by K. C. Crowne
Ryan continued dishing out the bowls of stew. “We could bring the girls along, sure. And it’d probably be really fun. But we’d have to book new hotels and change the flights and everything’s such short notice now that we might not be able to do it.”
“Not to mention all the tours and such that we have planned for when we’re there,” Carly said. “Something tells me that two little girls won’t be crazy about going on all day hikes through the middle of the jungle.”
Once all the bowls were passed out and the wine glasses topped off, Carly went over to the fridge and took out two prepared plates of food for the girls.
“We hate to make you both feel like you’re on the spot,” Carly said as she took the plastic seals off the trays, placed one in front of each of the twins, and swapped out the now empty cracker bowls. “But we really don’t have any other options.”
“We’d be more than happy to pay you for your time,” Ryan offered. “Don’t forget about that.”
“No, no, no,” Hayden declined, waving his hands in front of him. “I haven’t decided if I’m going to sign on for this, but there’s not a chance in hell you’re going to be paying me if I do.”
As much as I wished I could’ve joined him in that sentiment, I kept my mouth shut. Hayden might’ve been a big-time doctor making a big-time doctor’s salary, but I was teaching Zumba for a living. A little extra money in the bank would really go a long way.
But that was something to be discussed later. For now, I had to decide if I was going to do this.
“You guys came through,” Ryan said. “We put two screaming kids in front of you and you both put aside your usual bickering and got them what they needed. There’s no reason to think that things would be any different if you were to look after them while we’re gone.”
“And it’d only be during the evenings,” Carly reminded us. “You’d come in around five or six to relieve Nancy, and she could stick around for a few minutes to get you situated. She would only be a phone call away if anything crazy came up.”
“And we’d be only a phone call away,” Ryan added. “You have any questions or concerns or anything like that, we’d be right there to help you out.”
“But what about us?” I asked. “This jerk can’t go two seconds without trying to make me mad. How the hell am I supposed to work with him?”
Ryan was right there with an answer and a smile. “That’s easy. You two fight like cats and dogs, but I’ve known you both long enough to understand that underneath it all, you love one another like mad.”
“Love?” Hayden and I choked on the word at the same time, both of us nearly spitting out our wine.
“That’s going a little far,” I stammered. “I mean, I’ve known him for years and I’ve managed to not kill him after one too many cracks. But that’s as far as I’ll take it.”
“I have an…appreciation for her,” Hayden said. “Besides, she’s a great target to try my new material on.”
Before I had a chance to say anything to that, he reached over and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, putting me into a playful headlock.
“Hey!” I shouted, banging on his arms as I tried to get him to let me go. “Take your mitts off me, you big oaf!”
This all served to get the girls’ attention, and they watched with big smiles on their faces – smiles that quickly turned into laughter. Hayden held me hard enough to keep me in place, but that didn’t stop me from banging on his forearm with my fists. Ryan and Carly joined in with the girls, and before I knew it, we were all laughing about it.
I gave Hayden one last shove as he let me go, then picked up my glass of wine. Hayden had loved to put me in headlocks, ever since I was a kid. But when I’d gotten to be a teenager, the thing I hated most about them was how I couldn’t ignore that part of me that loved being held so closely by him.
Once the laughter subsided, silence returned. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Hayden, glass of wine tucked against his chest, looking down, deep in thought. Finally, he lifted his eyes and looked at Ryan and Carly, determination in his gaze.
“You know what? I’ll do it.”
“Are you serious?” Ryan asked. “You’ll really watch the girls?”
“Sure, why not? It’s only during the evening, and it’ll give me a chance to spend some quality time with two of my favorite people.”
“Three of your favorite people,” Carly said with a grin, her eyes flicking over to me for a moment.
“Now, let’s not go crazy,” Hayden replied with a wry smile.
Shit. Part of me wanted to do the job – a huge part of me, really. It’d be a bit of a stretch to balance work with taking care of the girls, but it’d be majorly worth it to spend time with my nieces.
There was still the Hayden matter, however. How the hell was I going to handle that? Not like I could just bring up the fact that he and I had kissed, that there was still some major unresolved tension between us. Who the hell could guess how Ryan and Carly would react to that if they were to find out?
“Don’t feel obligated to answer now,” Carly said, reaching over and putting her hand on my knee. “It’s kind of a big thing, and I don’t want you to feel pressured just because Hayden made a decision.”
“Right,” Hayden added. “I’m sure you’ve got to take some time to figure out how to fit it all in between all the dates you’ve been…oh, wait. Sorry, I meant to say how you’re going to fit it all in between your evenings of Netflix and red wine.”
Now I was pissed.
“You have no idea how I spend my evenings. As a matter of fact…” I trailed off when I saw the shit-eating grin on his face. The thing about Hayden that I should’ve learned by now was that he thrived on getting a reaction out of me.
I sighed.
“I’ll do it.”
Ryan and Carly let out a little cheer, and there were hugs all around.
“You guys are so freaking amazing,” Carly said as she clasped her hands together. “I have no idea what we’d be doing without you.”
“Probably getting the girls psyched up for their malaria shots,” Hayden said with a smirk.
We went into dinner, polishing off bowls of delicious fish stew and fresh-baked bread, washing it all down with wine, except for Carly who enjoyed a big glass of ice water. When that was all done, Ryan brought out the cannolis he’d made. He had become really into baking over the last year, and just like everything else he tried, he was kicking butt at it.
After dessert, I had one last bit of wine. Ryan and Hayden went into the other room to talk shop, and a thought occurred to me.
“Hey, Carly? You mind if we talk outside for a second?”
She regarded me with a curious expression. “Something wrong?”
“Just…something I wanted to ask.”
“Sure.”
She popped her head into the living room to ask Ryan to keep an eye on the girls for a moment. Then she led me out onto the patio. The evening was a touch chilly, but Carly flicked on the small space heater, the air becoming toasty warm within seconds.
The view was amazing – the moon was half-full, its brilliant, silver light pouring down over the peaks. And it was so damn peaceful, too. I lived closer to downtown, which meant that hardly a night passed without honking horns or blaring ambulances ruining the evening calm.
“Listen,” Carly said. “Whatever you’ve got on your mind, I’m all ears. I know there was some pressure in there to agree, but if you want to back out, there’s no hard feelings. Seriously.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then what’s up?”
I wanted to tell her what happened between Hayden and I so badly. She had a right to know, after all. Carly and Ryan both knew we were at each other’s throat’s half the time, so anything that might make that situation worse was something she needed to be made aware of.
But another part of me was certain I could handle it. I’d put up with Hayden and his bullshit since we were kids, after all. Why wouldn’t I
be able to do the same while we had children to look after?
I still had to be careful, however. Which is why I’d wanted to talk to her.
“The thing is…Hayden and I...wanted to know if it would be possible for us to switch off, yeah? He could take one night; I could take another. That way we wouldn’t be in each other’s faces all the time.”
Carly gave me a confused expression. “You guys really think you’d be fighting that much? I know you two bicker but we figured it was all in good fun.”
What was I supposed to say? That part of me was afraid that I’d give in to my attraction to Hayden while looking after her kids?
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe I’m just being weird. I’m sure we can work together.”
That put a smile on Carly’s face.
“Right. You guys like to squabble, but you’ll be able to keep yourselves in check. And if things get too…too whatever they might get, the house is huge. You can take one kid and go upstairs, and he can take the other and stay down here. That’s why I figured you’d want to work together, so neither of you would be overwhelmed by looking after twins on your own.”
She made a good point – switching off would mean that we’d be dealing with the twins completely on our own.
“And you’re more than welcome to stay over the whole time to make it easier. Pack a bag, come on over, and relax. Treat it like a mini vacation.”
“That might be doable,” I said.
“If you have any second thoughts…”
“I know. And thanks.”
“No, thank you.”
We hugged and headed back inside. The rest of the evening was spent playing with the kids, Ryan and Carly giving us some pointers on how to handle them. Hayden and I left on cordial terms, but during the drive home I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell I’d gotten myself into.
Chapter 10
HAYDEN
What the hell had I been thinking?
Me, with two toddlers and Grace for ten days? How the hell was I going to pull that off?
I drove home, making my way through the winding roads that led to my subdivision. As I did, the moonlight shined high above and reminded me of that night with Grace, when her gorgeous face had been bathed in silver light, and I found myself wondering if I’d made a huge mistake.
I loved the twins. Just seeing those adorable little girls smile would be enough to brighten my whole day, no matter what kind of rotten mood I might happen to be in. But while I could be goofy Uncle Hayden for a while, I had no idea how I was going to pull it off for a damn week and a half.
Ryan had been a natural with kids. And that made a bit of sense. He was an OB/GYN, after all, and part and parcel of that job was dealing with little ones.
I had no such training. I was clueless with kids other than knowing how to ham it up to get a laugh out of them when I needed to. Ryan and Carly seemed sure that Grace and I figuring out how to drop a couple dishes of goldfish crackers in front of the girls was proof that we knew what we were doing, but I wasn’t so sure.
No doubt bigger issues would come to the forefront over the course of ten days. Would Grace and I be able to handle them? Not to mention the small, teensy-tiny issue of how we’d kissed at the wedding. Grace could act like a brat about it all she wanted, but we’d almost accidentally determined that we were both very much into one another.
She and I and a big house all to ourselves. What the hell was going to happen?
I sighed as I swiped my keycard over the sensor at the gates to my subdivision. My place, a twenty-five-hundred-square-foot penthouse condo, was located right near the Capstone Peaks Golf Course. It was a new subdivision, built near enough to the city to allow access to its amenities, but far enough away that there was plenty of peace and quiet to be had.
I pulled into the parking garage of my building, the twenty stories of glass and steel looming above. I parked and took the elevator up to the penthouse. The doors opened with a soft chime, and I gave myself a moment to appreciate the place before stepping inside.
The apartment was still relatively new. I’d only moved in a couple of months ago after a fierce bidding war with a few other would-be buyers. After slapping down an extra hundred-and-fifty thousand on top of the asking price, I’d come in on top.
Sure, the place had cost a pretty penny. But it’d been worth it. The penthouse lights flicked on automatically as I stepped into the place, the sleek, modern interior of the apartment cast in a soft, amber glow. The main room was huge, the ceilings twenty feet high and the floor-to-ceiling windows offering a killer view of the golf course and the city skyline a few miles beyond. The western windows looked out onto the mountains.
I loved the place. But at times, I wondered if it was a little much for one man. It had three bedrooms, three baths, and two floors. It was basically a house in the sky. But I’d bought it figuring that it’d be preferable to have too much space than too little.
A quick trip into the kitchen, I had a glass of whiskey in my hand as I strode out onto the balcony. The view was killer, and any time I found myself wondering if I’d made the right call in picking this place among all the others I’d checked out, one look off the balcony over the golf course and the lake and the city in the distance was all I needed to be certain it had been money well spent.
I dropped into one of the chairs and let my gaze drift over the distance. The weeks ahead were going to be different – no doubt about that. However, the more I sipped my whiskey, the more certain I was that I’d made the right call. I was nervous about being responsible for the girls, but how hard could it be? You feed them, goof around with them, and then put them to bed when they’re tired.
Simple, right? Granted, there was a hell of a lot more to being a parent than that. Not like I was planning on becoming a parent anytime soon, of course.
As much as I tried to keep my head clear of her, I found myself thinking about Grace as I sipped my drink and watched the city.
We were going to be joined at the hip for ten days, and the thought reminded me that I hadn’t gotten from Ryan and Carly exactly when they’d be going out of town. I figured it was likely in a week or so, which would give me plenty of time to get mentally prepared for it all.
I just couldn’t stop thinking about her. After finishing my whiskey and heading inside, I’d hoped she’d be out of my mind. She wasn’t. She stayed there, almost as if somehow, she knew what she was doing, like she was taunting me.
I needed a shower. I headed upstairs, stripping off my clothes as I stepped over the threshold of the master bedroom, the view in there just as spectacular as on the balcony. By the time I entered the bathroom I was in nothing but my black boxer briefs and a glance down revealed that I was semi-hard.
It was worrying. All it had taken to make me visibly aroused had been thinking about her. What the hell was going to happen when I was practically living with the woman?
I sighed, hooking my thumbs under my boxers, and pulled them down over my thick, powerful quads. Once they were down at my feet, I kicked them off and made my way to the shower. The bathroom, like all the rooms in the apartment, was huge. The shower was fancy as hell, befitting of a place like mine, with heads on all sides to spray you everywhere at once.
I turned on the hot water and stepped inside, the jets blasting my body and easing the tension out of my muscles.
But as soon as I acclimated to the warmth of the water, I found myself thinking about her again. Before I knew it, my hand was on my cock, moving up and down my length. At first, it seemed like a terrible idea to pleasure myself thinking about Grace. However, I realized it might take the edge off my attraction to her, give me some space to think.
She entered my mind like an invader, and this time the imagery was more intense. It was an alternate universe, one where she’d returned the kiss at the wedding and neither of us had stopped ourselves. We’d made our way back up to my room, the kissing only growing more and more intense as we crossed the thres
hold.
I’d have her naked fast. Being intimate with Grace, having her lips on mine, my hands on her hips, would be enough to drive me wild. I’d tear her out of that dress, undo the clasp of her bra and take her full, luscious tits into my hands. Even in my fantasy I could feel her pert, pink nipples go hard against my fingertips.
She’d close her eyes and let her body fall against my arm, her breasts rising and falling as she took in one short, quick breath after another. Then I’d lay her down on the bed, peeling her dress off down her long legs, leaving her in nothing but her lacy, dark panties.
The thought of her nearly naked body spread before me was enough to make me want to come right then and there. Instead, I took the fantasy further, imagining what it would be like to kiss her curvy figure, to taste her all over.
I imagined bending her over, arching her back in front of me as she glanced over her shoulder, a sensual, inviting look in her eyes. I’d take hold of my cock and drag it slowly against her lips, Grace moaning and bucking into me as I teased her in just the way she liked.
Then I’d place my cock at her opening and push slowly and deeply into her. I’d glance down to watch all my inches vanish into her willing pussy, her warm, wet walls stretching and gripping me tightly. I imagined the way her perfect, toned ass would look bouncing against my cock.
It was all the fantasy I could take. Back in the real world I brought myself to the brink and stepped over, pleasure exploding from my cock as I shot my load into thick, pearl-white arcs. My seed splashed onto the shower floor, lingering for a moment before the water brought it down into the drain.
I took a moment to catch my breath, my cock twitching in my hands. When I was ready, I finished washing up, then stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my body.
I was so tired that I didn’t even bother to put on underwear, let alone sleeping clothes. I entered the bedroom and let the towel drop and then fell onto the bed. My eyes were closed the moment my head hit the pillow.
I slept like a damn baby.