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“Can everyone excuse Harrison and I while we have a small talk?” Sera pushed Violet towards Emily and turned to Harrison. Silently, but with a bounce in her step, Emma went willingly with her sister. It seemed he had found the perfect prize to dangle in front of her.
Sera’s nose was flaring already, and her chest was heaving, and he knew he was in for a fight. Taking her hand, he led her through the door before she yanked it from his grasp.
Once the door slammed, she stomped her foot. “Did you seriously promise her a car? I told you not to bribe the kids, Harrison. What are you going to get her next? A college education? A house? All for what? You’ve opened a can of worms with that one.”
Smiling, he let her rant, letting her get it out of her system as he enjoyed the show, like always. He still loved to watch Sera Lovely get mad.
“And what are you going to get Violet? Surely she will need something just as big and bold.”
“Are you done?”
“No, I am not!” she stated but didn’t say anything else.
“I will buy her a car, and I will pay for her college education and a roof over her head because I am her dad and because I’ve been missing from her life for a long time. So, next summer, when we share a last name, a home, and a life, I will gladly take her out and buy her an old Jeep because that’s what she’ll want.”
“You don’t know that.” But Sera’s words weren’t in anger. That was gone and had been replaced by a soft look as tears formed in her eyes.
“I think I know her well enough that she will want the same as all her sisters. And we will both say yes, and you will show her how to fix it and take care of it. In our garage at our house.” With his thumb, he caught the tear that fell from her eye.
“How did you figure her out so fast?”
“Her sisters told me a lot about her this morning, but mostly because she’s like her mom. I love you, Sera, and I love our kids.”
“Me too. You and our kids, I mean.” Her arms wrapped around him and pulled him tight to her as her head rested on his shoulder.
“Could you maybe let me make my own mistakes in this parenting thing? My mistakes might look like I haven’t thought it through, but sometimes they’ll be made in hopes of my kids learning to like me or to spend time with me. To love me, too.” He held her and ran his hands down her hair.
“They will love you, Harrison. Just give them time.” She reached up and kissed his lips.
Behind them, the door opened. “Grandma says to stop making out on the front step. She has neighbors, you know.” Violet’s stuck her head out the door in accusation.
Sera looked around the front of the house and saw nobody was out and looked back at her daughter. “We’ll be right in.”
Violet closed the door. Through the door, they could still hear her say, “They won’t stop. I told you. They are probably going to have BBCBS.”
Laughing at her daughter and knowing she would never be able to look at Harrison’s mom in the face again, she whispered, “So a while back, you called me a sexless prude. I would like an apology for that one.”
“I am sorry, Lovely. I hope that you never become a sexless prude and that our daughter never learns what BDSM is.”
“With this family, she’ll know before she’s ten.” Sera sighed. Her kids were terrible at oversharing.
“But you wouldn’t trade them for anything.” He leaned in and rubbed his nose with hers.
“Now that I have you, not a chance.” Sera gave him a kiss, one for the neighbors to talk about, because being the talk of the neighborhood was nothing new to her.
