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“I think we should get out of the house. We can go, and you can play for a little while before we come home so I can make dinner. What do you think?”
She sat up slowly, like she wasn’t sure if I was conning her. “Now?”
“Yep. Right now. But you have to dry your eyes, and we’ll get on our shoes and coats?—”
And she was already off, running to the closet by the front door to get everything she needed to leave the house. My ears were particularly thankful at the silence. We were almost ready to go when I heard the whirl of the garage door opening. “Oh, your Daddy’s home.”
Lexi took off like a shot to the kitchen and was bouncing from foot to foot by the time Kevin walked in. “Daddy.” She flung her little body at him, and he picked her up and swung her around in a hug.
“Hey, Lex-Lex. What are you up to?”
“Pay wit CJ.”
He looked over her head to me, and I smiled. “We were having a rough day, so we’ve decided to go play in the kids’ area at the mall.”
He held his daughter out from him and took in the cheeks still flushed from her meltdown. “Hm. That sounds like fun. Can I come?”
She kicked her legs into the air, but this time it was in excitement while she squealed, “Yah. Let’s go.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I didn’t expect you home so early, so if you have other things to do?”
He crossed the kitchen and handed me his daughter. “Nope. I decided to take the rest of the afternoon off to hang out with you two. Let me run upstairs and change, and then we can take my SUV.”
Lexi hugged me, even more excited now that her father would be joining us, but I felt my own happy buzz of energy course through me. A part of me thought I should offer to stay home and let them go alone since Kevin was home, which technically meant they didn’t need me, but I was too selfish for that. Chilling with him last night had been…nice. The only thing that could’ve made it better was if it had ended with me in his bed. I wouldn’t waste any opportunity to bask in his presence.
Once we arrived at our destination, Lexi let go of her dad’s hand and shot off as quickly as her legs would carry her toward the couple of other children already playing. “Wow. I know she’s fearless, but I didn’t expect her to be quite so outgoing,” he said as she jumped in the fray.
Gesturing toward the couches surrounding the area, I led him over and away from the other adults watching their kids and sat down. “She was more timid the first time I brought her, but we’ve come several times, so she’s getting the hang of it now.”
He shook his head. “She’s growing up so fast.”
“They do that. You have to soak up every second because you’ll blink, and she’ll be going on sleepovers, then talking about boys, and before you know it, you’re touring colleges.”
He groaned a dramatically pained sound. “Stop. Why are you torturing me like this?”
I chuckled, nodding over toward Lexi.
Leaning into him a little, I said, “She’s a great girl. You’ve done an amazing job with her.”
He huffed. “I appreciate you saying that, but I?—”
He was cut off by a masculine voice coming from behind us. “Oh, look. If it’s not the babysitter. The manny,” he ended with a sneering tone.
Groaning internally, I plastered a fake smile onto my face and half-turned where I’d be able to keep an eye on Lexi while dealing with my asswipe of a cousin. “Barry. What are you doing here?”
He moved closer and crossed his arms over his chest. “Us real men go to work before the sun comes up, so I’m done for the day. I needed a new shirt for my date tonight, so here I am.” He gazed over at the kids playing and scrunched his nose in disgust, like he could smell them from here. “And as usual, here you are playing Mary Poppins.”
Normally, him hating on my chosen vocation didn’t bother me since he really was a dick, but it rankled that he’d minimize me in front of Kevin. I wanted this man to like me, to build on this connection that I’d felt between us since that first night. Scaling his walls wasn’t the easiest thing I’d ever done, but last night had proven that he was letting me in. Barry minimizing who I was because of what I did always made me see red, but there was an extra sting to it now, and I couldn’t—wouldn’t—rise to the bait in front of a group of kids and the man I adored.
* * *
Kevin
I wasn’t sure exactly who this extremely tall and built guy was, but I didn’t like how he was speaking to CJ or how still and pale my manny had gone. Without thinking about it, I reached over and grabbed one of CJ’s hands and pulled it into my lap between both of mine. Then I glared up at whoever the hell this was. “What’s your problem?”
The man’s eyes narrowed on where we joined. “Who are you?”
“Kevin, CJ’s boyfriend,” I replied, scared to glance in CJ’s direction at my bold statement, but damned if I was going to sit here and let someone demean him. “And who are you?”
