Page 50 of Nothing to This

He bobbed his head.“Yep, about three months ago.”

“Three?”

“The media only got wind of it a few weeks ago,” he said and frowned at her.“I figured you’d have known all this.”

“I don’t follow the business news,” she said and then laughed.“I barely follow any news, I have two kids, you know.”

He smiled.“Gabby was never…”

“Never what?”

“Stepmother material,” he said.“She didn’t want kids.In fact, that was one of the issues between us.”

“She didn’t like our children?”she asked.“God, what a bitch.You should’ve dumped her the minute you found that out.What’s her address?I’ll take her down a notch or two.”

He laughed and shifted to lie down at an angle, resting his torso on her thigh as his legs twined around her other one.

“I know she’d have fallen in love with the twins if she met them,” he said, propping his temple on his fist with his elbow on the mattress beneath it.“But she wasn’t interested in having more, I wanted the option.”

Her lips moved when his free hand slid onto her stomach.That distant glaze over his expression suggested he was acting without thinking.He seemed a million miles away, watching his hand stroke the fabric of her dress, low down on her abdomen.

“I hope you don’t expect to get them from there,” she said.

She wasn’t offended and didn’t make any move to stop his caress.It seemed to comfort him, though she didn’t know why.

“It’s amazing, Ry,” he said, relaxing his hand on her just above her pubis.“This body created the two most important things in my life… and I never appreciated it.”

“My body?”

“What you did for me,” he said.“What you went through… I wasn’t there for any of the pregnancy.I missed it all.I regret that… And I don’t regret a lot in my life.”

“Even telling me your suite had a bar?”

He snapped back to reality to fix on her.“Especially that,” he said.“Damn, Rylee, the kids are the best thing I ever did in my life… the best thing I’ve ever been a part of… though I admit I didn’t do much.”

“I didn’t get morning sickness,” she said.“I craved tortilla chips and would eat them by the ton… I was utterly exhausted for the first three months and the last three.”

“If I’d been around, if I’d known that, I would’ve been able to help.”

“How?”she asked, pushing the pillow deeper under her head to make seeing him easier.“You couldn’t have gone to work for me.”

“I could’ve taken care of you.You never have to work another day,” he said then rolled slightly to aim his voice toward the door.“Sprouts, back to bed, come on!”He rolled back to find her smiling.“What?”

“You’re a good dad, JD.”

The kids came running back in.Cookies aloft in Kye’s hand.

“Uh, no cookie crumbs in bed,” JD said as the kids climbed onto his bed again.

“For Mommy,” Kye said, crawling up the bed to thrust the packet at her.

“Oh, my prince,” she said, taking the cookie pack while snagging her boy to tuck him under her arm.

Kye settled against her.Sky was still hyper and jumped on the bed a couple of times.When JD put an arm out to make sure she didn’t fall, Sky grabbed it for balance and climbed up to sit on her father.

“Daddy, can I have more cookies?”Sky asked, bouncing on him.

“No,” he said.“I think you two should go brush your teeth again.It’s time to settle down.”