Page 14 of Her Defiant Warrior

“Me?” Bonnie folded up the duvet cover and kneeled beside him. Once again, her skirt pushed up.

Is she doing that on purpose?

He looked up to catch her expression.

Nope. She was just pushing back the dust ruffle to check under the bed. And her ass was pointing straight at him. It looked ten times better when it was five inches from his face. Bonnie twisted around with her hand out.

“Found more vomit. Can you give me the dustpan?”

“Let me.” He gently shoulder-checked her to the side. “Again, you don’t want to get messed up. You still have two hungry mouths to feed.”

She snorted. “I’m sure they’ve already sweet-talked Farah into a full meal.”

“And dessert?” Jase asked.

“Oh yeah, a brownie ice cream sundae, most likely.”

“I’m going to stick with them at the next party.”

Bonnie raised her eyebrow. “So, you like cleaning up throwed-up?” she asked, mimicking her son.

“If it gets me a brownie ice cream sundae, I do.”

“Well, better get this show on the road. I’ll go put this in the washer. When I’m done, I’ll come back and steam this carpet.”

“What are you talking about?” Jase asked. “I’m going to be cleaning the carpet. It’s going to take all of five minutes, ten minutes tops. I’ll probably be done by the time you get back.”

“You’ve already helped enough.” She smiled. He watched her dress hang low in front as she bent down to put on her sexy sandals. Her toes were painted the exact same color as her dress, and she had a toe ring.

How had I missed that?

* * *

As she suspected, she found Amber and Lachlan eating out at one of the patio tables, their plates heaped with food. Amber had a piece of cake beside her plate, and Lach had a piece of cherry pie next to his. She sat down next to them.

“Lachlan, cherry pie? Really?”

“That’s our favorite, Mom. Mrs. Drakos will give you some.”

“After all that clean-up, I don’t think I’ll eat cherry pie for at least a year.”

“Get real,” Amber said as she finished swallowing some macaroni salad. “I say you’ll be eating cherry pie in less than a month.”

Lachlan laughed. “She’s right, Mom. Almost every time you go grocery shopping you bring home a Teeter cherry pie.”

“I do not.”

“Yeah, you do,” Lachlan said around a full mouth of beans. “Especially if Brandi didn’t show up to work. You hate that.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Amber and Bonnie said at the same time.

Lachlan swallowed the whole mouthful of beans and opened his mouth wide to show them both it was empty. “Now I don’t have anything in my mouth, so I can keep talking.”

Bonnie heard a warm chuckle behind her back. It caused a tingle all the way down her spine. A tingle like she hadn’t felt in years.

“Can I get you a plate of food?”

She took a deep breath, trying to pull herself together.