AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Fourteen
After findingLucy clothes to wear, Leo cleaned the dining room as well as he could. His maid would have to take care of the rest in the morning. Sauce was everywhere, but as he cleaned, he couldn’t get mad at Lucy for what she did. She had made his kids laugh.
Also, it had gotten him a first kiss to remember: her covered in red sauce and grinning from ear to ear as she lied about throwing food at him. Then he had kissed those lips he had been dreaming of and, unlike with kissing her sister, it had been perfect.
Soon the kids would come down from their showers in pajamas. It was a ritual that they have a movie night if they were all together on the weekends. With the kids’ rotating schedules, he tried to make it special when all four were in the house, knowing that the older they got, the rarer it was going to be to have them together.
Aubrey was the first one down the stairs, and her eyes were searching the area for something. Lucy, he assumed.
“Where is your girlfriend, Dad?”
“Fiancé, Aubrey, and she’s taking a shower. You girls got her dirty,” he reminded her. Lucy had been dirtier than any of the other kids.
Aubrey tried to shift the blame away from herself. “She started it, you know. If anyone is going to get in trouble, she is.”
“Nobody is in trouble. I hope that you girls just remember to thank Lucy for getting you out of actually eating something you didn’t want to.”
“I think she’s only looking out for herself.” Aubrey leaned against the wall. “She’s only after you for your money.”
“Nope. She’s signing a prenup,” he told her. She was old enough to understand a lot of stuff.
“She’s closer to my age than yours.” Aubrey’s jaw was set.
Leo could tell she was trying to not like Lucy but wasn’t succeeding. He knew exactly how she was feeling. Lucy was hard to resist.
“I think she’s right between us. Ten years from us both.” Smiling at her, he was reminded he needed to ask Lucy when her birthday was.
“She seems nicer than Stacy, but that isn’t hard,” Aubrey stated, watching the stairs, not wanting her little sisters to hear her say it.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you think she’s nicer than Stacy?”
“Because she and her sisters helped me when Kevin abandoned me drunk in a strange bar,” Aubrey said, something she hadn’t talked about since that night. He had thought she had blacked out on it all.
“Which will never happen again, right?” He gave her the look, the one he had been mastering since she had been born.
She shrugged. “I ran into him a few days ago. He was very different when I was sober. I’m over him.”
“Good. He’s over thirty,” he said, reminding her of the age differences she had just pointed out for him.
She grinned at his response. “And your girlfriend’s ex. Or at least that’s what her sisters said, one of which looks just like her.”
“That would be Mabel—they’re twins. I met her family this morning.” It felt like weeks ago and not just a few hours. They had gone from this all being a plan to being in the middle of it within hours.
“Why are you getting married so quickly? You’ve known her for a long time, so why suddenly now?” Aubrey crooked an eyebrow at him, just like her mother did all the time. It was something he wouldn’t tell her, that she was constantly reminding him of her mom.
“I fell in love with her and realized how much time we wasted, time where I could’ve had her in my life. Like tonight. How did I not know she was handy in a food fight?” Yes, he was laying it on thick, but Aubrey could see through him more than the other kids.
Not that it was all a lie; he did want her in his life, food fights and all. He was looking forward to learning more and more about her.
“Okay, Dad. I believe you,” Aubrey said as the two little ones came running down the stairs. Leo knew she didn’t actually believe him, but he hoped in time, they would be able to fool all the kids into thinking they were in love. Just like her family.
Though for the first time, he wondered if he was making a mistake, that his kids would fall in love with their new stepmom, and then they would divorce. He’d be breaking up another family and would have two more kids to keep connected with his girls. Or not, because they weren’t really his. Could he raise someone else’s kids?
Lucy was the last one down from showering. She had walked into the family room wearing cute little sweatpants that hugged her ass and his navy shirt that was way too large for her. Her hair was wet as it hung down her back. She smelled fresh and clean and plopped down beside him.
The girls had started an older movie, and Lucy commented that she liked their pick as she snuggled in closer to him. But within minutes, she was sleeping. He could tell because her hand quit tapping on his leg. He didn’t think she’d realized she’d been doing it.
She was still sleeping when he had silently sent the girls to bed, then followed them to help the younger two get ready, read to them, and make sure they were sleeping. He knew he should’ve woken Lucy up in case she wanted to go home, but instead, he carried her to his bedroom and slid her under the covers. When she didn’t wake up, he slipped out of his clothes down to his boxers and slid in beside her. She only sighed when he pulled her into his arms.
It was the second night they had slept together, and so far, he was enjoying their engagement. She wasn’t the ice queen he had thought she was. In fact, he couldn’t remember why he had ever thought that in the first place.
