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“It was no trouble. Well, his axe needed some sharpening. That thing’s not safe. I took care of it.”
“Was he freaked out by all the snow?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure he noticed it. Unless it was oil paint on his canvas, it might as well not have existed.”
She laughed. “Now you know why I was able to sneak out so easily in high school. I wouldn’t even call it sneaking out because he always forgot what the rules were anyway.”
“Oh, I remember.” He gave her a little squeeze from behind. “You could even say that Zack owes his entire existence to your dad’s lack of rules.”
She gave him a quick glance over her shoulder. “Um, no. If he had any rules that kept me from seeing you, I would have broken them.”
There was no mistaking that hot look in her eyes. Thank God. Part of him had worried that she might have changed her mind while they were apart. But if anything, she seemed to have shaken off any doubts that might be holding her back.
Good.
Because he didn’t plan to give her any reason to doubt him, ever again.
As Jenna pulled up outside Sans Souci, he realized he’d been here recently. Just a couple of weeks ago he’d thought some teenagers had broken in. It must have been the Caldwell clan…but then why hadn’t anyone answered him? He shrugged it off, since obviously everything was fine now.
The boys were overjoyed to see him. They all—the three boys and the fun nanny, as he instantly nicknamed her in his mind—spent a happy evening playing games and telling stories. The boys were tired of recounting their big adventure, so the only details he got were that Annika had fallen onto the ground and started shaking. Then she’d given her phone to Zack and said, “call that number.” Her phone wasn’t working, so he’d called from the landline. That was when the helicopter had come, and—
“Oh no!” He dug in his pocket. “I forgot the note!”
Jenna and Billy both laughed, since that was such a Zack thing to do, and he’d been so brave and resourceful about the rest of it. “You had a lot on your mind, kiddo,” Billy told him. “You did great. And you kept calling the house, so we weren’t in the dark for long.”
At some point, Annika finally called and Jenna spent a long time on the phone with her. When she came back to the big game room, she was more subdued than she had been. “They still don’t know anything,” she whispered to Billy. “They’re going to stay another few nights.”
He offered her his hand, which she gripped tightly. He knew how important Annika was to her. She was important to all of them. He vowed to never take offense at one of her teasing jabs again.
Jenna’s hand dropped away from his before they reached the tight circle of game-players. She probably didn’t want to confuse the boys, or get their hopes up. He knew in his heart that they’d be overjoyed to have their parents back together. They’d adjusted to the divorce, as kids do, but he occasionally got a question along the lines of, “why can’t you stay with us when you’re here?” or “why do we all still have the same name if you’re not married anymore?”
He definitely didn’t want to face questions like “why are you holding Mom’s hand if you’re not married anymore?”
He squatted down on the floor with the rest of them and they resumed their raucous game of Exploding Kittens—one of Bean’s favorites. The boys were at an awkward age when Zack could play so many more things than Bean could, and poor Bean wanted nothing more than to compete with his big brother. With most games, he had no chance of keeping up, but in this particular game, no one could touch him. Before long, he was jumping up and down crowing with delight because he’d beaten them all for the third time.
Billy tossed down his cards in exaggerated disgust. “How is this game harder than baseball? I haven’t lost three games in a row since…well, it happened in September, but that was a fluke.”
“I won again, I won again,” Bean crowed.
“You shouldn’t gloat.” Zack was practically gnashing his teeth. “It’s rude.”
“He’s just excited,” Jenna said softly. “It’s not often he gets to beat his big brother.”
Zack grumbled, but when Jenna gave him a harder look, he produced a smile. “Way to go, Bean.”
Jenna beamed at him, and Billy patted him on the back to add his approval of a gesture that obviously took an effort.
“It’s hard being the youngest. But it can also be an advantage. I think that’s why I made it in baseball, because I was so determined to keep up with my brothers that I pushed harder than anyone. I outdid everyone’s expectations, especially mine.”
“Not mine,” declared Jenna. “I always knew you were destined for greatness.”
“Knew?” Billy raised his eyebrows at her. “Or were insanely optimistic because we didn’t know anything, like how low the odds were, that sort of thing.”
“A little of both?” Jenna laughed.
“Hold up, hold up.” Soraya, the Fun Nanny, waved both her hands in the air. “First thing, you’re that Billy Cooper?”
“He’s that Billy Cooper!” crowed Zack. “The best baseball player in the world!”
