Page 85 of Heartbreak Hockey

“Yep.”

“Good. You shouldn’t have pancakes without bacon. It’s the first law of the universe.”

I lean between him and Theo to kiss Jack on the lips. We pull away slowly, doing our stare thing that we haven’t done much of since my little visit with Rhett. Mostly because I’ve been avoiding direct eye contact for that reason.

Theo licks over the syrup patch on Jack’s face. “Mine.”

“Okay. That’s disgusting, dude,” I say and pull Theo out of Jack’s arms. He squirms down, done with the adults, and runs off to find his sisters. “I’ll get you a cloth.”

“You teach him that, Merc?” He smirks.

“Get your ass inside.”

In the kitchen, Theo’s resumed eating his cut-up squares of pancake using his fingers. The girls are more civilized, but only marginally. At least they use a fork, but they take turns feeding each other and a lot of pancake and syrup ends up on them and the floor.

“Can you guys not?” I say. “Eat properly.”

“Or else what?” Bethany says.

“Or else bedtime’s gonna come real quick.”

“Oh myGod, Merc,” she says, but finally eats over her plate. Fuck, she’s gonna be a tough teenager. I just know it. “Who’s that guy?”

“I’m Jack.”

“And I’m Lorelei,” Lorelei chimes in. “Will you play crafts with me after dinner?”

“I might know a thing or two about crafts. We can do it.”

“I like him, Merc. Will he live with us now?” Lorelei says.

Jack bites his lip to keep from laughing. There’s mischief written all over him.

“Whatever you’re gonna say, don’t say it.” I glare with the promise of spanking as retribution.

Wisely, he keeps his mouth shut.

* * *

It’s not the date I’d envisioned. Instead of walking hand in hand through the snow after ice skating, Jack is gluing more flowers onto my wall with Lorelei as Theo hops on and off his back and Bethany tells them they’re doing it wrong from the couch.

I’m cleaning up the post-dinner catastrophe so that we have room to do something at the kitchen table to occupy the horde that doesn’t involve redecorating my house with construction paper.

“Those were supposed to comeoffthe walls,” I complain at them.

“How dare. We are blessing your home with our creative talents. This is priceless art right here,” Jack says.

Jack—the big lug—is currently on his stomach, cutting more flowers from construction paper. He’s way too good at that. “You have a secret Etsy shop on the side I don’t know about?” I ask.

I’m starting to feel left out.

“That’s my dad if you forgot. Dolls.”

“Do you think he’d make dolls for us?” Lorelei asks, using her big blue eyes to manipulate him. Not that she needs to. Jack’s already enamored with all of them.

“I think I could arrange that, darling girl.”

Lorelei’s expression transforms into pure awe. She just fell in love and not only because of promised dolls.I know, sweet girl, it’s hard to look into those jade-green eyes without falling instantly.“Jack is mine, Lorelei.”