“Take it,” he ordered, holding it between us.
“No, I got it.”
“Teddy.”
“Curtis,” I retorted in the same tone.
He let out a huff of exasperated laughter and then bent again, and this time, the kiss was firmer, longer, and wetter. When he pulled away, I chased his mouth with mine, forgetting where I was.
“Go,” he ordered, patting my ass. “I’ll take care of this shit.”
Chapter 6
Teddy
Ididn’t noticethe cash until I was ushering the kids toward the truck. Curtis had used the toe-curling kiss to distract me so he could stuff it into my back pocket.
“Oh, crap,” Jesse said, reaching for a drink carrier sitting on the hood. “We forgot to bring these in.”
I shot them a questioning look as I threw my fanny pack over my shoulder and across my chest.
“Curtis saw the door was open, and he set these down as he booked it,” Jesse explained, looking down at the cups. “Here, this one is yours.”
They handed me a cup with a little chocolate-covered espresso bean on the top.
“You got me coffee?”
“Curt asked what you normally get,” they said. “He paid too. Uh, should I bring his in?”
“Thanks, Jess.” I looked at the coffee I hadn’t even asked for. “Yeah, run it in.”
Finn and I loaded up, and less than a minute later, Jess hopped into the truck with us. While they were searching for the closest grocery and thrift stores, I took my time driving out of the neighborhood in the direction we’d entered it the night before. The neighborhood looked like it had been built about thirty years before. There were mostly two-story houses like the one we were renting, some of them smaller, but none of them were much bigger. Down the street, I jerked in surprise when a familiar face waved at me from a driveway.
After checking my mirrors, I slowed to a stop as Jesse rolled down their window.
“Hey,” Curtis’s sister-in-law greeted, walking toward us. Her hair was up in a messy bun at the top of her head, and her face was flushed. Behind her, there was shit all over the driveway, and all the doors to her SUV were thrown open. “I’m taking advantage of the girls being at their grandparents’ house,” she said, grinning. “And swamping out the car. It’s filthy. I think there might be shit growing in there.”
“I know the feeling,” I replied.
“What are you guys up to?” She leaned her forearms on the edge of the window and smiled at Finn in the back seat. “Hey, Finn!”
“Hi,” my boy called back, a smile in his voice.
“We’re going thrifting,” Jesse replied. “I need a mattress.”
“I do too,” Finn added, like we’d forget or something. “I need a whole bed! And a dresser! And a TV!”
“You’re not getting a TV in your room,” I said dryly, turning to look at him. “Nice try.”
Kara laughed. “Fun!”
“We also have to go grocery shopping,” I told her. “The fridge is bare.”
“Sorry about that,” she replied, wrinkling her nose. “I wasn’t sure if anyone had any dietary stuff, so I figured it would be safer to leave that to you.”
I looked at her in bewilderment.
“I picked up some toilet paper and cleaning supplies and stuff like that,” she continued on. “But I didn’t want to overstep.”
