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ble and shrugged out of his jacket. When he went to hang it on the hooks by the front door, she trailed after him.
“Not too bad. She wanted to know if it was just fun or more serious.”
That seemed to be the question of the week. Odd how they’d had the exact conversation the previous morning, and yet he still found himself nervous as to her answer. “What’d you say?”
Roxanna shrugged when he faced her. “That we were seeing where things went.”
He frowned slightly. In his mind they’d moved past that.
“What about you?”
He swiped his hand through his hair to disperse the melted snow, then shot a glance toward the kitchen where he could hear hushed voices. “Asher is worried I’m going to hurt you.”
Her head tilted toward the right. “Are you?”
He hadn’t expected that question. Although he didn’t know why. It was a perfectly logical follow-up. “I will do everything in my power not to,” he vowed quietly.
She smiled and stepped close to flatten her hand on his chest. “Then we’re good. I don’t care what Asher, or Honor, or anyone else thinks right now. We’ve been upfront with each other, so that’s all that matters.”
He caught her around the waist to tug her against him. “You’re not only beautiful, you’re pretty damn smart, too.”
She smiled as he bent his head to capture her lips with his.
“Dinner’s done,” Asher bellowed.
Their mouths smiled against each other before they separated, and Loyal rested his hand at her back on their way to the table. He loved touching her any chance he got.
The meal was delicious, and after a couple of awkward moments when they first sat down, the tension eased. They didn’t lack for lively conversation, and there was a lot of laughter to go along with a fair amount of ribbing. Honor particularly seemed to enjoy any embarrassing story he or Roxanna offered of Asher, even though his brother promised he’d make her pay for egging them on later.
When they were done, Loyal helped to clear the empty dinner plates, and then they all sipped on a second glass of wine while Honor dished up slices of her triple layer salted caramel chocolate cake.
It was absolute heaven, until about two seconds after his first bite when Asher asked, “So, Loyal, has Rox told you how many kids she wants?”
He nearly choked on his cake as Honor gave an indignant gasp and backhanded the jerk on the arm at the same time. “Asher! Seriously?”
“What?” he asked with fake innocence.
“You don’t ask a question like that.”
“Why not? You and I have had the conversation.”
“Yeah—in private.”
Loyal shot a glance at Roxanna to find her watching him, her cheeks stained red. Of course the kid conversation hadn’t come up yet. And the best thing to do right now would be laugh it off, but as he ran his gaze over her features, he realized the idea of kids with her wasn’t so alarming. The out-of-the-blue question had caught him off guard because he’d put thoughts of a family out of his mind after his last failed relationship, but a dark-haired, brown-eyed little mini-Roxanna could be totally doable.
With the other two still arguing why you shouldn’t ask that question of couples who were newly dating, he asked in a low tone, “How many?”
Of course, his brother and fiancé would choose that moment to shut up.
Roxanna darted a look across the table, then her gaze met his and held. “Being an only child was lonely.”
“So, at least two.”
“I was thinking more like six.”
Six?
One little number and he suddenly found it hard to draw in a breath.
