The Hardest Hit

by Teague, AS

  I could feel my cheeks heat as I quickly shook my head. “Uh, no. We, uh, don’t kiss.”

  Landon’s nose wrinkled. “Dad said he kissed you though. Then he said that he was mean to you and you told him to grow up and that’s why he likes you so much. Cause he likes to kiss you and you don’t let him be mean to you.”

  I was going to strangle him when he came back outside. I just had to find a way to get rid of his kids before I did it. I was still racking my brain trying to formulate some sort of response when Sandy bustled out of the house with a tray of hamburger patties, Aiden following behind her.

  “Dad!” Owen shouted. “Mel says she’s not your girlfriend. She says you don’t kiss.”

  Aiden arched a brow. “Mel, why would you lie to my kids like that?”

  I swallowed hard and through clenched teeth said, “It’s not a lie.”

  He ambled over to the grill and lifted the lid, a plume of smoke billowing out, and said over his shoulder, “Boys, Mel just doesn’t wanna admit she likes kissing your dad, that’s all.”

  Landon laughed when Hunter said, “That’s cause kissing is gross.”

  “That’s what you think now, but give it a few years, and you’ll change your mind. You’ll think kissing is great. Especially when you kiss someone as amazing as my girlfriend, Mel.”

  Sandy handed the plate of patties to Aiden while I stared at him wide-eyed. Apparently, when he’d finally accepted that his career was over, it had done something to his brain.

  Maybe he was having some sort of mental break. But if he was, surely Sandy wouldn’t be standing beside him grinning like a loon while the boys all sat around gawking at me. It was almost like I was in The Twilight Zone. I needed to change the subject to something safer, and quick.

  “Hey, so, uh, you boys like school?” I asked, realizing it was the lamest question I could have come up with the moment it came out of my mouth.

  Hunter nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah, I’m learning to read!”

  Landon and Owen groaned together, and Landon whined, “No. Our teacher is so mean. She gives us homework on the weekends!”

  “Homework makes you smart!” Aiden said as he dropped burgers on the grill. Once he got them all situated, he closed the lid and then made his way back over to where we were sitting. He gave Owen a gentle nudge. “Go sit with your brothers.”

  Owen grinned. “Move your feet, lose your seat.”

  Aiden glared. “You tryin’ to steal my girl? That why you wanna sit next to her?”

  His mouth tipped into a frown, and he jumped to his feet. “Ew, no way!” Then his cheeks pinked and he looked at me. “I mean, uhm, I just don’t like girls.”

  “No offense taken,” I told him honestly and watched as he loped across the space and flopped between his brothers. Some pushing and griping ensued, and I took the opportunity to pin Aiden with a glare.

  “I’m going to kill you later,” I hissed.

  Aiden winked, that asshole, and then whispered, “Looking forward to it.”

  I opened my mouth but clamped it shut when Landon asked, “What are we having with our burgers?”

  Aiden’s eyes were still sparkling, his face still turned toward me when he answered, “Baked beans and potato salad.”

  “Beans make you fart, Aiden!” Hunter shouted before dissolving into a fit of laughter.

  “Hunter!” Sandy scolded. “We don’t say ‘fart’!”

  “Aw, come on, Sandy,” Aiden said. “He’s a man. Men don’t say ‘toot’!”

  The boys all giggled together, and I found myself smiling too. The conversation about the differences between the word ‘fart’ and ‘toot’ continued, and I sat back and watched the way the boys all interacted with each other.

  The twins looked alike, but it was easy enough to tell the difference between the two of them. Landon was slightly taller than Owen, and his face was narrower, as though he’d hit a bit of a growth spurt before his brother had. But the two of them were the complete opposite of their younger brother. I could see some similarities between the three of them, but if I didn’t know that they had the same mother, I would have never thought they were related at all.

  But even for just the few minutes that I’d been around them, I could tell that the three of them were thick as thieves, that their differences didn’t matter to any of them. I hoped, for their sake, that it would always be that way between them.

  I didn’t have siblings growing up, for which I was actually thankful. I knew too many kids in the foster care system who had been separated from their families, and as an adult, my heart ached remembering how those kids had cried when they had to say goodbye to their brothers and sisters.

  The boys continued to laugh and tease each other and their father, and warmth bloomed in my chest as I listened to Aiden give them shit as easily as he was taking it from them.

  He loved those boys, something I had always known, but seeing it in person for the first time was like experiencing magic. My eyes filled with tears, the beauty of the moment becoming almost too much to take.

  It was such a simple scene, just him and the kids in the backyard, a grill going with burgers and a cooler of sodas and beers beside it, but it was easily one of the most beautiful moments of my life. When I’d arrived and been surprised by the kids being here, I’d worried that they wouldn’t like me or that it would be awkward, and instead, I found myself feeling like the luckiest woman in the world to be able to experience this moment with them.

  I must have sniffled, because Aiden’s sharp gaze collided with my watery one and he dropped his voice. “What’s wrong?”

  I shook my head and swiped a hand across my face. “Nothing. I’m just being sentimental, I guess.”

  He took my hand in his, something his boys didn’t miss, and gave my fingers a squeeze. “You sure?”

  I nodded. “Promise.”

  He didn’t release my hand, and even though I worried that it was too soon to be showing any sort of affection toward each other in front of his kids, his large hand in mine felt too good to pull away.

  After a few more minutes of the boys chattering away about nothing, Sandy announced that the burgers were ready and Aiden pushed to his feet, pulling me to mine.

  The boys rushed inside, leaving the two of us alone outside, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. I glanced at the wall of windows, but the boys were busy piling their plates and weren’t paying any attention to their father and me.

  “I’m sorry,” Aiden murmured.

  I looped my arms around his shoulders and tipped my head back. “For what?”

  “The shitty things I said.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, and I shivered. “I didn’t mean any of it. I shouldn’t have acted like a fuckin crybaby.”

  “You had every right to be devastated.”

  “That doesn’t give me the right to say what I said.”

  I agreed, “No, it doesn’t. Thank you for apologizing.”

  “I’m sorry it took so long.”

  “Better late than never, right?” I quipped as I pushed to my toes and pressed my lips against his cheek. It was obvious he hadn’t shaved in a while, and his stubble was rough against my mouth.

  “Thank you,” he murmured, his breath tickling my skin.

  I tipped my head back. “For what?”

  The sincerity in his eyes nearly took my breath away. “For not leaving.”

  I ran my fingers through his hair and then squeezed the back of his neck gently. “I told you, we’re in this together now. I’m not going anywhere.”

  He nodded and swallowed hard but didn’t say another word as his piercing blue eyes gazed into mine. Finally, he pressed his lips to my forehead and said, “Let’s go eat. I’m starved.”

  I was too.

  For this.

  His arms around me.

  His lips pressed to my skin.

  His heart hammering in his chest against mine.

  “Okay,” I whispered.

  He sq
ueezed my waist and grinned. “Hope you weren’t expecting a fancy meal. The boys would rather die than eat anything they can’t get at a fast food joint.”

  “Burgers are perfect,” I murmured and then let him lead me into the house, my hand firmly gripped in his.

  I hated burgers and baked beans, but I would gladly have eaten them every night if it meant that I got to spend time with him and the boys like this.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Aiden

  I knew that if I was going to convince Mel to forgive me for being the complete ass that I was that I was going to have to do something to really wow her. I’d thought about renting out a penthouse suite and having a candlelit dinner under the stars. I’d considered a sunset helicopter ride over the lake, and even toyed with the idea of whisking her away to Paris. But in the end, I decided that none of that shit would impress her the way I wanted to.

  So, I’d decided on burgers on the grill at home with my boys.

  There wasn’t much else on this earth that I loved as much as a juicy burger and spending time with my kids, so I crossed my fingers that Mel wasn’t allergic to beef and invited her to dinner. I purposely left out the part about my kids being here because I knew that she had reservations about meeting them so soon.

  But now that we were halfway through dinner, I knew that I’d made the right choice. The boys had chattered on and on about Plants vs. Zombies and how their gym teacher, Coach King, always smelled like corn chips. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic dinner conversation, but every time I looked to where Mel sat to my right, she was grinning or laughing at something one of the boys said.

  “Let’s play a game!” Landon announced, his mouth full of baked beans.

  “Ahem.” I cleared my throat. “No one wants to see your food in your mouth, dude.”

  Hunter giggled, and Landon quickly swallowed. “Mel, have you ever played Would You Rather?”

  I groaned. “No way. Not tonight, boys.”

  Mel shook her head. “I haven’t ever played.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked at me. “Is it a bad game?”

  I groaned. “Not exactly. But the boys get rather… gross when they play.”

  “We won’t this time!” Owen promised, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “I don’t believe you for a minute,” I told him and watched as his lips twitched.

  “Promise, Dad.”

  Landon’s head bobbed. “Promise! I’ll go first.”

  I sighed and took another bite of my burger, noticing that Mel had only eaten half of hers. “Hey, your burger okay?”

  She cut her eyes to mine and clucked her tongue. “No one wants to see your food, Aiden.”

  I rolled my eyes, and Owen laughed. “Ohhhh, burn, Dad.”

  “Would you rather be a lion or a gazelle?” Landon asked, and I was surprised at his tame question.

  Mel twisted her lips. “Hmm…Well, the lion eats the gazelle, so I would say lion. But I dunno, I wouldn’t wanna have to chase after my food the way they do.”

  Hunter’s eyes lit up. “I would be a hyena!”

  “That wasn’t an option, buttface!” Landon said.

  “Why a hyena?” Mel asked.

  Hunter grinned. “Cause they don’t get eaten, and they don’t have to chase their food.”

  Mel nodded. “Good point. Maybe I’ll be a hyena too.”

  Owen shook his head. “Not me. I wanna be the gazelle so I can run fast.”

  “That’s cause you can’t run fast now!” Landon told him matter-of-factly. “Okay, Hunter, your turn.”

  Hunter shoveled a big scoop of beans into his mouth and chewed loudly. “Would you rather fart in front of a girl or pee your pants at school?”

  “Hunter!” Sandy piped up from her end of the table. “That’s not appropriate!”

  Mel giggled. “I’d rather fart in front of a boy.” She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I mean, everyone does it, right?”

  I gasped and feigned horror. “What? You mean, you pass gas? I thought that only boys did that!”

  “Give me a slice of cheese, and I’ll show you what else girls do,” she teased.

  Landon’s brow wrinkled. “Why cheese?”

  She leaned in close. “Cheese makes my stomach hurt.”

  He frowned. “That sucks. I love cheese.”

  She nodded sadly. “Me too, dude. Hey, I’ve got a Would You Rather.”

  “Okay!” the boys said in unison.

  Her face grew serious and she leaned across the table to where the boys were sitting, and in the most even voice I’d ever heard asked, “Would you rather eat a bug or dog poop?”

  The boys let out a trio of “Ew, gross!” and I couldn’t stop the laughter that tumbled from my lips. The boys immediately started shouting questions.

  “What kind of bug?” Owen asked.

  “Is it Brutus’s poop?” Hunter wondered.

  “Is the poop diarrhea?” Leave it to Landon to ask that one.

  “If it’s a spider, I’m out!” Owen shouted.

  When I finally caught my breath, I held up a hand. “Okay, Okay. That was gross, Mel. How about you answer first.”

  She cocked her head and arched a brow. “Easy. I’d rather eat a bug. As a matter of fact, I have eaten a bug before.”

  “No way!” Hunter breathed.

  “What kind of bug?” Owen asked, his face turning a shade of green that I should have been concerned about. I glanced down the table to see Sandy trying her hardest to look disgusted and not amused.

  “Crickets,” Mel said breezily. “They are actually pretty good. Did you know that in Cambodia, they are considered a delicacy?”

  “What’s that?” Hunter asked.

  “It means that people think they are a treat,” I told him and then turned back to where Mel sat. “Have you really eaten crickets?”

  “Yep. You only live once, ya know. They were pretty good. Crunchy, kind of like a potato chip.”

  Landon and Hunter stared at her with admiration written all over their faces while Owen still looked dangerously close to being sick.

  “Okay, I think we’ve had enough of Would You Rather for one night,” I said. “Boys, go up and get ready for bed. When you’re done, maybe we can convince Mel to stay for movie night.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Do I get to pick?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. We’ve already got one picked out.”

  She poked her lip out, and it took everything in my power not to lean over and nip it with my teeth. “Fine. What are we watching?”

  “A manly movie!” Landon shouted as he jumped from the table.

  Owen pushed out of his chair and nodded. “Yeah, Friday nights we watch manly movies.”

  “Tonight, it’s Die Hard.”

  “Die Hard?” Mel quipped. “That’s not a manly movie. That’s a Christmas movie.”

  “No way!” Owen argued. “It’s an action movie. Not a Christmas movie.”

  “Mel’s right. It’s definitely a Christmas movie,” I told the boys.

  Hunter frowned. “Maybe we should watch something else if you don’t wanna watch it?”

  Hunter was my sweet one, the only one who was ever considerate of anyone else’s feelings most days. Mel’s eyes softened, and she shook her head. “No way! Die Hard is arguably one of the best Christmas movies of all time.”

  “But it’s not even Thanksgiving yet,” Landon told her.

  She shrugged. “So? Thanksgiving is next week. Plus, it’s never too early to start celebrating the greatest time of the year.”

  “Yeah!” Hunter shouted. “Presents!”

  “And family!” I added.

  “Yeah, yeah. And family!” Owen smirked.

  “Alright, go on, you guys,” I told them, desperately needing a minute alone with Mel.

  The boys let out whoops of excitement and then raced up the stairs. When they got to the top, I heard Landon tell his brothers, “Mel’s pretty cool.”

  The other two echoed their agreement, an
d I told her, “They like you.”

  Mel sipped the wine I’d poured for her before dinner and smiled. “I like them too. They are great kids.” She arched a brow. “But, uhm, you’re letting them watch Die Hard? You know, like, every word out of Bruce’s mouth is a curse word.”

  My chest swelled with pride. The boys were the most important thing in my life, and I knew that if I was ever going to have a woman in my life, she would have to accept me as a package deal. But, as many times as I’d wished for it, I had never dared dream that it could be Mel who would be that woman. I wondered if it would have always been this way. I’d been wrong trying to keep the two parts of my life separated for so long, especially seeing how seamlessly the boys had accepted Mel at our dinner table and Friday movie night.

  “Well,”—I shrugged—“they’ve grown up in a professional football locker room. What Bruce Willis says in that movie is the least of my worries.”

  She frowned. “You have a point. Allie knows more inappropriate phrases than I do, I think.”

  I chuckled. “You know, I’m impressed that you were able to hang during Would You Rather,” I told her. “Those boys can come up with some stuff.”

  She grinned. “Next time we play, we’ll have to see who can come up with the grossest stuff. Winner gets to pick the movie?”

  I pushed away from the table and extended my hand to her. “You know the way to their hearts already.” She grabbed it, and I pulled her against me. I couldn’t get enough of her these days, my hands itching to touch her. “That mean there’s gonna be a next time?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know there is.”

  I brushed my lips against hers, tasting the sweet wine on her mouth, and licked the seam. She opened for me, and I pulled her body flush with mine as I explored her mouth, finally tasting her like I’d been dying to do since she’d gotten here. She let out a quiet whimper when my fingers sank into her hips and I rocked against her, our mouths moving together.

  “Ew! Stop, Dad!” Landon shouted from behind us, breaking the spell that we had just begun to fall under.

  “He’s an asshole,” I muttered against a grinning Mel’s lips. I cleared my throat and swallowed hard, forcing the disappointment of not being able to kiss Mel longer away. “Alright, movie time.”