Page 60 of Far from Destined

“I don’t know if I want to know the answers to these questions,” Dakota said, her hands on her hips. “We’ve been home for like five minutes, and already, we’re discussing farts?” She laughed.

I looked at her then and felt like I was home. I was sleeping in the guestroom. Although both of us had wanted to sneak into each other’s rooms, we had been careful not to. Because if we did, that meant we would be touching each other, making far too many noises when Joshua was only a couple of rooms down.

Though after a week, we might be ready for that. I had plans, and if that meant keeping us very, very quiet tonight, we might just do it.

Her eyes darkened as she looked at me. I had a feeling she knew where my mind had gone.

“Go check out the babies, and then come do your homework. I know you still have one more worksheet to go over that Miss Myra didn’t get a chance to help you with.”

“It was a lot of homework today. Four whole worksheets,” he said, holding up four little fingers.

“Four?” I mock gasped.

“Four.”

“Just like the number of kittens in there.”

“I know how to count. I’m not a baby.” He rolled his eyes, looking so much like his mother before he skipped over to where the kittens were.

They were getting a little rambunctious, crawling over everything, and while my house was a bit more animal-proof, Dakota’s wasn’t. I’d soon have to take them back to my place, and I didn’t know exactly how that would work.

“Thanks for working with him. Tonight is homemade lasagna but defrosted from my freezer, as well as salad. And he needs to make sure that he eats his greens, or he’s just going to glutton up on pasta like I want to and not get a single veggie.”

I looked over to make sure Joshua wasn’t watching and then kissed her softly. “My mom used to hide veggies in the sauce. Carrots and squash and the like. So we didn’t notice.”

Dakota’s eyes widened, and she shushed me. “Don’t say that. He’ll know.”

I laughed and then kissed her again.

“Macon.”

“He’s seen me kiss you before.”

“True, but we need to be circumspect.”

We were both being careful. Too careful. We barely kissed, hardly touched, and pointedly didn’t discuss where we were in our relationship. Especially considering that I had practically moved in, we’d had sex once, and had only been on two fake dates. Yet suddenly, it felt like we were a family.

There were reasons we weren’t discussing our relationship, and fear of the unknown was the main one. Because if we discussed it, then somehow it was real, and then we’d have to deal with the ramifications of that.

“I’ll go help him with his worksheet, check on the kittens, and then we’ll be ready for dinner.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said, and I looked at her face, frowning.

“What is it?”

“This feels so easy, and I don’t know how I feel about it.”

I nodded, grimacing. “My thoughts are going down that same path, so let’s not talk about it right now,” I replied quickly.

“Oh, good. We’ll just sit in denial and pretend like nothing’s happened. Sounds like a great plan.”

I kissed her gently on the lips and then narrowed my eyes. “For this exact moment, we can do that. But we’re going to talk, Dakota.”

“I know. Soon. One day.”

And then she scurried off and went to make dinner. I didn’t blame her.

I was the one who’d been thinking that I didn’t want to talk because some things would get real. And then I’d just put it on the table like that?