping tightly to Charlie’s hand as Chloe and Ed chatted to them about something.
Logan grunted. “I was nice.”
“You barely said two words to him during the taxi ride here.”
“What do you want me to say to him?” He frowned. “The only things I can think to say to him involve threats.”
“He was a perfect gentleman with her at the wedding the other day. He’s always a perfect gentleman.”
As if he knew we were talking about him, Charlie threw us a look over his shoulder and blanched. Tall and lanky, he was cute in a very boyish kin
d of way. He was smart, funny, and stylish. He was wearing a pair of thick-framed black glasses that really suited his angular face, and he was dressed in a white shirt, a black waistcoat, and black tapered suit trousers with a chain dangling from one side of his waistband to the other.
“You could ask him about his band. Maia said the boys booked a gig.”
“A band.” Logan shook his head. “He went from Mr. Good Guy to Guy in a Band.”
“I thought you’d be over this by now.”
“I’m not over it because the longer they’re together and the more she falls for the little bugger, the more chance he has of violating my baby girl.”
I squeezed his hand. “You have to let her grow up and trust her to act responsibly.”
His face snapped toward me. “What do you know? Has it happened already?”
“Oh dear God, fatherhood has made you crazy.” I sighed. “Let’s just talk about something else.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know… maybe —”
“Hurry up, slow coaches!” Chloe yelled back at us, grinning.
I rolled my eyes at her, but Logan and I picked up speed and followed them down the stands. Juno waited in first-row seating for us.
“Hey, you.” I hugged her close. “How are you?”
“Fine.” She grinned at us. “Excited for the game.”
“Who are you supporting, Grace?” Ed teased me.
It was a Scotland versus England game.
I made a face. “Funny.”
“No, seriously?”
“I’m supporting Aidan,” I huffed, and sat down with Juno on one side and Logan on the other. “Aka Scotland.”
“Just checking.”
“Chloe, please punch your husband for me.”
“Ow!”
I looked down the chairs to her and grinned. “Thank you.”
She winked at me and ignored Ed’s grumbling.
“So is Aidan ready?” Logan said to Juno.
“As he’ll ever be.”
“The place is packed,” Charlie noted from beside Maia. Maia was seated next to her dad, placing Charlie on her other side. Smart girl.
“It is that,” Logan said, surprising me even more when he asked, “You a big rugby fan, Charlie?”