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“I heard from Chris. His address is…” She wrote it down on a piece of paper and gave him directions. “It’s easy. Three turns and you’ll be there.”
“Thank you,” he said, his hand on the doorknob. “Again, I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
“No bother at all. I’ll probably see you over there later on.”
“I wanted to tell you that Cindy was at peace having met you. She figured you’d be a good stepmother to her boys. That was something she was so grateful to Chris for, never having exposed them to a lot of women.”
“How long were you together?”
“We were married for over ten years, so yeah, I’ve known the boys for a long time. It’s not easy being a stepparent but I learned quickly what my role would be. I think they’d say we got along fairly well. I thought they should be working long before this, but she wanted them to be free to travel and enjoy their childhood rather than working at a minimum wage job.”
To say she agreed with him wouldn’t serve a purpose so she just smiled and waited for him to say goodbye. The conversation finally ended and he nodded at her and left.
Her phone beeped again.That was weird.
She laughed and answered,It was okay. My address was the only one he could find. I’ll see you in about an hour.
After getting Stevie off to day care, she drove over to the house. A newer rambling stone and timber house on twenty acres, it was easily a dream house for a grateful partner. But this time, the feeling wasn’t what she expected. It didn’t feel like her house at all. A little disappointment set in. Waiting for her at the door was the guy of her dreams—a handsome, successful, hunky Chastain (almost) brother.
What had she found so attractive about him in the first place? In addition to the powerful physical attraction, his simplicity is what had captured her heart initially. He never complained, didn’t seem to have much baggage that prevented him from changing his life. So everything that had happened to him in the past few days was not his usual MO. Even his late ex-wife said in so many words that Chris ran from trouble.
Well, she was wrong. He welcomed it with open arms because he was a good father. After not living with his boys for all those years, he would give them a home. It was admirable. And he still wanted her there with him. She’d take it under advisement.
“Hey! You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said, grinning at her as he swept her into his arms. “Everyone’s here, including Kirk. And he brought a suitcase.”
“What?”
“Yes, he said it’s too lonely in Mobile with the boys gone and asked if he could stay a while. He actually said he’d get a hotel but since we have all of these empty rooms, I couldn’t let him go to a hotel, could I?”
“Oh my God, I just decided that I needed to think about moving in and now this!” she roared with laughter, not angry at all. “I can’t very well expect you to read my mind, now can I?”
“Jeez, Annie, I’ll tell him to get a hotel. It never occurred to me that you might reconsider so fast. Maybe I should have talked with you first.”
“Chris, it’s okay. It doesn’t feel like my house anymore. And I’m fine with it. I’m so happy to be here right now. And then I’ll go home to my little place and work on my thesis until it’s time to pick up Stevie. Is dinner still on tonight?”
“It is. Bring some of the kid’s toys when you come. His tricycle would be perfect. There’s three thousand square feet of in destructible stained concrete floors he can zoom around on. And come back here.”
He took her hand and led her down the hall. She heard the boys talking to Kirk in the great room, familiar, happy sounding voices.
“How does it make you feel to see your boys with Kirk?”
“It’s nice. It takes some of the pressure off me to entertain them.”
“Surely they don’t expect that!”
“With their mother gone, they are a little clingier than I remember. They both got into bed with me last night. Well, Ben got into the bed and Joel got on the recliner.”
“Oh, how sad.”
“Yeah, I got it. I remember doing that to my parents when they told me I was adopted. I slept on their bedroom floor for a month.”
“Chris, that’s so sad.”
“Yeah, well, anyway, look at this.” He pushed open the door to a small study off the master bedroom. He’d already set up a crib for Stevie. Threading her arm around his narrow waist, Annie bit back the tears.
“Aw, Chris, this is so sweet. Thank you so much.”
“I want the little guy to feel safe and happy here. This room will serve until he gets a little bigger, and then we’ll move into the room Ben’s using right now. The boys said they’ll double up when the time comes.” He looked down at her and smiled. “And then our baby will sleep here. It’s the perfect nursery.”
