Page 107 of Nothing to This

“You think you’re getting something from me that we’ll need a whole day together?Alone?”

“I think I want to find out.”

The phone beside them rang just before his mouth met hers.

Without changing position, she grabbed the handset.“Rylee Hampton.”

“Just checking in, Rylee,” Marie said.Daycare had her direct line.“What time will they be picked up today?”

Given she sometimes had more or less work on any given day, the kids’ pick up time varied.Sometimes their aunt or grandmother were the ones there to get them.

“Their father’s coming to surprise them now,” she said, smiling at JD.“Can you help them put on their shoes?Don’t tell them who’s coming.”

“They’ll be thrilled,” Marie said.“We’ll get them ready.”

“Thank you,” she said and hung up.“They’re waiting for you.”

“And we’ll be waiting for you,” he said and dipped forward to steal her mouth.

Oh, he knew how to draw her in.His kiss was too much to resist.Sinking into the seduction, a whimper slipped from her mouth to his.Giving more of herself, her legs rose higher.They should never have started, how would she avoid giving in now she’d had a taste?

She didn’t hear the office door open, just the gasp from that direction.“Miss Hampton, I’m sorry.”

JD stopped kissing her and straightened up, helping her sit.

Perched on the edge of the desk, she twisted to look over her shoulder.“It’s ok, Mieux,” she said, patting JD’s chest and sliding off the desk to sit in the chair again.“JD is the father of my children.”

“I didn’t know you were married,” Mieux said, tentative in coming across to put files on her desk.

“We’re not,” JD said, slipping his hands into his pockets.“Yet.”

She pulled herself in at the desk and picked up the file to see the list of calls inside.“Oh, now he wants to get married.”

“Only because I want to get you pregnant,” JD said and bobbed his brows to the blushing Mieux as he sauntered toward the door.“Hurry home, honey, we’ll be waiting for you.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

If she hadn’t been crazy for JD before arriving home to find her living room transformed into an underwater grotto, she was after.There were rocks on the floor, sand, some kind of plants bedded in like seaweed strewn through the waterfall wall features.Interspersed were built in fish tanks containing all kinds of wondrous aquatic creatures.Special lighting and a sound system brought the illusion to life.

Sky hadn’t wanted to leave, so all of them ended up sleeping there in the ocean together.The wonderland was still there when the kids were packing up for their vacation with their aunts.

“Please, please, please,” Sky begged.“Mommy, please—”

“Daddy promises the ocean will be here when you get back,” JD said.

It would?That didn’t seem smart.Okay, so the installation wasn’t doing anyone any harm exactly.To nothing except her furniture, which was stuck in storage until they dismantled the scene.But was it realistic for it to be there indefinitely?The kids needed boundaries.

JD had prepped and packed the kids ready for Brenna.She herself had run home just in time to see them off.

“Say goodbye,” Brenna said.“Lotta’s waiting downstairs.”

“Oh, babies, I love you,” she said, kissing them both at the door.

“We have to leave,” Brenna said.“We’ll call you from the road.”

Both kids waved and hugged her again.Brenna took their hands and led them out, leaving her staring at a closed door.She had never been so far apart from her babies before.Even when they went to stay with their grandmother, they were right across town.This was a different thing.

No, no, she’d made a terrible mistake.They wouldn’t have gone far, she could get them back—