Page 63 of Second Chance Baby
“Really?” I would not be upset about being out of the loop. Nope, I refused to be. We were only looking forward from here on out. “I wanna go watch.”
“Go ahead. I can handle this stuff for now with Christian. And Penn, if that asshole doesn’t get stuck up another tree. He used to be the nimbler one of all of us.”
“You guys aren’t exactly teens anymore.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
I brushed his hair back from his forehead as I’d once done a million times a day. Just the familiar action had my breath skipping. “Are you sure it’s okay if I skip out to go sneak back there to watch?”
“Sure is. I’m the big manly man made to decorate every square inch of this place. And you’ll reward me for my efforts handsomely later.” Before I could even give him a teasing response, he was quick to cut me off. “You know I’m just kidding, right? I don’t expect anything. I also don’t want to rush you into anything, either.”
“Rushme?” My eyebrows climbed. “After all these years?”
He pulled my hand up to his cheek. “We needed this time, Brig. I want to go as fast or as slow as you need to. As youwantto. I promise.”
I stared at him, the endless heat from his skin seeping into me and warming the part of me that had gone cold from imagining his brothers judging me. Understandably. “Are you even real?”
He made a show of pinching his biceps, making sure to flex for me like he used to when we were kids. “Sure as hell feels like I am.”
I did the same, letting out a little sound of appreciation. He sure had filled out in ten years. “It certainly does, sir. Back in the day, you didn’t have this many muscles.”
“Now they pay me to work out. Will you still lo—want me when I’ve got a dad bod?”
My chest ached with hope. “All the more to cuddle with.”
He slung an arm around my shoulders, leading me around the house in the direction of the backyard, and apparently, the current location of Carrington’s basketball hoop. I could already hear the sound of a bouncing ball on the blacktop area near the deck.
Or not.
We reached the backyard, and I let out a gasp. “You changed all of this?”
“Updated a little.” He shrugged. “We rarely used the deck, so I took it out and put in an asphalt patio with seating and then she suggested the basketball hoop. But we can always change things around at any time.” His meaningful glance had me tipping back my head to study the fancy lantern pendant lighting.
Really, I was trying to catch my breath. If it was even possible anymore.
“Oh, nice one, Care,” Travis called out as she drained the ball from feet back, right behind the 3-point line. Moose swept in tosteal the rebound before leaping up to dunk, making her elbow him out of the way as she grabbed a rebound of her own and dunked.
“Damn, she’s really good.” I cupped my hand over my mouth. When had my little girl become a young adult on the verge of adulthood?
How could I have missed so much?
“She’s been practicing a ton,” Travis said proudly. “She dunks on me all the time. Showing me up right and left, though basketball was never my sport.”
“Because you were so good at football. Can’t be good at everything and make the rest of us feel like schlubs.”
He tugged me into his side so he could feast on my neck. I stiffened, expecting Carrington to look over and be properly shocked, but she was too busy circling her Uncle Moose to even notice us. So, I angled back my head to grant him more access.
He hooked his fingers in my jeans pocket to get a better hold on me. I couldn’t help the sound of pleasure that escaped, my eyes flickering open to see Moose looking at us as if I’d stripped down naked.
“Trav,” I whispered urgently.
He looked over his shoulder at them, his jaw locking. “I’ll say something to him.”
“Say what? He’s just worried about you.”
“Right, while he’s had his perfect little family for all these years, and I’ve been alone so fucking long.” He blew out a breath. “I gotta get going on those decorations. And I probably should rake up the worst of the leaves into some of those jack o’lantern bags we got. I’ll be back.”
The happy glow on his face I’d seen earlier died to embers before he stomped off.