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I shook my head, clearing it of that question as I grabbed a bag of dried noodles and put it in the cart beside the sauce.
“You act like you’ve never been grocery shopping.” I paused to look back at him, taking in his incredibly large form. Those thick arms, those wide shoulders, those tree trunks masquerading as thighs, he couldn’t have gotten that without food to fuel him.
My eyes caught on his just as he arched one dark brow, the corner of his mouth hooking upward in a telling smirk. “We’re you just checking me out, Bambi?”
Heat flooded my face, neck, and chest. “I—what—no! That’s not—I wasn’t—”
He chuckled, that rich, decadent sound doing crazy things to my insides. “I’m just messin’ with you, Day. Relax.”
God, why couldn’t a hole form beneath my feet and swallow me up when I wanted it to?
Embarrassment coursed through my veins, creating an itch beneath my skin. “Don’t make fun of me,” I said in a quiet, barely-there voice. I’d been made fun of enough to last a lifetime.
It was easy to pick on the person who didn’t belong, and despite trying at the beginning, I didn’t belong in the Fellowship. That was clear to everybody. People could be nasty. Kids especially. They had a brutality to them that only led to them being callous, judgmental, hideous adults who raisedtheirkids to be the same. It was a vicious cycle, and the Fellowship was made mostly of those types of people.
I took a step away, ready to turn the corner and start down the next aisle, when Laeth’s fingers wrapped against my elbow, forcing me to a stop. There had been the accidental brush of a hand or shoulder a few times, but this was the first time Laeth had purposefully touched me, and if those little brushes were enough to create zaps of electricity, this touch threatened to set my skin on fire.
“Hey, hey, hey. Just hold on.” His touch was gentle, and his voice was softer than I’d ever heard it before. Using his hold on my arm, he turned me around to face him. “I’m sorry, Deva. I wasn’t making fun of you, I swear. I was only teasing.”
A fresh wave of embarrassment flowed over me, this time because of my overreaction. I lowered my head, trying to hide my eyes, but Laeth’s rough, callused finger beneath my chin refused to let me escape.
“Come on, honey.” The breath in my lungs froze at that endearment. God, he had the power to undo me, and he didn’t know it. I felt like I was standing in the middle of a frozen lake, and all around me, the ice was cracking. “Don’t hide from me.”
I shook my head, pasting a smile on my face. “Sorry. That was an overreaction.”
He was so close I could see every speck of color that made up the stormy gray in his eyes. The sunshine and musk smell on his skin filled my lungs. “Don’t apologize. Just know that I’ll never make fun of you, okay? Never.”
I pulled in a deep breath, getting lost in the scent that was so distinctly Laeth. I expected him to move back, to release my chin and my arm so we could get back to what we were doing, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood there looking down at me, his eyes like a tractor beam, refusing to let me go.
It wasn’t until Cash shouted from his seat at the front of the shopping cart that whatever spell we both seemed to be under was broken. “Day-Day! You make bwownies?”
Laeth finally stepped back and a chill rushed over me to replace the heat that had been radiating from his body.
I wanted him to come back and had to bite my lip to stave off a whimper before clearing my throat and turning to the adorable little boy gazing up at me with the same stormy eyes as his father.
“Sure, little bug. I’ll make brownies this week. But first,” I held up a finger, pasting on an exaggerated expression of seriousness. “Vegetables.”
It was the grown man standing beside me that let out a childish, “Ah man!” that had me bursting into laughter.
Once I started, Cash had to join in. He didn’t know what he was laughing at or why, but he wasn’t one to be left out of a good old giggle fest, and once he got started, it only fed my own laughter until my belly ached and tears streamed down my cheeks. Needing a snuggle for no other reason than he was just too darn cute, I lifted Cash from the cart and clutched him to my chest as we laughed together.
“Your daddy’s so silly, isn’t he little bug?” I giggled.
Cash pulled in a breath between laughs. “So, so silly! Silly Daddy.”
“God,” I said on a sigh once I finally got a hold of myself. I leaned in and pressed my lips to Cash’s neck, blowing a raspberry against his skin and setting him off again. “Have you ever heard a more beautiful sound?”
I turned to look at Laeth when my question was met with silence, and what I saw made my heart speed up. He was staring at Cash and me with an expression on his face that felt more intimate than any touch I’d ever felt.
“Never in my life,” he husked out.
“Up, up, silly Daddy!” Cash cheered as he opened his arms wide and made grabby hands at his father, oblivious to the tension swirling around our little trio.
Laeth ripped his gaze from mine and hefted his son out of my arms and into his. I wasn’t sure why, but seeing Laeth holding his tiny carbon copy ramped his gorgeousness up tenfold.
Cash took his father’s cheeks in his hands and squished them together until Laeth’s lips were puckered. “Silly Daddy.” Cash giggled, looking like the happiest kid in all the world in that very moment.
Laeth leaned in and placed a smacking kiss to his son’s cheek. “Love you, kiddo,” he said in a raspy voice.
