Page 47 of Twice in a Lifetime

I felt a breath flutter against my skin as one of them came in closer. “It’s real pretty.”Ainsley.

“Don’t touch it!” Adeline hissed. I heard a shuffle that must have been her pulling her little sister back from the bed. “You’re gonna wake them up.”

“But... I’m hungry.” I could hear the pout in Ainsley’s voice. “I wanna wake up Mommy to make me waffles.”

“No, don’t wake her up,” Adeline scolded. “She looks really comfy. And see how Rhodes is huggin’ her? I don’t think she wants to wake up right now.”

My heart clenched, that sweet little girl tugging at its strings and making a place just for her inside of it. To most people she might come off as shy, her quietness mistaken for nerves or trepidation. But I knew the truth. She wasn’t shy, she was watchful. She was quiet because that made it easier to soak up everything happening around her. An intuition like hers wasgoing to make her an unstoppable force when she grew up. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up as President one day.

“Rhodes gives good hugs. I bet that’s why she’s in here,” Ainsley stated with complete seriousness, carving out a space of her own in my heart.

“Yeah, and he’s super cool and smart. I’m gonna be just like him when I get bigger.” Avett declared, taking up his own space.

I felt Blythe’s fingers wrap around the forearm I had draped around her waist, squeezing as she listened to her kids give me some of the greatest gifts I’d received, without even realizing they were doing it.

As badly as I wanted to stay in bed all day with Blythe, with three kids under our roof, that wasn’t in the cards, and given what they walked in on this morning, I knew the talk we’d been planning was going to have to happen soon. So instead of staying curled around Blythe, I sprang into action.

I shot up to sitting with a roar that made all three of them scream bloody murder, but before they could act, my arms shot out and wrapped around all three of them, scooping them up and dragging them into the bed.

Their screams quickly turned to giggles as I got to work tickling them until they were squirming and flailing everywhere. Blythe quickly got into the game and joined me, acting as a second tickle monster while her kids filled the room with the most beautiful sounds of laughter—when they weren’t begging for mercy, of course.

We finally let up when Avett issued the warning that he was about to pee his pants. Their laughter eventually died down, and Adeline crawled over to snuggle up in her mom’s lap while Ainsley snuggled into mine. Avett sat in the middle of the bed smiling at the scene in front of him. I knew Blythe wished he was still little enough for snuggles, but he was too focused on growing up and becoming a man, and according to him, mendidn’t snuggle. I’d been the same at his age. So had my brothers, Raylan and Raleigh. But there would still be days when he needed his momma’s arms around him.

Ainsley smiled up at me, her little baby teeth on full display as she said, “I like your toot-toot.”

My brows puckered together. “My what?”

She reached over to trace the angel wings on my chest with her tiny finger. “Your toot-toot.”

“Oh.” My chest shook on a deep chuckle. “My tattoo.”

“Dat’s what I said.” I hugged her tightly, praying she never started saying her Rs and THs correctly.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” I glanced over at Blythe to see her watching us with a tender look on her face, those turquoise eyes filled with happiness. “They’re actually for your momma.”

I could see realization dawning in Avett’s eyes. “’Cause you call her Angel.”

“That’s right, bud. See, your mom and I were really close a long, long time ago, and I never forgot her.” I gave the woman who held my heart a soft smile. “She never stopped bein’ special to me.”

“I love you,” she mouthed just for me before Adeline chimed in. “That was fun.”

“It was, but from here on out, you guys need to knock before you come in Rhodes’s room,” Blythe said, adopting her mom voice so her kids knew she was serious.

Adeline nodded. “Yes, ma’am. But we only came in ’cause you weren’t in your room and we couldn’t find you.”

Ainsley nodded with a look of seriousness on her face that no four-year-old should have been able to pull off. “Yeah, and that monster in my belly is back, and he’s growlin’ that he needs waffles.”

I adopted her same solemness and said, “You know what? I have a monster in my belly too, and he was demandin’ the same thing.”

She sucked in a gasp and looked up at me with those wide Caribbean eyes that matched her mother’s. “Really?”

I lifted my hand in the air. “Swear. So we better get downstairs and make those waffles.”

The three of them bolted off the bed and out of the room, running down the stairs like a herd of elephants.

I slid on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt while Blythe gathered her hair up in a messy bun on the top of her head. “So... I guess the cat’s out of the bag on our relationship,” I hedged. “But if you aren’t ready, we can make an excuse or somethin’. Maybe tell them you had a bad dream?—?”

She came over to me and caressed my cheek. “We don’t need to make excuses. We’re going to tell them the truth.”

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