Page 126 of CowSex

Koa moves down the stairs effortlessly with his daughter on his hip. He’s pulled on a loose pair of jogging bottoms and a grey T-shirt. His feet are bare, and the mere sight of them together makes my ovaries attempt to combust.

When he reaches me, he kisses my temple and throws his arm over my shoulder.

“You picking her up Sunday?” he questions.

“That’s what I said on the phone, isn’t it? Who’s she?”

“Wow, excuseme?” I don’t even attempt to keep my trap shut. That was rude.

“Gracie, forgive me. This is Lucy, Malia’s mother. Lucy, this is my girl, Gracie.”

“Your girl, Koa? Aren’t you a bit old for girls?”

“I like your hair, Gracie.” Malia reaches out and touches my bun as she speaks. “Can Gracie hold me, Daddy? The whiskers on your arms make me itchy.” She leans forward and launches herself into my arms. Koa has no choice but to let go, and I have no choice but to catch her.

“Girl, woman, call her what you like, Lucy. Like it or don’t. All you need to know is that she’s mine.” Koa kisses my temple again while Malia plays with the colourful strands of my hair.

“Mine, too,” Malia cheers. “Gracie’s mine, too! Right, Daddy?” Her little hands reach out and capture Koa’s face, and she squishes his cheeks together.

How can this woman’s heart not burst at watching them together? How could she have had this and walked away? What material thing is there that could replace witnessing and being a part of this every day? What Koa has with his kids is something that money can’t buy. I have no answers to any of those questions.

My entire body is humming, and I’m more hyper now than I was when Koa first opened his eyes and asked me to marry him just a few minutes ago.

I want that. I want him, this, his kids, our kids. I want it all. Everything.

THE DINER FALLS SILENT ASwe walk through the door. It probably doesn’t fall completely silent, that’s just in my head. Still, a lot of the conversations definitely come to a halt, and a number of heads turn our way.

Malia has a tight grip on my hand and is swinging it to and fro as we wait our turn to be seated. After her mum left, all she wanted to do was head into town for pancakes at the diner her brother has told her about, so after a quick shower and a few words of encouragement aimed at Kai to help him get out of bed and moving, we all bundled into Koa’s truck.

A winter market and festival is going on in town, so it had taken us a while to get parked, and it is probably gonna take a while before we actually get to eat.

“I’m hungry,” Malia declares for the twenty-seventh time.

“Hey, Kai, when did you get back?” The cute blonde waitress that approaches us asks.

“Hey, Ruby. Wednesday. Just here for the weekend, but I’ll be back for good by Christmas.”

Koa clears his throat. “We’ll see. Table for four please, Ruby.”

“No problem, Mr Carmichael, we’re just getting table eleven cleared for you.”

Koa gives a nod as his eyes scan the room.

“Mr Carmichael? You old git,” I tease.

“What’s a git?” Malia asks. I thought I’d said it quietly, apparently not.

“Shit,” I whisper between my teeth.

“Oooh. Gracie said a bad word, Daddy.”

“Boll—sheet, I said sheet. We need to remember to put the sheets on your new bed when we get home,” I lie.

We haven’t shown Malia her pink palace yet. I thought we were gonna have today to get it finished, but her arrival early this morning has put paid to that. Koa has a couple of his blokes coming over later to fix the timber butterflies we bought last weekend to the ceiling, then the room will be ready to be dressed. I don’t want her seeing it until then.

“Gonna have to watch that dirty mouth around my kid, Essex. She has radar hearing.”

“Sorry. I’m not used to being around children.”