She chuckled. “What exactly are you suggesting, Levi?”
He took a deep breath. “I think it’s time for a sleepover.”
Leslie’s eyes widened and her heart raced. It certainly was the natural progression, and he was right, they’d explored all they could and then some in this step. It was time to move on. She laced her fingers with his and met his eyes.
“Tonight?”
He shook his head and chuckled. “No, though I’m very, very tempted,” he said as he leaned closer and kissed her mouth. He pulled back. “Number one: we’d have to rush it to get back to the girls, and I want to take it slow the first time I make love to you.” She felt her face heat up, as well as other parts. “Number two, which is related to number one: This”—he gestured around him—“is not the most romantic place, plus I’d have a hell of a time getting that out of my mind every time I came here to work.”
“So—”
“And number three.” He put his finger on her lips. “Just imagine how it’s going to be when we’ve been thinking about it for a week, anticipating.”
Heat spiked in Leslie’s core. “So, you’re saying next weekend?”
“Do you think we could make that happen? I’ll work late nights this week so we’ll stay on schedule if you could keep Amberlyn. And if you don’t have anything better to do?”
“Well, I need check my social calendar first.” She grinned and bit her bottom lip. “Let me make sure Mama can stay all night with the girls. If not, we’ll find someone.”
Their fingers were still laced and he let go of her hand and pulled her closer. “Are you sure?”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Am I sure I want to have sex with you? Do you have any idea how long it’s been for me? Not since Gary left.”
“I haven’t been with a woman since Amberlyn was born. I guess after Tanya—that’s Amberlyn’s mom—I was a bit afraid, and frankly, Amberlyn had my complete and undivided attention. I didn’t want to leave her long enough to have a date and I didn’t want to bring anyone home unless she was ready to be a part of my daughter’s life.”
“I completely understand.”
“And now, well, you’re already part of Amberlyn’s life. I have a good support system here, and . . . I haven’t ever felt this way about anyone.” He pulled her even closer and took her breath away with his kiss. She pushed him back to catch her breath.
“Easy, dude. Save it for next weekend.”
“Oh, there’s plenty more where that came from. But we should get back to the girls.”
“Yes, we should.”
He stood first and held out his hand to help her stand and pulled her close again for another kiss before they grabbed their belongings and turned out the lights. Leslie shivered as anticipation creeped in, and she thought it was going to be a very long week as they headed out into the night.
***
By Tuesday, it had already almost gotten the better of Levi. It helped that by the time he made it to Leslie’s in the evening to pick up Amberlyn, he was exhausted. And his daughter’s presence kept his focus off Leslie’s naked body. He had seen her with her shirt off during one of their make-out sessions, so his imagination had keen details about her full breasts with the softest skin he’d ever touched. He allowed himself a few minutes each night before going to sleep to picture her, knowing how much sweeter it would be when they were finally together.
By Thursday night he was close to breaking his resolve to wait until the weekend especially when Leslie opened her door at 8:00 and met him with her bright eyes and beautiful smile. He started to reach for her when a scream sliced the air. They bolted up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and almost tripped over Amberlyn who was hurrying out of Ava’s bedroom. Amberlyn grabbed her Daddy’s hand and dragged him into the room. Ava was lying in the middle of the floor, crying loudly. Leslie was on her knees next to her daughter trying to get her to calm down enough to examine her. Levi knelt before Amberlyn and asked her what happened.
Between sobs, the little girl said, “She was having bad dreams, Daddy, and she was trying to get out of bed but she fell. I tried to grab her. I really did. I’m sorry, Daddy.”
He held her and rubbed his hand down her hair. “Shhh. Shhh. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
Leslie lifted Ava into her arms and walked over to them. She reached down to touch Amberlyn’s cheek. “Oh honey, it’s not your fault. It’ll be okay. She just has a bump and a little bit of blood.”
Amberlyn looked up at her, tears streaming down her face. Ava had her face buried into her mother’s neck, her sobs collapsing into sniffles. “Are you telling the truth?” asked the little girl, her eyes searching Leslie’s face.
Leslie nodded. “Of course. It’s Rule Number One. Remember?”
Amberlyn wiped her face with the backs of her hands while her father rubbed her back.
“Now, sweetheart, why don’t you get your toys together while your daddy helps me.”
Amberlyn nodded and ran to the other side of the bed to gather her belongings. Levi looked at Leslie, concerned. He stood and she motioned for him to follow her.
When they stepped out into the hall, she said, “I don’t think it’s really bad but there is a cut and I wanna make sure she gets checked out for a concussion, so I’m going to take her to Urgent Care. I’ll call you when I know something.”
Levi shook his head. “We’re coming with you.”
Her face softened and she put a hand to his cheek. “You’re so sweet, but I’m sure it’s all okay.”
“Have you not met my daughter? She won’t be able to sleep until she’s sure Ava’s okay.”
Leslie smiled and sighed, then nodded. “Okay. But why don’t you guys meet us there? That way you can leave when you need to and we don’t have to get Amberlyn’s car seat out.”
Leslie headed downstairs while he went back into Ava’s room to collect his daughter. She stood up as he entered and held up her backpack. “All packed,” she said.
“Listen,” Levi said as she walked toward him. “Ava’s going to be okay, really, but we want to let a doctor look at her, okay?” Her little mouth turned up into a pout and tears welled in her eyes. He picked her up. “It’s okay. We’re going to go with Ava and Miss Leslie so you can know for sure that Ava is fine. Is that okay?”
He felt the little girl nod against his shoulder. “I promise I’ll be more careful. I won’t let her get hurt again.”
His heart nearly burst with the thought of what a compassionate soul his daughter had turned out to be, and she seemed to be taking on a big sister sort of role with Ava. It warmed him to watch the two together, and he shook his head to stop himself from thinking about the two becoming sisters for real someday. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but it wasn’t the first time the thought had entered his mind, and he felt certain it would not be the last.
***
Leslie counted herself lucky that this was the first Urgent Care visit for Ava. She’d always known it would just be a matter of time and was glad that she wasn’t alone for this. Levi had told her he had had to take Amberlyn to the Urgent Care three times, though one of those times he thought she had gotten into something that had created a rash all over her legs and it turned out that she had just colored herself with a red marker. It took nearly a week for the marks to finally rub off and from then on, he had been extra careful to keep all markers and pens out of her reach.
Leslie had nearly laughed thinking of the doctor’s reaction, but knew all too well the constant panic a child could cause a parent, especially when it was the parent’s first child. Her heart felt full as she watched him holding his snoozing daughter. She looked down at Ava, whose eyes were closed, and she sat her up and shuffled her until the girl’s eyes were open again, afraid to let her sleep before seeing the doctor.
They had been sitting in the waiting room no more than half an hour when Ava’s name was called. She stood up with the child, who was looking around with a sleepy
expression, and reached her free hand to Levi. He took it and followed her. Amberlyn stirred as he stood but did not wake up.
It was nearly midnight when they left the center, each carrying a sleeping child. The kind, young doctor had assured them Ava would be fine, just have a lump on her head. The wound wasn’t deep enough for stitches, and it was okay for her to sleep but Leslie should wake her up a few times during the night and if she noticed anything unusual she was to bring her right back.
They reached their cars and secured their still-sleeping daughters, then met at the back of Leslie’s Explorer.
“Thank you,” she said, kissing his cheek.
“I’m glad Ava’s okay.”
“Me too,” she breathed. “Please make sure Amberlyn knows that this is in no way her fault and Ava is perfectly fine. She was good to hurry and get us as soon as it happened.”
“Yeah,” said Levi, looking over his shoulder to his car. “She seems to think of Ava as a little sister.”
Leslie watched his face, which was unreadable, though it did show signs of exhaustion. She stood on her toes and kissed his lips. “See you in the morning.”
He smiled and ran his fingers through his hair as he yawned. “Yeah, we may be there a little later than usual.”
“Good. Get some rest.”
“Hey, and if we need to reschedule this weekend, I completely understand.”
“Let’s not decide that just yet. Unless something happens tomorrow, I can’t imagine there’s any reason we should reschedule.”
He smiled and kissed her before yawning again. “Good night,” he said as he walked to his car.
Leslie watched him for a moment, then got into her car and looked back to watch Ava breathe her little three-year-old breaths. Then she started the car and headed home, feeling an enormous amount of gratitude.
Chapter 7
By Friday morning, it was clear that Ava had fully recovered. She’d started showing everyone her bump and telling them she almost died and that Amberlyn saved her life, reversing Amberlyn’s original fear of being at fault for her friend’s injury. The older girl gladly took credit for ‘saving her life.’ Neither Leslie nor Levi clarified for them, allowing them a few days of being amazed by the event.
Levi had made the hotel reservation in Oklahoma City as soon as Leslie had accepted the invitation for the ‘sleepover.’ When he dropped off Amberlyn on Friday, he confirmed with Leslie that she was still comfortable with leaving Ava. The unspoken, but obvious, question was whether she was still comfortable with taking the next step with him. She said yes to both the verbalized and implied question, causing Levi’s stomach to flutter.
For the large part of the week, his work on a client’s barn and his late-night progress on Leslie’s new daycare center had kept him preoccupied and exhausted enough to have thoughts of making love to her in the back of his mind but not so present to be torturous. On Friday, however, his longings had taken the torturous route, and it took every ounce of his willpower to stay focused on the jobs. The real test came that evening when he arrived to pick up his daughter.
Once again, it was the children’s presence that kept him in check and gave him reason to rein in his desires. On this night, however, it took the added effort of not looking at Leslie or kissing her goodbye to maintain control.
Once he’d gotten home and had Amberlyn safely tucked into her bed, he went in his room, lay down, and called Leslie. He noticed that she sounded distant and feared his efforts to hold in his desire for her had been misread.
“Leslie, you’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
“No, I’m not but are you sure you’re still up for this?”
“Oh, I’m up for it. That’s the problem.” They chuckled. “I know I may have seemed weird tonight.”
“Well, it was the first time in a while you didn’t kiss me goodbye.”
“Yeah, well that was on purpose, but not for the reason you might be thinking. This anticipation for tomorrow has gotten me so anxious for you, I can barely think. I needed to get away from you before it really was too much for me.”
She laughed, and he could hear the relief in her voice. “Well, the waiting’s almost over.”
“Thank God,” he breathed.
She laughed again. “Okay, are you still picking me up around 3:00 tomorrow afternoon? My mom’s all set to spend the night here with the girls.”
“Yes, if I can wait that long,” he said. “Amberlyn’s excited too. She got a new doll from her great-grandma this week that she’s been keeping put away just for this weekend.”
“Ava has talked of nothing else, except for the brief time she couldn’t stop talking about her horrible accident that nearly killed her.”
“I’m sure in her mind, that’s exactly how it feels.”
“Oh yes, that’s absolutely true. She’s been scared enough about it that she’s had to sleep with me the last two nights. I told her we’d get the sleeping bags down for the weekend so that she didn’t have the opportunity to fall out of the bed. She was very relieved and can’t decide if she should let Amberlyn use the Strawberry Shortcake one or the Disney Princess one. I love that she’s focused on which one Amberlyn will enjoy. We have some awesome kids, you and I.”
“We sure do. I can understand how you ended up with one, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how I got so damn lucky.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. “Well, I can. You’re an incredible father, Levi.”
He felt his face heat up and it was enough to send flames down his entire body. He breathed in deeply. “Okay, let’s stop here, then, and try to get enough sleep to get us through the next few hours.”
“I can’t wait.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
***
Ava changed her mind about the sleeping bags no less than six times on Saturday until Leslie suggested they connect both bags into one and that she and Amberlyn could share them both. Ava was thrilled with the suggestion and had Leslie set it up immediately so she could make sure it worked. She thought it was the smartest and coolest thing she’d ever seen and couldn’t wait to show Amberlyn. She asked if she could call her friend immediately to tell her about it.
“She’ll be here soon. Why don’t we save it as a surprise for her?”
Ava’s curls bounced around her face which seemed barely large enough to hold her grin. Leslie was glad she was still of the age where her mother was her greatest hero and the smartest person she knew. It wouldn’t always be this way, Leslie knew, and she wanted to hold on to it for as long as possible.
Leslie’s mother arrived at 2:00, thrilled to be getting to share the night with her two favorite little girls. Amberlyn had taken to calling her ‘Grandma,’ and it pleased the older woman, Leslie knew. They went over the few details that Imogene was not aware of and shared a cup of coffee while they waited for Levi and Amberlyn to arrive. Ava was busy coloring a picture for her best friend.
“That Levi Wilcox sure has grown into a fine, young man and wonderful father,” said Imogene, sipping from her mug.
“He really has.” Leslie sighed as butterflies descended into her stomach at the mention of his name.
“He seems to adore Ava.”
“Oh, she adores him too. He’s so good with both of them.”
“And he seems to be completely . . . taken by you.”
Leslie nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Well . . . yeah, I guess so.”
“An overnight getaway. That sounds pretty serious.”
Leslie shrugged it off. “Could be. Is there something you want to ask me, Mama?”
“Oh no. Just taking the temperature of the situation, hoping things are moving along nicely.”
The doorbell rang, saving Leslie from the uncomfortable conversation with her mother. She looked at the Mickey Mouse clock above the children’s table. Mickey’s gloved hands pointed to 2:45. Ava nearly knocked her down running to the door, and she called out, �
��Don’t forget the rule. I open the door after we’ve checked to see who it is.”
The little girl stopped in front of the door, her head not quite making it to the doorknob. She turned to look at her mother. “But it’s Amberlyn!”
“We don’t know that for sure. Let’s just try to practice a little patience,” she said as she opened the door to a grinning Levi with his daughter in his arms. Leslie blushed immediately, remembering the purpose of their impending trip. He set his daughter on the floor just inside the doorway, and Ava quickly crushed Amberlyn in an embrace before the two girls ran into the living room. “You’re a bit early,” said Leslie.
His eyes seemed to sparkle. “Are you complaining?” He leaned forward to kiss her and abruptly pulled back, his gaze on the doorway to her side.
Leslie looked back to see her mother standing there and stepped back to let Levi enter.
“Hello, Mrs. Perkins.” He kissed her on the cheek causing her face to turn pink.
“Oh, you’re such a sweetheart, Levi.”
Leslie joined them as they walked into the living room, where Ava and Amberlyn were already on the floor, playing with Amberlyn’s new doll. Leslie excused herself to grab her overnight bag from her bedroom. When she returned, Levi and her mother were laughing together. She suddenly realized that everything she needed was in this room.
They said goodbye to Leslie’s mother and then kissed the girls who were more interested in playing. Then they stepped outside, shutting the door behind them.
Leslie took a deep breath.
“Ready?” asked Levi.
She nodded. “You?”
“I’m so ready, it’s gonna be hard to keep my hands off you until we get into the hotel room.”
Brand New Cowboy Page 6