Page 58 of The Woman By the Lake

It was no longer raining, but it was still cold, so Riggs then reached out and pulled Nadia in before he took the beer and ice cream from her.

He’d closed the door by the time she launched in again.

“It’s incredibly rude to be so late. God, I’m so sorry. But I thought you guys would really like the cake, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. And I didn’t want to say anything, or it would spoil the surprise.”

“Honey?”

She nodded.

“Shut up. I was pissed. I’m not now because I like cake, and Ledge likes it more. So lose the coat and come in so we can eat.”

She smiled brightly at him in an easy, open and relaxed way he’d never seen from her, and for a second, he was stunned inert by it.

Her shrugging off her coat and hooking it on the hooks by the door, exposing her sweater was slouchy and bunched at her waist. But on the bottom, she was wearing skinny jeans that did incredible things to an already great ass, showcased her long legs and ended in spike heeled booties that made the crotch of his jeans suddenly uncomfortable, and that didn’t help matters.

She didn’t seem to notice as she pulled the beer and bag out of his hand and muttered, “I’m gonna get this in the fridge.”

She sashayed off, that ass swaying, which made shit even worse.

It took some effort, but Riggs got a handle on it and followed her.

He hit the kitchen as she was asking Ledger, “Did you get to fish today?”

“No. Dad and I kicked back with some beer and binged The Witcher.”

Her eyes sped to Riggs.

“Root beer,” he amended for his son.

“Ah,” she said, turning her gaze to Ledger and giving him a wink.

After she did that, she opened the freezer and shoved the ice cream inside.

Ledger watched her do this while Riggs watched Ledger.

Then his son looked at him and his grin was enormous.

Apparently, it didn’t take much with his kid, except a leggy blonde with a great ass and a fantastic head of hair, not that any of that would do much for him. But even at Ledger’s age, she wasn’t hard to look at. For Ledge, she was also a woman who could bake and brought ice cream along with beer, not to mention, took his dad’s back when shit went south without a moment’s hesitation.

She turned, clapped her hands together, and said, “What can I do to help?”

“Get yourself a plate since we’re ready to roll,” Riggs replied, then to his son, he said, “Ledge, show her the way.”

Ledger jumped off the stool he’d assumed and rounded the counter to go to the stack of plates Riggs had set out. His boy took one and handed another one to Nadia.

They all loaded up with brats in buns with whatever fixings they wanted, store bought macaroni salad, air fried curly fries, and Ledge and Nadia sat at the bar while Riggs dragged a stool around it to sit in front of them so they weren’t in a line, and they could talk while they ate. The lower cupboards were there, so he didn’t have anywhere to put his legs. But he had a direct line on watching Nadia, so he had zero fucks to give he had to eat twisted to his food.

Nadia started it by asking Ledger, “So you’re a Witcher fan?”

But it was Riggs who answered. “He likes anything with lots of sword fights and gore.”

“This is not my preferred viewing fodder,” she admitted to Ledger.

“Why am I not surprised?” his boy quipped.

She grinned at him, took a huge bite of brat, then Riggs felt something he’d never felt before when he watched her eyes roll back into her head.

Mouth still full of brat, she asked, “What miracle is this?”

---