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“They can shower here,” he says, lifting his head and looking at me. “Brody can pick up dinner on his way home. And we have a washer and dryer here. Besides, with us taking the kids to camp, it’s easier to stay here so they don’t have to get up so early with you. Brody and I got them ready and out the door just fine this morning.”
“Hayden,” I say with a light laugh. “The kids have four weeks of camp. We can’t stay here the entire time.”
“Why not?” he asks, kissing me again. This time, his tongue slips past the seam of my lips, and I really wish we were alone so I could get lost in him.
But we’re not, so I gently push him back.
“Because this isn’t our home.”
“Huh?” he asks in confusion, clearly distracted.
“You asked why we can’t stay here,” I remind him with a soft laugh. “This isn’t our home,” I repeat.
Hayden simply shrugs. “It could be.”
A knot forms in my belly at the thought of living here with them as a family, but I push it away because it’s too soon.
“Stay,” he says, resting his hands on my hips and nuzzling his face into my neck. “Just for tonight,” he murmurs, running his nose along my jawline. “Please.”
“Bree!” Savy, Brody’s stepmom, pulls me into a hug. “It’s so good to see you.” She pulls back and glances to the left of me. “And you must be Miles and Evie,” she says warmly. “I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Savannah, Brody’s stepmom, but you can call me Savy.” She points at her husband. “And this is his dad, Benjamin, but you can call him Benji.” She winks playfully and her husband groans, shaking his head.
“You can call me Ben,” he says. “Did you bring your suits? The kids are already in the pool.”
“Yes!” Evie exclaims. “It’s under my clothes.”
“And can you swim on your own?” Ben asks both kids.
“Yep,” they both answer.
“Well, then, head on back and have fun.”
They both waste no time flying through the house as if they’ve been here before, and I glance at Brody, who laughs. “I’m going to make sure they get in okay,” he offers, walking by and giving his dad a handshake, his stepmom a kiss on her cheek, and then stopping and kissing my forehead.
“Where do you want these?” Hayden asks, holding up the box of treats I brought for the end of the summer Labor Day barbecue Savy and Ben are throwing before the kids start school next week.
“I’ll take those,” Savy says with a glimmer in her eye. Lifting the top, she takes a whiff and sighs. “Mmm, they smell so good.”
We head out back and find Brody’s aunt and her husband, Gerald, lounging by the pool while the kids take turns going down the pool slide. Brody introduces me to Gerald since I already met his aunt at the kids’ birthday party and then pulls me onto his lap on a lounge chair, so we can watch the kids swim and play.
The kids were good swimmers before, but since they spent the past month at camp, swimming almost every day, they’ve turned into the most adorable little fish, confident in the water. I honestly don’t even know what I would’ve done without Brody and Hayden signing them up and taking them and picking them up from camp the past four weeks. Bringing them to work isn’t as easy as it was when they were little and loved to help me.
“Brody mentioned your kids go to King’s Cross,” Amalia says. “Brittany goes there as well.” Brittany is her and Gerald’s teenage daughter, who’s not here today because she’s at a cheer event with her friends.
“Really? What a small world,” I tell her. “Peter went there as a kid.” I realize my mistake the second Amalia’s brow furrows. One thing that sucks about being a widow is having to explain why since it’s not normal for a woman my age to have lost her husband.
But before she can ask and I have to answer, Brody wraps his arms around me from behind and squeezes comfortingly, then says, “Peter is the kids’ father. He passed away a few years ago.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” Amalia says.
I smile gently at her. “It’s okay.”
“Are you attending the open house tomorrow?” she asks, changing the subject.
“Theirs is Tuesday since the kids are in elementary school,” Brody says, shocking the hell out of me.
“How did you know that?” I ask.
“They told us,” Hayden says, “when they asked if we would go.”
“And we told them we had to check with you first,” Brody adds. “They told us about it on their way home from camp. Apparently, this is the first year they’ll have different teachers. Miles isn’t thrilled, but Evie seems okay with it.”
