Her silent chuckle shook between them. “What do you do during your man time?”
He nipped playfully at her jaw. “Man stuff.”
Her head turned a notch over her shoulder. “Strippers?”
He paused to consider that. “You know, we have never been to a strip club together.” He kissed her soundly on the cheek. “Thanks for the idea.”
Leaving her laughing, he picked up his mug and circled around to claim a stool. He sat and watched as she poured caramel over the baked dough. She was still grinning, but her hands were steady.
“I have a million more of these to make for the event tomorrow. Then I’m going to call Calla and let her know they’re ready, and that is pretty much my day.”
Toby took a sip of his coffee. “How did I fall so hard for such a wild woman?”
He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, yet it popped out of him and hung between them. Addy’s head came up and her eyes locked with his. But she didn’t say anything before she resumed her glazing with a pink tinge in her cheeks.
The arrival of the Charleston’s had their conversation on hold as the couple said their goodbyes.
“Just something to take with you on the road,” Addy said as she passed them a bag of goodies. “Drive safely.”
Laura hugged her. “We are really going to miss you and the children, Addy. We will definitely be coming back.”
Smiling, Addy drew back. “I’ll walk you out.”
Toby stayed where he was as the trio left the room. He was contemplating whether or not to eat one of the donuts when Sean arrived, dressed, showered, and ready to face the day.
“Hey,” Toby said, turning in his seat.
Sean inclined his head stiffly, but said nothing. He rarely said anything, even less when Toby was around. He couldn’t help wondering if the boy just didn’t like him.
“Ready for school?”
Sean nodded. His gaze moved over the room.
“She’s saying goodbye to the Charleston’s,” Toby told him.
Sean considered this the same way he deliberated everything before making his way deeper into the room. He set out pulling out bread. He used the counter that put his back to Toby while he made himself lunch.
“How’s school?” Toby asked, needing to find something to bond with the kid. Hanna had been easy. She just accepted people. Sean was a sullen old man in the body of a ten year old. “Any subjects you like?”
“Math,” came the curt response.
“Is Mrs. Humphry still teaching that class?”
“Pollock,” he muttered. “Mrs. Humphry retired five years ago.”
Toby hissed through his teeth. “I didn’t think they were ever going to get her to leave. We had polls going to see if we’d walk into class and find her dead in her chair. Nobody ever won the poll.”
The moment he said it, he wanted to smack himself in the forehead. What a creepy and rude thing to say.
“Brittany Sawyer did.” Sean glanced back over his shoulder. “She bet Mrs. Humphry would retire. She was the only one.”
“No kidding!” He mulled that over while he took a sip of his drink. “That pot must have been enormous. It was running since I started high school.”
“Over twenty grand.”
The mug struck the counter with a crack. “No!”
Sean nodded, grinning. “Yup.”
“Ugh!” Toby shook his head. “I spent a small fortune on that pool! I feel so ripped off.”
Sean snickered and went back to the bread. “She put it towards her get out of town fund.”
Toby snorted. “We’ve all had one of those.”
“I don’t.”
He peered over at the boy. “Like it here?”
“My mom and sister are here,” was his answer. “They need me.”
If Toby could even think of anything to say, it was interrupted by Addy’s return. She brushed her hands together and stalked back to the island.
“The Charleston’s have left,” she declared.
“Did you check them out on the computer or just the book?” Sean asked, peering at his mother closely.
Addy huffed and speared a hip with one balled fist. “I’ll have you know I do sometimes know what I’m doing with that monstrous contraption.”
Sean continued to bore into her, expression dry.
Addy relented. “Yes, I removed them off your precious computer.”
The boy seemed unconvinced, but he went back to preparing his lunch without a comment. Addy turned to Toby.
“Not a fan of computers?” he teased.
Addy winced. “Hate them,” she mouthed with a roll of her eyes.
“She thinks it’s a devil’s spawn,” Sean supplied. “And I saw that.”
Addy swatted at him with a dishcloth. “Quiet you.” She turned back to Toby. “For your information, the feeling is mutual. That thing hates me.”
“It’s an inanimate object,” Sean reminded her. “It’s incapable of hate.”
“Then explain why it beeps at me every time I touch it.”
Sean paused mid application of mustard to face his mother. “Because you hit the wrong keys.”
“Which I swear keep moving every time I try to type,” Addy complained vehemently. “Technology hates me.”
“It’s technology now, eh?” Sean muttered, unimpressed by dramatics. “Is it Skynet, Mom?”
Addy burst out laughing. “Okay, no more Terminator for you, and stop teasing me, you evil child.”
A comfortable silence descended while Sean packed his lunch into his backpack and Addy finished glazing the donuts. Toby watched the pair with a sense of amusement and something else he couldn’t put his finger on.
“Do you want a donut for breakfast?” Addy asked Sean. “Or do you want eggs?”
“Pick donuts and I’ll show you a really cool trick,” Toby suggested.
Sean’s eyes narrowed as though Toby had offered to show him how to properly break the law. “What kind of trick?”
“Pick donuts,” Toby countered smoothly. “Trust me. It’s Colten’s favorite.”
Something like interest sparked behind the kid’s eyes, but it was quickly masked and he shrugged. “Okay.”
Toby leaned over and patted the second stool. “Join me, my Padawan.”
Casting a cautious glance at his mother, Sean rounded the island and sat.
Toby turned to Addy. “Two donuts please.”
Biting back her grin, Addy set two donut rolls on a plate and set them down with two tall glasses of milk. Toby rose and made his way to the cupboards he’d seen Addy used for baking and rummaged behind boxes, jars and containers until he found what he was searching for.
“Sprinkles and chocolate shavings?” she mumbled, with a hint of disgust.
Toby paused to shoot her a look. “Hey, shush you.”
Addy put her hands up and watched as he regained his seat. Deftly, he sprinkled a layer of sprinkles across each of the donuts, then covered it with a heavier dose of chocolate shavings. Then he dusted his hands and sat back.
“Go on.”
The boy looked apprehensive, but he pinched the dessert between his fingers and raised it to his mouth. Toby watched as he tore off a piece and chewed. Suspicion melted into wide eyed surprise.
“This is good!” he declared.
Addy grimaced. “Looks like a sugar coma waiting to happen.”
“We like sugar,” Toby told her firmly.
“I can see that.” Addy chuckled. “Would you like a shot of diabetes with that?”
He shot her a glower. “I’ll have you know, it took years to perfect this recipe.”
Laughing harder, Addy left them to their unhealthy choices and finished packing the rest of the donuts. Sean polished off his donut. Toby started nudging his over to the boy.
“No!” Addy snatched the plate away. “I’d like him to retain at least some of his brain cells.”
“Chocolate doesn’t kill brain cells,” Sean protested. “Studies
show that chocolate is actually good for you.”
“Your dentist would disagree.”
Sean pouted, a first as far as Toby was concerned, and hopped off the stool. He downed his milk, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took his dishes to the sink.
“I’m going to wait outside,” he told his mother.
“Hey, doesn’t Owen ride the same bus?” Toby asked.
Sean shook his head. “Colten does. Owen’s mom drops him off.”
Toby nodded slowly. “Do you guys sit together?”
The look that crossed Sean’s face was one of horror, like the thing Toby was asking was just ridiculous. “No!” he blurted with the same burst of alarm.
“Why not?”
Sean frowned. “Because he’s Colten McClain. He’s like the coolest kid in school. You can’t just sit with him.”
Toby raised an eyebrow. “Right. The hierarchy of the bus. Gotcha.”
Fidgeting with the straps on his backpack, Sean lowered his gaze. “I gotta go.”
He waited for his mom to kiss him and say her goodbyes before rushing from the room. A moment later, the front door opened and shut.
“What’s the bus hierarchy?” Addy asked once they were alone.
Toby snorted. “Just a group of kids who sit at the back. They’re usually the popular kids.”
“Huh,” was all she said. “Were you in the hierarchy?”
Toby shifted. He rubbed at the back of his head sheepishly. “You know, that was so long ago. I don’t think I remember…”
“Uh huh.” She grinned at him. “So you were. I can see that.”
He lowered his arm. “How’s that?”
She shrugged awkwardly. “You’re … you.”
Setting his forearms on the counter, Toby leaned forward. “No, no, explain.”
Her cheeks darkened. “Well, you’re smart and funny, and…” She faltered. Her gaze flicked away from him. “You’re good looking,” she finished in a mumble.
Highly entertained by the rise of color up her face to graze her hairline, Toby smirked. “Really? How good looking?”
He caught the dishrag she pitched at his face and laughed.
“You’re awful,” she muttered around the grin twisting her lips.
Abandoning his stool, he worked his way around to her side. She didn’t back away or seem uncertain when he caged her between him and the counter with one hand planted on the edge. He leaned into her space and was rewarded by the upward tilt of her face.
“We have an hour and a half before the others arrive and Hanna’s sleeping.”
A different type of heat worked up into her face. It soaked into the warmth of her eyes and they flared with an immediate glint of arousal. The place her mind had gone with just those words nearly destroyed his self-control. He licked his lips and her eyes followed the movement with the same yearning clawing through him.
“Shit…” he hissed and dropped his head.
Somehow, they wound up in the sitting room with him reclined on his back across the sofa and her straddling the hard, throbbing length of his cock. Their mouths moved together in desperate and intense passion that radiated in heatwaves off their fully clothed bodies. Hands raked and glided and palmed skin through too much fabric. But neither made took the step to delve under. The thrill was in the tease, in the run of his fingers over her hardened nipples and listening as she hissed and tightened her thighs around his hips. It was her low, tortured whimpers, the frantic rolls of her pussy over the length of him.
“Christ, I want to fuck you!” he snarled, fisting both hands in her hair and dragging her head back as far as it would go. He attacked her throat, marking the smooth flesh with his teeth and whiskers. “I want to shove my cock deep inside your tight little body and pound into you until we’re both seeing stars.”
“Oh … God, Toby!”
“Fuck!”
He couldn’t hold off anymore. He pushed his hand past the elastic of her tights and pushed forward, needing … dying to sink his fingers deep inside her. The tips of his fingers reached the mound before the prize when the doorbell chimed. The sound reverberated through the entire house in a shockwave of reality.
Above him, trembling like a leaf in a strong breeze, Addy made a choking sound of protest. Her darkened eyes bore down into his, begging him not to stop.
“It’s the guys,” he told her quietly. “We’ll finish later.”
Nodding, she eased off his lap and got to her feet. Toby did the same just as the chime went off a second time.
“I’ll get it,” he said when she started for the door. “You might want to use the washroom.”
Wide eyed in confusion, she lifted slim fingers to touch the marks around her mouth. The skin was red and tender from his mouth and his early morning stubble. Her lips were swollen and wet. She looked properly ravaged and so deliciously fuckable.
“We are definitely finishing this later,” he promised quietly. “Now, go.”
She left the room quickly and headed in the direction of the main floor bathroom. Toby hefted his cane off the floor where he’d pitched it aside and made his way to the front door.
“What took you?” Damon demanded. “It’s fucking cold out here!”
“Didn’t hear the bell,” he lied. “Sorry.”
Damon’s blue eyes narrowed. They took in Toby’s disheveled hair, the wrinkles on his clothes and the stupid grin that wouldn’t abate and shook his head.
“You’re sad.”
“Oh, sad is definitely not what I’m feeling right now.”
With a smirk, he stepped aside to let them in.
“Are you going to drink that or marry it?” Jared teased as Toby stared absently into the dark ripples of his soft drink.
Around them, Billy’s pub roared with late evening life. Men and women let themselves unwind for the weekend and spent their paychecks on watered down beer and stale pretzels. But crap beer or not, it was the only alcohol serving establishment in Willow Creek. Toby supposed they could just buy their own beer and take it home, but there was something relaxing about heading out with the guys and watching people get drunk and make idiots of themselves.
“I’m thinking about it,” he retorted with a crocked grin. “We’ve got a good thing going right now.”
“Should we leave you two alone?” Damon grinned around the bottle posed at his bottom lip.
“Would you?”
Jared laughed. Damon snorted.
“You seem to be in a better mood today.” Jared took a swig of his beer. “Things work out with Addy?”
“Of course they did,” Damon jumped in. “Didn’t you see him this morning?”
Toby’s cock twitched at the memory. He’d been consistently hard all day. Odd, normal little things made him think of Addy, of her body moving over his, her soft little pants whispering in his ear and the taste of her as she’d consumed him. It was a wonder he hadn’t cut off a hand manning the power saw.
“Yeah, they kind of did,” he answered, shifting in his seat. “But I could use some advice about kids. How do you get them to like you?”
Jared frowned. “Are we talking about Hanna?”
“Yeah, because that little girl likes everyone,” Damon added.
Toby shook his head. “Sean.”
Jared’s frown deepened. “You know, I haven’t seen that kid very much.”
“I think I’ve seen him a couple of times. Quiet,” Damon observed. “He’s always at the front.”
“Exactly!” Toby smacked the table with his fingers. “He’s the strangest kid I have ever met. He likes homework. He puts himself to bed without fussing. He cleans the house, does the paperwork, likes math!” He paused to shake his head. “I’m telling you, there is an old man out there with a ten year old’s soul, because this kid is not normal.”
“Hey, just because he’s not raising hell and acting like a shit doesn’t mean he’s not normal,” Damon protested.
“That isn’t what I mean,” Toby
cut in. “He is a fucking amazing kid. I mean, I can’t even begin to tell you guys, but he needs…” he broke off, not entirely sure how to explain it.
“To act like a ten year old?” Jared offered.
Toby shook his head. “It’s more than that. He just seems so … broken. Like he’s seen all the bad and wrong in the world and it had soaked into his soul. Ugh! I’m not explaining it properly.”
Damon had gone very still in his seat. His beer hand hovered several inches off the table, but made no move to continue upward or downward. Blue eyes cut through the swirling haze of second hand smoke and bore into Toby.
“Did Addy ever tell you why she left her husband?”
Toby shook his head. “No, but I know it must have been bad. She gets this look sometimes for no reason at all, and I’ve seen that look a lot on the faces of war survivors. Men and women who have seen and been through the worst life could throw at them.”
Damon’s gaze lowered. The beer bottom struck the table with a muffled thump. Long fingers unfurled and lifted to rub at his jaw.
“Tob…” he broke off, scratched harder at his chin. “I’m not going to make assumptions, but there is a long and painful road somewhere in her past, and his, and you need to be sure you’re ready to take it on, because once that kid lets you in, that’s it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Toby wasn’t an idiot. He knew perfectly well what his brother was implying and the knowledge that he wasn’t the only one thinking it cut a hole in his stomach.
“Yeah.”
Damon picked up his beer and took a long swig. He set the bottle down and stared at it hard. “Talk to him. That’s all he wants, someone to listen and hear him.”
Damon’s words plagued him all the way to his parent’s house. They arrived just as Willa turned into the driveway in Damon’s Jeep. She cut the engine. Toby pulled up behind her in his truck and did the same.
“Hey,” she said as they joined her on the crowded path. She went to her husband and kissed him lightly. “How was boys’ night?”
“Man’s night,” Damon corrected. “And uneventful.” His arms found their way around her. “Where’s the kids?”
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