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I leaned down, capturing her lips in a soft kiss. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
Her cheeks flushed and before either of us talked ourselves out of this, I tugged her behind me to the door. The house was warm, the scents of roasting meats had my mouth watering by the time the door shut. I helped Keisha by taking Atticus so she could take off her boots. I got him out of his coat, and once my boots were off, I tugged my coat off, hanging each of them on a hook by the shoe bench.
I called out as I came out of the mud room. “Ma, that smells good.” I hoped like hell there were mashed potatoes and gravy. They went with everything, right?
Everyone turned when we came into the kitchen; I felt Keisha’s grip on my hand tighten. “It looks worse than it is. Can we just not talk about it and eat? I’m starving, and I’m sure this little one could use some good food too.”
“Daniel, don’t come in sassing me before I scold you.” Ma came over, looked at my face, scowled, muttered to herself, then hugged me. I sucked in a breath at the pain shooting through my ribs but said nothing. “Keisha, sweetheart, always a pleasure. Who is this little one?” Ma took him from me without even batting an eye.
“Atticus.” She smiled.
“Hey, I was holding him, ma’am,” I chuckled.
“Yeah, and now I am. Go wash your hands and get ready for supper.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I tugged Keisha with me to the hall bathroom. Once I had her in there out of the sight and ears of everyone, I cupped her face and kissed her soundly. Now that I could, it was all I wanted to do. She pressed against me, a small moan escaping her lips. “I’ve wanted to do that for years,” I admitted.
“You could have, any time you wanted.” She gave me a look that said, ‘Duh, dumbass.’
“Hmm…” I claimed her mouth again, breathing in the scent of her perfume, shampoo, whatever it was. She smelled like peaches and baby powder. “I plan to do this a lot. In front of people, behind closed doors, anytime, anywhere.”
“Is that a threat or a promise?” she teased.
A growl of emotion escaped me as I brought my mouth down on hers yet again. When I pulled back, we were breathless. “Both.” That one word held all of the emotion running through me right now.
“Good.” She pulled back and moved to the sink to wash her hands. Me, I needed a moment to get myself back to rights. Damn. After a minute, I pushed behind her, grabbed the towel so she could dry her hands, and started washing mine. A few of the cracks in my knuckles broke open, blood coloring the water pink. I hissed, trying to shake the sting of the soap away.
“Do you have a first aid kit?”
“Under the sink. Just need a little ointment and a Band-Aid. It’s not that bad, really.”
“Yeah, yeah. You men always say it's not bad. Your hand could be falling off and you’d say that.” She came up with the first aid kit, plopped it on the counter, and started digging for the ointment.
“I’m not that bad.”
“You forget, I know you. You are that bad.”
I just nodded. She could have a point. She was drying my hand when someone knocked on the door. “Yeah?”
It opened slowly, like they didn’t know what they’d walk in on. Phoebe came in and scowled. “You look like hell ya know?”
“Yeah, yeah, I love you too.”
“Jerk.” She scowled but looked at Keisha. “Need help?”
“Yes, I don’t see any ointment in this thing.”
“Ah, it’s probably still in the kitchen. Ma had it earlier. Toby took a tumble on the stairs and got a boo-boo.”
“Whoa, is he okay?” I asked, jerking my hand from Keisha’s ready to go see about my nephew.
“Hold up, Rocky, he’s fine. He skinned his knee is all. After a cookie, he had no cares and ran back off to chase the dogs.” She laughed softly.
“All right. Just put the Band-Aid on them. I washed with antibacterial soap; that’s good for now.”
When we reentered the kitchen, I scooped up Toby, wishing my ribs would stop hurting.
“Hey, kiddo, I hear you got a boo-boo?”
