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“We could go to town for lunch today,” Nick said.
“Don’t you think a day of rest would be better?” Ace argued.
“No. My body hurts, and it will be much better to get out and move it so the muscles don’t lock up on me,” Dakota insisted.
“I don’t think that’s what the doc would recommend,” Ace told her.
“I know my body,” Dakota insisted. The slow, measured look he sent her way told her he also knew her body—quite intimately. It was so easy to get lost in his damn eyes.
“I don’t know . . .” He was still hedging. She wanted to smack him, but she needed a compromise.
“If you give me a day out today, then I’ll lay off for a few days and rest,” she told him with her most persuasive smile.
He sent her a stern look, but it didn’t last once she reached over and ran her fingernails across his thigh.
“You’re playing dirty,” he warned.
“I play to win,” she replied, which had the other couples at the table tittering.
“Just give it up, brother. You’ve lost,” Maverick told him. Dakota sent Ace’s brother a beaming smile. It helped to have other people on her side.
“Fine, we can go to town today, but then we are resting,” Ace said.
Dakota threw her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. She enjoyed getting her way, and she was showing him he would be rewarded in turn.
They finished breakfast, and Dakota was shocked when the men performed the cleanup duty while the women went into the living room with the kids
and visited while playing board games.
It didn’t take long for the guys to join them, and then it was quite the domestic scene as Ace joined her on the couch, his arm thrown around her shoulders as he laughed with his niece and nephews and visited with his family.
If Dakota didn’t know he’d been gone for the past eight years, she would have thought he’d never been away. They’d come back together perfectly, and they all seemed so happy to be around one another. It made her yearn to be a real part of this loving family.
“Are you sure you want to go anywhere? I’m content to sit right here,” Ace told her.
“Don’t tempt me,” she said.
“I like tempting you,” he told her, his hot breath brushing against her neck.
“Obviously,” she said, her heart pounding.
“We could just go back down to the cottage for a while,” he suggested.
She was more than ready to do exactly that. “I think you’ve spent enough time at the cottage. I’ve gotten a babysitter, and I was promised a trip to town,” Stormy said.
Dakota smiled at her friend, not sure if she was happy for the rescue or disappointed.
“Okay, town it is,” Dakota said.
Ace groaned when she pulled away from him and stood up. Then she reached out to take his hand. He slowly stood up and then pulled her into his arms and kissed her in front of his entire family. She was swooning by the time he pulled back.
“You sure you don’t want to scrap this?” he asked with a wiggle of his brows.
“The wait will make tonight so much better,” she promised, making his eyes flare.
“Now you’re thinking,” he said.
It took them a while to get out of the house, with them saying good-bye to the children and having to promise to bring them treats when they returned. They also had to take two vehicles when Nick insisted on driving his old truck, saying she was feeling neglected at having not been driven in a while. Chloe laughed at her husband but willingly joined him in the old thing.
