Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4)

by Jessica Prince

  “Welcome to parenthood,” Kenzie replied casually as she took a sip of her coffee. “I tried warning you that it wasn’t always sunshine and roses. You sure you want to deal with this? These mornings will be pretty frequent now they’re comfortable with you.”

  Reaching over, I snagged her coffee cup and sat it on the counter before wrapping her arms around my waist and pulling her body firmly against mine.

  “Hell yeah, I still want to deal with this. I’m in it for the long haul; I’ve told you that. I just need an instruction manual or something to deal with mornings like this.”

  Standing on her tiptoes, she gave me a little peck and smiled against my lips. “You’re kind of amazing. You know that?”

  “I’ve been told a time or a thousand,” I answered with a sarcastic grin.

  Kenzie let out a laugh, “And so humble.”

  “What can I say, I’m a catch.”

  “Ready!” Cameron hollered as he and Callie came darting back into the kitchen.

  “All right, rugrats, let’s hit the road.”

  Shoving my wallet and phone into my pants pockets, I stole one more kiss from Kenzie before heading out. Right before we got to the door, Callie asked—very loudly, “Brett, can we still gets donuts? You promised.”

  I looked over my shoulder at Kenzie just in time to see her throw me a wink. “I’ll see about ordering that manual off Amazon.”

  My girl. Always looking out for me.

  “Afternoon, Lori. Looking beautiful as ever,” I told the daycare worker as I walked up to the front desk. The older woman had been in Cloverleaf since before I was born. Her daycare was the one I’d gone to when I was a child myself.

  “Well, if it’s not Brett Halstead. What can I do for you today, darlin’?”

  “I’m here to pick up Callie and Cameron Webster. Their mom should have put me on the pickup list this morning.”

  She typed away on the keyboard in front of her before stating, “Ah, yeah. Looks like she did. I’ll just need to see your license and you’ll be all set.”

  After handing my license over, Lori made a photocopy of it and slid it back to me before directing me to the twins’ classroom.

  “You know,” she called out as I started to walk away. “Those kids and their momma are something else.”

  I shot her a smile over my shoulder. “Don’t I know it.”

  “Any man who lands them is one lucky son of a gun, if you ask me.”

  “Preachin’ to the choir here.” I gave her a wink, and then made my way down the hall to their room. The minute I pushed it open, I was overthrown by two mini tornados.

  “BRETT! BRETT!” the twins shouted as they latched on to my legs.

  “Hey there, rugrats. You ready to go home?”

  As they ran to their cubbies for their jackets, a pretty teenage girl with a shy smile approached me. “Hi there, I’m Megan, the twins’ teacher.”

  “I’m Brett, nice to meet you,” I said, extending my hand for her to shake. The moment her palm touched mine her eyes cast down and her entire face flushed bright red as a girly giggle rose from her chest.

  Great, a teenage girl with a crush. Yeah, I wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot pole. Time to go.

  “Hey guys, you ready?”

  Seeming to snap out of it, Megan declared, “Oh! Don’t forget their art folders.” She ran over, grabbed two folders and brought them back to me. “Today’s project was for them to draw their family.”

  I took the folders in my hand and raised them in a wave. “Thanks. Have a great evening.”

  We made our way out of the daycare and over to my Jeep where I loaded the twins in the booster seats I’d bought to keep in my car. As I buckled them in, I couldn’t help but remember just how appreciative Kenzie had been when I informed her I bought my own seats so we didn’t have to keep switching. She showed her gratitude with her mouth…and her hands…and pretty much every one of my favorite parts of her rockin’ body for hours.

  Just like Lori had said. I was a lucky, lucky man.

  Walking into Brett’s house after work, I was beyond surprised to see dinner was almost finished and the twins were sitting at the dinner table coloring. In all the years I had been with Lance, he never once cooked dinner for me. That had always been my job, or, in Lance’s words, the woman’s job.

  “Hi, Mommy!” Callie called when she saw me. I dropped my purse by the door and walked over to the table.

  “Hey, honey pot.” I leaned down to place a kiss on her head before walking over to do the same to Cam. “You and bubs have a good day?”

  “Yeah,” she answered, Cameron still silently engrossed in coloring a picture of Spiderman.

  I walked over to the stove where Brett stood, stirring a pot of something that smelled delicious.

  “Hey, beauty,” he said, planting a kiss on my lips.

  “Hi,” I smiled. “You’re making dinner?”

  “Mmmhmm. Pork chops, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and homemade gravy.”

  I leaned over the stove, inhaling deeply before whispering, “Dear Lord, I’m so hot for you right now.”

  Brett chuckled and pulled me flush against his strong, hard body, saying, “That so? Well then, maybe you’ll be willing to show your gratitude tonight.”

  “Mommy,” Cameron called. “We got to go to Viwgie May’s after school. We gots to see Emmy, and Brett bought a whole bunches of yummy food for dinner!”

  I pulled away from Brett with a glare and walked over to the trashcan. Sure enough, a bag from Emmy’s diner and a bunch of to-go containers filled the can.

  “It’s the thought that counts,” he informed me. “You’re lucky I went this route. Can’t cook for shit.”

  My head fell back on a laugh. Whether he cooked or not didn’t matter to me. The fact that he even thought to handle dinner before I got home was what really counted. He was so getting lucky.

  “Mommy, look it.” Callie came running up to where Brett and I stood. “We drew pictures of our family at school today.”

  I took the picture from her hand and studied the stick figures she’d drawn on the page. Brett’s chest pushed against my back as he leaned over my shoulder to take a look.

  “Dats me and bubs and you and Brett. See? He’s wearing a toow belt.” She pointed to a yellow scribble around one of the stick figure’s waists. The breath whooshed from my lungs as she spoke. My little girl drew a picture of her family, and there Brett stood, right there in the middle of stick figure Callie and stick figure Cameron.

  Brett’s solid body went stiff as a board behind me and I could have sworn he’d stopped breathing.

  “Do you like it, Brett?” Callie asked, staring up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

  Brett’s chest rumbled as he cleared his throat, his voice thick with emotion as he answered, “Yeah, ladybug. I love it.”

  She jumped up and down excitedly, clapping her little hands. “Can we put it on the fwidge?”

  “Heck yeah.” He stepped from behind me, took the picture from her, and stuck it front and center on the refrigerator door.

  “YAY!” Callie yelled as she bounded up to Brett. “Now evewyone will see our family.” She hugged his legs tightly, muttering a quick, “Love you, Brett,” before going back to the table to finish her coloring.

  When I turned to catch Brett’s eyes, the love I saw shining in their warm brown depths made my heart squeeze.

  “Christ, I love that little girl,” he mumbled in a hoarse, gravelly voice.

  Walking up to him, I put my arms around his waist and squeezed tightly, burying my face in his chest and inhaling his clean scent. “Thank you,” I whispered against the ball in my throat as tears pricked the back of my eyes, threatening to spill over.

  He reached up and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “For what, beauty?”

  I pulled back and stared up at him, hoping he could see the sincerity in my eyes. “For being so wonderful. How’d I ever get lucky enough to have you
?”

  The kiss he placed on my lips was feather light, but full of emotion. “I’m the lucky one, baby.”

  God, this man undid me in every way. I had no walls left. He’d shattered through ever defense I had. I could finally admit it to myself.

  I was crazy in love with Brett Halstead.

  “Oh, God. Harder, Brett, faster,” I begged helplessly, writhing beneath him as he thrust into me with slow, torturous strokes.

  “Eyes on me, baby,” Brett panted as he continued to drag his cock in and out, driving me out of my mind.

  Using all my strength, I peeled my heavy eyelids open and stared up at the man doing insanely erotic things to my body, manipulating it in ways no one ever had before.

  “Fuck me, your pussy’s so perfect,” he ground out, making my walls clench around him. I was never much for dirty talk, but there was just something about when Brett did it that set my blood on fire. Just his words were usually enough to send me careening into a blinding climax, but this time was different. It was as if each thrust was calculated to drive me closer and closer, but not enough to send me over. He was intentionally denying me my release.

  “Baby, please,” I whimpered, on the brink of tears if he didn’t let me come soon.

  Slow thrust in. Slow drag out.

  “Say it, beauty.”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  My brows dipped in confusion. “Say what?”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  His deep brown gaze bore into me. It was as if he was seeing every single thing I felt. “Say it, beauty. I know you feel it. I want to hear you say it.”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  Oh shit. He knew. He knew how I felt about him. My breath stalled completely. “Brett,” I whispered on an exhale.

  Thrust in, drag out.

  “Say it, Kenzie. Tell me what I want to hear and I’ll let you come.”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  My head shook frantically, my eyes wide as fear took over.

  Thrust in, drag out.

  “Yes, baby. I know you do. Just say it.”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  Fear took hold of me. Yes, I knew I loved him. But knowing it and saying it were two different things. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was still terrified that admitting it aloud would change everything…would change Brett.

  Thrust in, drag out.

  “I’m not going anywhere, beauty,” Brett murmured as he dragged his nose against the side of mine. Sweat coated our bodies and I could feel him tensing up. He was as close as I was but refused to let go. “I swear to you, Kenzie, I’m not going anywhere and I’ll never change on you,” he said, reading my mind. “This is me. This is us.”

  My hips moved up against his as I fought him, trying to grab at my climax. “Brett.”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  “I love you, baby. I love you. Just say it. Please, just say it.”

  Thrust in, drag out.

  Oh, God. He loved me. Brett loved me. I could see the honesty reflecting back at me in his eyes. I knew they weren’t just words to him. He meant them. He truly did, and that thought alone cracked my heart wide open.

  Thrust in, drag out.

  Lifting my head to bury it in the crook of his neck, I moaned, “I love you. God, I love you so much.”

  That was all it took. With my admission, Brett’s control snapped. He pulled almost all the way out and drove back into me with a fierce snap of his hips, causing me to cry out as that sweet combination of pleasure and pain began to take hold.

  “Again,” he growled as he pounded into me, fucking me like a man possessed.

  “I love you.”

  “Fuuuuuck, beauty,” he groaned. “Love. You. Too.” Each word was punctuated with a violent shove of his cock. “Want you to come, baby. Want you to scream it as you come all over my cock.”

  That was all it took. I spiraled down into a climax so strong I thought I might drown, yelling out I love you as it pulled me under.

  “That’s it, Kenzie. Give it to me, baby. Fuck, you’re so beautiful when you come.” His erotic words only fueled my release, causing tears to slide from the corner of my eyes as I came long and hard.

  “So close, baby. So fuckin’ close. God, I love you.” I felt him swell even thicker moments before he buried himself to the hilt and dropped his head into my neck, groaning out my name as his climax filled me, each twitch of his dick sending tremors through my sensitive pussy.

  “Fuckin’ perfect. So fuckin’ perfect,” he mumbled minutes later once we’d both managed to catch our breaths.

  When he pushed up on his forearms and looked down at me, I couldn’t help but smile at what I saw staring back at me. “Love you, honey,” I whispered, pushing a strand of hair from his forehead.

  Lowering his head to nuzzle his face against mine, I felt his own smile against my cheek as he told me, “Love you more, beauty. Always.”

  Only moments later, exhaustion pulled me under into a peaceful sleep. My life had never felt more wonderful.

  I honest to God believed that the Cloverleaf Fall Festival was created in order to kill me. That wasn’t an exaggeration.

  Brett, unable to deny the twins’ manipulative innocence, had already gotten them cotton candy, funnel cake, and hot chocolate topped with three inches of marshmallows to wash it all down with.

  I had to put my foot down on the caramel apples. Callie and Cameron were running around, screaming at the top of their lungs like—well, like two five-year-olds hopped up on sugar. But it wasn’t just the twins who had my head pounding so bad it felt like my eyeballs were about to pop out.

  Oh, no.

  The real problem was those two combined with Trevor. That was a combination created by the devil himself.

  “MOMMY! I wanna ride that Ferris wheel again!” Cameron yelled at the top of his lungs—because a kid on a sugar high can’t possibly speak at a regular decibel.

  “YEAH! The Ferris wheel!” Trevor shouted. “Let’s ride it again!”

  “We’re doing the pumpkin patch,” I answered. “You can ride the Ferris wheel again later.”

  “Ahhhh,” all three—yes, three—of them whined.

  Throwing my hands up in defeat, I turned and looked at Brett who was trying his hardest not to laugh his ass off.

  “This is all your fault,” I hissed out.

  “What’d I do?”

  “You fed the kids a pound of sugar each and let Trevor off his leash!”

  “Hey! In my defense, Lizzy’s the one in control of Trevor’s leash. If you’re gonna blame anyone for him, blame her!” he shouted, pointing his finger in Lizzy’s face.

  She just looked at me with an eh, what are you gonna do expression and shrugged. “I gave up trying to rein all that crazy in. It’s best to just let him run the energy out of his system until he exhausts himself. Kinda like a puppy.”

  Letting out an exasperated breath, I turned around to find Emmy, Luke, Savannah and Jeremy laughing so hard they were hunched over with tears in their eyes. At my murderous glare, Stacia and Gavin slowly backed away, stating, “Uh, we’re gonna go look around. We’ll meet y’all over at the pumpkin patch.” Then they took off, smart enough not to stick around.

  “Hey, guys, check it out!” Ben called as he and Mickey came walking up to our group. “They have deep fried Oreo’s.” He took a huge bite and let out a groan. “Best. Thing. Ever.”

  “I WANNA DEEP FWIED OREO! I WANNA DEEP FWIED OREO!” Callie shrieked, jumping up and down.

  “No more sugar,” I said a little too loudly, drawing the attention of the families all around us.

  “All right, rugrats,” Brett spoke up in order to diffuse the situation. “Time to hit up the pumpkin patch. Let’s go find the biggest pumpkin they have.” He scooped up a squealing Cameron and plopped him on his shoulders then took Callie’s hand and led the way.

  “Come on, Momma,” Emmy said, throwing her arm over my shoulders. “Let’s go get our pumpkin picking on.” We all
trailed after Brett and the kids, laughing and joking around as we walked through the pumpkin patch. Eventually, Gavin and Stacia made their way back to us once the threat of my head exploding had passed.

  I’d lost track of how long we’d been wandering around in search of the perfect damn pumpkin. All I knew was that I wanted to cry out in thanks when I heard Cameron shout, “Brett! Look at dis one. It’s HUGE!” We all looked over in time to see him try to pick up a pumpkin almost as big as he was.

  “Whoa, little man,” Brett called over as he rushed to where Cameron was huffing and puffing away. Was it possible for a five-year-old to get a hernia? “That thing’s huge, bud. You sure that’s the one you want?”

  Cameron’s head bobbed up and down animatedly. With a laugh, Brett stood and went to collect one of the red wagons the pumpkin patch had for the pumpkins that weighed too much to carry. Then the girls and I stood back, watching and laughing as Brett and the rest of the guys struggled to get the ginormous pumpkin into the wagon.

  “Luke! Don’t you dare throw your back out!” Emmy yelled. “This baby’s coming soon. I’m not gonna be taking care of it all on my own ‘cause your old butt was trying to show off and slipped a disc!”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, baby girl,” he hollered back, his face so red I was a little scared he was close to rupturing a nut.

  I felt a tug on the hem of my jacket and looked down to see Callie standing there, holding a tiny pumpkin the size of her fist. “Mommy, can I have this one?”

  “Sure thing, honey pot,” I told her, squatting down to her level. “But are you sure you don’t want to get one a little bigger?”

  “Nah, bubby can get the big one. I just want dis baby punkin.”

  I placed a kiss on my little girl’s head and smiled brightly. “Well, if that’s the one you want, that’s the one you’re getting.”

  She whooped with enthusiasm before asking, “Can I have another funnel cake?”

  I opened my mouth to shoot her down just as Trevor made his way over to our little group. “Ready.”

  We all turned our eyes his way to see him standing there with a pumpkin twice the size of his head.