Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
He chuckled warmly. “Good thing Colt and I would never deprive you of such things.”
“But I have to buy less of it now.”
“When you’re out on your own,” he agreed. “When we take you out for ice cream, life wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t put all sorts of weird toppings on there.”
I didn’t see anything weird about mixing gummy bears with chocolate flakes and caramel sauce.
Daddy was the weird one, though I hugged his arm for being so nice to me about ice cream.
“I’m going to keep my Sunday tradition of having ice cream with Vincent at the Lincoln Memorial, if that’s okay,” I said.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, little one. You two have a whole new friendship to explore.”
I beamed and nodded, looking forward to it.
* * *
“Daddy, we’re home!” I yelled. Kicking off my shoes, I tightened my grip on my shopping bag and then darted toward—
“Kit! Come back here, young sir. That’s not where the shoes go.”
“Crap,” I whispered.
Once back in the entryway, I gathered my shoes and put them on the shelf. Then I ran into the living room, skidded across the floor, and noticed that the first coat of paint was in place in the dining room. Awesome! Daddy worked fast. It was only a shade darker than what we had in the living room, because we needed them to match and somewhat share a theme since the whole space was fairly open.
Colt was at the grill, and he hadn’t put the salmon on yet. Perfect.
“Hi, Daddy, we’re home!” I bounced over to him and kissed the grin off his face. “You’ve done tons of stuff today.”
“I enjoy gettin’ shit done around here.” He set the tongs aside and pulled me close. “How’s my boy?”
“He’s good. Come, I have a surprise for y’all.” I grabbed his hand and tugged him all the way back into the living room.
“Did you hear that, Luke? He said his first y’all. They grow up so fast.”
I giggled and peered into my shopping bag. “Okay, this is only new undies.” I slapped a pair of light blue briefs to Colt’s stomach so he could hold them while I kept digging.
“Cute.” Colt stretched them out and held them up. “Fun-sized and all.”
“Here.” I finally found them. They were so precious, I thought. “Look. Aren’t they the best? They’re magnets for the fridge.” More than that, they were tiny picture frames. I’d used all the photos in my phone that had one or all of us, made them black and white, and had prints made that fit the frames. “There are fourteen in total.” I was gonna buy six, but I couldn’t decide.
Colt and Lucas stepped closer and inspected the business-card sized magnets with soft smiles.
“I love how you’re just moving us in to this house.” Colt chuckled and showed one of the magnets to Lucas. “I like this one of you two.”
I glanced at the tiny picture. It was me kissing Lucas’s cheek. We were in the pool together.
I’d also ordered prints of a few photos from Abel and Madigan’s stay here. I wanted them up where I could see them. But I had to buy frames for those first.
“These are lovely, sweetheart.” Lucas squeezed my neck affectionately. “If you don’t mind, though, please tell us what’s wrong with your leg.”
Colt took a step back and eyed my leg, then lifted a brow at me.
“I told you, Daddy, nothing is wrong.” After stowing away the magnets in the bag again, I sat down on the edge of the coffee table and set the shopping bag on the floor. “I wanted to surprise you.” I carefully removed the bandage, layer by layer, until only a fresh tattoo and a sheen of protective gel remained.
Both my Daddies squatted down in front of me and gently examined my leg, reading the tribute that traveled around my calf. It simply read Their boy, but nothing Kirk did was simple. He was an artist, and he’d turned it into a three-inch-thick band around my leg, including the classic, cursive letters, the shadow work, and a baby blanket twisted in chains.
I was happy for more than one reason when it came to seeing Kirk today. Because I’d found out that he was officially dating Dr. Cohen at my clinic. According to him, they’d argued heatedly a couple weeks ago, and to “shut her the hell up,” he’d kissed her. Then he said the rest of the story was rated R.
“Sweet lord.” Lucas’s voice was full of awe. “This is exquisite.” He brushed his thumb right underneath where small teddy bears were visible on the blanket.
Colt didn’t say anything at first. He merely rose slightly to reach me better, and he kissed me hard. Hands under my jaw, fingers tracing back to my neck, he drew shivers from me and made me wonder how one kiss could reduce me to a freaking puddle of want.