Taking It Easy: Boys of the Big Easy book two

by Erin Nicholas

  She’d never stayed at the office that late, ever. But it had been nice not leaving things on her to-do list because she was rushing out the door. The next day at work had been so great without having to catch up. She was feeling organized and more relaxed now than she had in, maybe ever, and it had only been one week.

  There really was something about having someone there helping out a little, and it felt amazingly…light. Much better than having to rely on Lindsey, who had her own kids and boss to manage.

  Dana put her hand on Logan’s, running her fingertips back and forth across his knuckles. He had strong hands. His skin was rougher than hers and she loved the way he touched her with confidence and how his palms felt running over hers. She really hoped maybe he wouldn’t leave with just a good night kiss tonight.

  “Well, even if she had wanted to tell me about it—and I don’t think she did—she couldn’t have gotten a word in edgewise,” Dana told him. “Grace didn’t stop talking about the cemetery all during the bedtime routine and breakfast this morning.”

  He grinned and Dana felt a hitch in her breath. God, he was so good-looking. And now he was grinning about taking her baby girl to a cemetery. This was so weird. And great.

  “I showed her my dad’s and great-grandmother’s graves,” he said.

  Her heart thumped. She wanted to hug him so badly.

  “I heard.” Her heart had ached when Grace had told her that. “She also told me that you both decided your great-grandma’s not there because she’s hanging out at the tavern.”

  He continued to rub her thigh but it seemed absentminded now. Like he just wanted to touch her, but wasn’t really tuned in. He was clearly thinking about his time with Grace.

  “That’s the story,” he said. “That she’s haunting the tavern because she was sure that no one else would run it right. My grandmother, her daughter, claims that you’re doing a good job if the ceiling fans all work. If they don’t, she’s annoyed. Kind of annoyed is one or two not working. Very annoyed if three or four won’t work.”

  Dana laughed. “And do they sometimes not work?”

  Logan looked more thoughtful than amused. “Yeah, actually. And I’ve been up there fixing them several times. There’s no reason they wouldn’t work. We’ve always chalked it up to old wiring, but now Grace has me thinking.”

  “Oh my God, my six-year-old has you believing in ghosts now?”

  Logan shrugged. “She just…makes some good points.”

  “Such as?” Dana had honestly not talked about the ghosts that much with Grace. She’d just rolled with the subject, just like she would with any other topic. It was something that came up once in a while—like every night at bedtime when the globe needed moved—but otherwise Dana didn’t dwell on it or make a big deal of it.

  “Well, why would someone leave a place they were happy if they didn’t have to?” Logan said. “If someone is a spirit and they can hang around someplace, maybe sometimes they choose to do that.”

  Dana wasn’t sure what to say to that. Or to the idea that Logan was buying into, and encouraging, Grace’s fascination. “I don’t know if we should make a habit of hanging out in cemeteries,” she finally said.

  “Why?” He turned more fully. “Cemeteries are where you go to remember people, right? To honor them? Well, the stuff I told Grace about my dad and great-grandma were things I hadn’t thought of in a long time. They’re stories my grandma told me. Which made me think of my grandma too. Which prompted Grace to tell me about her grandmas. It was all very nice. Not morbid at all.”

  “Except the part about your grandmother haunting your bar,” Dana pointed out.

  “Nah, that’s not morbid. It’s kind of nice.” He gave her a little smile and squeezed her leg. “Except when she’s annoyed with us and the fans don’t work.”

  She honestly didn’t know what to do with this guy. He was…something. He was a grown man who related best to her six-year-old, Dana reminded herself. But she couldn’t help but note that Grace had been completely happy after her time with Logan and that it wasn’t like Grace was scared or having trouble sleeping or anything. It had been generally harmless.

  And Logan fully accepted Grace and her little idiosyncrasy. That was really nice.

  Dana leaned in, pulling his hand further up her leg and around to her butt. “You know, you’re a really nice guy.” She shifted forward, putting her lips against his. “And you have no idea how sexy it is that you’re so sweet to my girls.”

  But instead of kissing her, or pulling her into his lap, he said, “Let me play with your hair.”

  That sounded sexy. Then she remembered the ladybug barrettes. She sat back. “You want to play with my hair?”

  “I need hair to practice with.”

  Her eyes went round. “You would rather practice braiding than make out? Or more?” she added, running her hand up his chest.

  He grabbed her hand and, much to her surprise, stopped it. He lifted it to his mouth and gave her palm a kiss. That shot right to her core. Then he said, “Yeah. Except not braiding. I’m not ready for that.”

  She laughed and groaned at the same time. “I am coming on to you and you’re resisting me in favor of ladybug barrettes?”

  He shifted and dug in his front pocket and pulled out barrettes with frogs and pigs as well. “I’ve got more in the truck.”

  She took them from him. “You have more barrettes? How many do you think two little girls need?”

  “I’ve got bows and headbands and ponytail holders and combs and—”

  Dana covered his mouth with her hand. “If you’re trying to dial back my sex drive, that’s not helping.” She felt him grin under her hand and she moved it. “What?” she asked about the big smile.

  “Guys know that women go all gaga when we’re sweet with kids, you know.”

  “Well, that would be kind of hard to miss.” It was hardly a secret. “Is that why you were so great with the kids at all the support group family gatherings?”

  “Of course.”

  It had worked, she couldn’t deny.

  “I mean, that and the squirt guns. And because dodgeball is the greatest game ever. And because I’m awesome at hide-and-seek, thank you very much. And that I can justify eating extra snow cones when I’m hanging with them. And extra marshmallows in my cocoa. And—”

  Dana slapped her hand back over his mouth, laughing. “Okay, I get it. There are lots of perks.”

  He wrapped his fingers around her wrist, but before he pulled her hand back, he gave the center of her palm a little lick. She sucked in a quick breath as her core clenched. He gave her a look that was hot and sweet at the same time. “But yeah, making this baby with you was the biggest one.”

  And the quick breath that lodged in her chest grew into a giant ball of emotion.

  She sniffed.

  “Oh, no,” he said. “There’s no crying in accidentally getting knocked up by the hottest bartender you’ve ever met.”

  She laughed again. And sniffed again. “That’s ridiculous. That’s the perfect thing to cry about.”

  “Okay, maybe,” he conceded.

  “But,” she felt compelled to add, for some reason, “there’s no crying when that hot bartender is actually a really great guy who doesn’t think my little girl is a weirdo and doesn’t throw his hands up at the idea of ladybug barrettes.”

  Emotion that looked a lot like affection and maybe a touch of surprise flickered in Logan’s eyes. But he said, “Yet.”

  “Yet?”

  “I haven’t thrown my hands up about the barrettes yet.”

  She smiled, feeling the ball of emotion behind her breastbone warm into a gooey, sweet blob.

  “And I definitely think Grace is a weirdo,” he said. “But I get it. And I like it.”

  Dana felt the tears threatening, but he was right. She had no reason to cry over any of this. It was amazing. “Logan,” she said seriously. “There is something really important you need to know.”

&nbs
p; His brows drew together. “Uh-oh.”

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Okay.”

  “Those barrettes are nowhere near big enough to work in Chloe’s hair.”

  Logan stared at her for a long moment.

  Then all at once Dana found herself tossed onto her back on the cushion behind her, the hottest bartender she’d ever met looming over her.

  She giggled. “We have plenty of barrette—”

  And he started tickling her. She shrieked and rolled. “No! Logan, no!”

  He laughed wickedly and put his mouth against her neck, even as she continued to try to escape his fingers. “I love it when you wiggle against me.”

  “I offered lots of wiggling,” she reminded him between gasps. “You’re the one who wants to play beauty salon.”

  His fingers stopped, his hand splaying over her ribs as he pressed a hot kiss to her neck, then her lips. “You’re right.” He leaned back, pulling her up with him. “Stop distracting me.”

  She was still trying to catch her breath, but she smacked his arm. “Your fault.”

  “Your fault,” he told her. He gave her a look that made her pause. “It’s so fucking hot that you’re pregnant with my baby.”

  Wow. That was out of the blue. And sexy. And yeah, that was not helping her horniness. “It is?”

  “It is,” he told her, with all seriousness. “And it could be another girl.”

  She nodded. “It could.”

  “So I really need to understand barrettes.”

  Dana laughed. “Okay, already.”

  “Because no matter how hard I try to get her into fishing and alligator hunting and catching crawfish, she might still want barrettes sometimes.”

  Dana pushed herself up from the couch, but stopped to plant a hand on her hip. “There will be no alligator hunting.”

  “That’s really sexist,” he said. “I’m surprised you wouldn’t want our daughter to do all the things our son would do.”

  Holy crap, it had to be the hormones because when he said “our daughter” and “our son,” everything in Dana got warmer and her stomach felt like she was going over the top of a roller coaster.

  She cleared her throat. “No alligator hunting for anyone.”

  “Oh, there has to be alligator hunting,” he said. “It’s a tradition with me and the guys.”

  She already knew “the guys” meant Gabe, Caleb, and Josh and Owen. She also knew that they all spent a lot of time in the little town of Autre where Josh and Owen lived and worked. “Then you and the guys can keep doing it. But,” she added as she started for the stairs. “I will have less use for you if you ever lose any of your fingers to an alligator. Or God forbid, any other parts.”

  Logan just laughed. “I’ve been doing it all my life.”

  Dana paused at the bottom step. “And does Stella know that you’re killing alligators?”

  Logan pivoted on the couch cushion quickly. “No. And you can’t tell her or Cooper,” he said, seriously.

  Dana shook her head. “They won’t hear it from me. But you wouldn’t be able to keep…our daughter or son from talking about it to their cousins.”

  Yes, she’d stumbled a little over the “our daughter or son” thing, but mostly because she’d known that once she said it out loud she’d like it. A lot. Maybe too much.

  Logan blew out a breath. “Noted.”

  She grinned. “I’ll get the supplies. Be right back.”

  She headed upstairs, thinking that teaching Logan Trahan about hair bows was just about the last thing she’d ever expected to do. But because of that, it was maybe even better. She liked that Logan was surprising her. And he was definitely entertaining. Looking forward to seeing him, and even hearing about him from the girls, had quickly become a fun part of her day.

  The girls were fast asleep when she tiptoed into their room and grabbed the plastic bin of hair accessories from the top of Chloe’s dresser. Dana paused by each bed, gazing down upon the two best things she’d done in her life. Her hand went to her still flat stomach and she felt the flutter of butterflies. There were going to be three things she’d done well. And it was going to be a little easier, and a lot more fun, this time around, thanks to Logan.

  Smiling, she brushed Chloe’s hair back. Her oldest hadn’t told her about Logan’s improvising with the shoestring. She was sure that Chloe had hated not having her hair up like the other girls, but she hadn’t tattled on Logan. That was something. Chloe liked him. Or was, at least, tolerating him being involved. That was good. That was very good. Logan would be taking her to class at least twice a week. She needed to like him. Or at least trust him. Chloe didn’t really know what it was like to depend on someone other than Dana. Well, and Lindsey. Her girls knew that Lindsey was their first phone call after Dana. But now…

  Dana suddenly had to swallow hard.

  Her girls knew that they could depend on Dana and Lindsey. Their grandparents too, of course, but not for the day-to-day things they needed. No one else had been there consistently. Chad being home had been like…a vacation. He’d been fun. He’d been a novelty. For her too. At the back of her mind she’d always had the thought that things were temporary. So staying up late talking and having sex and being tired the next day was fine because it wasn’t going to last. Letting the girls go out for ice cream after dinner two days a week was okay because it wasn’t going to last. Lindsey was the one Dana had come to depend on to be her backup because her friend was, well, there and could handle the schedule and the routine and the rules the way Dana did.

  But with Logan…he was going to be here. He wasn’t leaving for the Middle East in a few weeks or months. So she had to be careful with what ways he disrupted their routines and rules.

  Could she let her girls get dependent on Logan? Could she get dependent on him? Yes, he could give the girls rides and solve small problems like ponytails, but Dana had to make it clear that, while Logan was a lot of fun and was a grown-up who could pick them up once in a while, he wasn’t a go-to all the time. He was already doing far more than she’d expected. Sure, he’d asked her to marry him, but she knew that had been just an impulsive offer in the wake of being dealt the biggest surprise of his life. He wanted to be involved with the baby and that was noble, amazing even, but Chloe and Grace weren’t his. He was just trying to prove to Dana that he should have time and could handle responsibility with the baby. And he was doing a good job of it.

  But she couldn’t get too comfortable.

  As long as she remembered that and continued to take the lead, Logan could be her right-hand man and no one would be disappointed.

  Pressing a quick kiss to each girl’s forehead, Dana headed back downstairs with the bows and ties and clips.

  5

  “Awesome.” Logan clapped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation. Then he looked at her face. “You okay?”

  Dana forced her mouth into a smile. He was a great guy. And as long as she kept her expectations to him playing chauffeur, party-planner, and…yeah, okay…sex therapist, he was going to do great and they would all be happy.

  “Definitely,” she told him. She presented him with the little tub of hair accessories. “Here you go. Everything you could want and more.”

  He took it with clear trepidation. “I’m not ready for this.”

  “Come on, big guy,” she said, grabbing one of the throw pillows and tossing it on the floor at his feet. “You braved the cemetery. You hunt alligators. I know you can handle some pink bows.”

  He took the lid off the box and looked at the contents. “Cemeteries make sense.”

  “They do?”

  He looked up. “You know what Grace pointed out?”

  “What?” Dana took a seat on the pillow by his feet, crisscrossing her legs, her back to him. She pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and shook it out.

  “She said that people in New Orleans are happier in their graves than in other places where they’re buried underground.
”

  Dana frowned. “Why is that?”

  “They’re with their families and the graves are easier to get out of.”

  Dana sighed. These were the things that Grace said that had her teacher a little concerned. “They’re easier to get out of?” She felt Logan’s fingers in her hair, combing through the strands. He ran his hands from her scalp to the ends slowly and Dana felt her eyes slide shut. That felt amazing.

  “Well, the graves here are above ground,” he said. “And when I told her that they put families together inside the graves, she thought that made a lot of sense.”

  “You told her how they bury people here?” Dana asked, not quite able to pry her eyes open as Logan’s fingers massaged against her scalp.

  “Yeah. I mean, it’s interesting. Something we do that no one else does. I thought she’d get a kick out of it.”

  He’d thought her six-year-old would “get a kick” out of knowing how people were buried in Louisiana.

  And he was probably right.

  It occurred to Dana that she should possibly be a little concerned about him giving Grace even more information about death and dead people to share at school, but with his hands in her hair, she couldn’t do anything other than try to keep from purring like a cat.

  He applied a brush to her hair and she almost lost the no-purring fight.

  She tipped her head back with a sigh.

  A moment later, she felt his lips against her neck. “That’s the sound you make when I lick your nipples.”

  Her inner muscles clenched and she grabbed his ankle and squeezed. “If you’re not going to actually do that, you have to stop talking about it.”

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to do that,” he told her huskily, dragging the brush through her hair. “But I have to do this first.”

  Thank God. “Then let’s get on with it.”