Page 46 of Trick or Treat

“Not a word.” He held up one finger, then hit the button for his seat warmer. He put his seatbelt on, put his truck in gear and took off toward home.

Trick hid a smile behind his hand as Jackson studiously watched the road out the front windshield, never once turning toward Race. They drove in silence for a while until Jed couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Do you smell that?” Jed’s brow was furrowed and he was sniffing loudly.

“Smell what?” Tricked didn’t smell anything.

“Smells like something cooking.” Trick almost believed Jed’s look of concern was sincere, but he knew the man too well. What made matters worse was Jackson sitting in the front seat trying to sniff out what Jed was talking about, thinking the man was serious. It was all Trick could do not to smile.

“What does it smell like?” Jackson asked.

“Like a frank and beans cooking,” Jed replied, all earnest like.

They waited a beat and Race didn’t disappoint. “Ha. Ha. You stupid fuckers.” Race knew Jed was messing with him for driving naked and using his seat warmer to stay warm.

Trick, Jed and Jackson burst out laughing thinking the joke was hilarious. As jokes went, it wasn’t that bad. Race even shook his head and chuckled.

“You are such assholes.”

Conversation flowed freely after that, making the drive go faster. Race drove to the clubhouse and everyone jumped out, going their separate ways. Trick’s goal was to get home and check on his kids. Maybe he could talk Lindsey into staying for dinner? With that thought in mind, he headed for home.

He spotted her car parked at the curb in front of his house and thought to himself, he liked seeing it there. He liked knowing she was in his house waiting for him and taking care of his kids. He absently noted that if it didn’t stop snowing soon, he was going to have to shovel his driveway again.

Hopping out of his truck, he was now closer to the back door than the front so that’s the way he headed. He unlocked the back door, swung it open and froze in the doorway. The first thing he noticed was the smell of brownies baking in the oven. The second thing he noticed was the sound of laughter coming from the living room. It was like music to his ears. Especially when Lindsey’s laughter was mixed in. He pulled his wet cut off and draped it over the back of a chair at the kitchen table.

Standing in the doorway to the living room, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He rubbed at them, thinking he must be seeing things, but when he looked again, it was still there. Lindsey and his kids were playing Twister. All three were contorted and twisted up with each other and he didn’t know how they were all still upright. Lindsey was bent over his kids, her ass in the air, pointing in his direction. He tipped his head to the side for a better view and thought to himself that it must be said the woman had a spectacular ass.

Everyone was laughing hysterically as Lindsey appeared to be stretching toward the spinner that was just out of her reach. The nearer her hand got to the thing, the more her foot was slipping out from under her.

“Daddy! You’re home!” Reagan was the first to notice him. She dropped to her knees and crawled out from under Keegan and Lindsey. She ran at him, jumping into his arms until she realized he was cold and wet. “Ewww! You’re wet.” She scrambled to get back down.

“Yeah, I am, baby girl. Cold, too.” Sadly, Trick watched as Lindsey fell to one side and Keegan to the other. The game was over. Bummer. “Who won?”

Keegan was getting to his feet, offering Lindsey a hand up. “I won the first one. Reagan won the second one and I think this one was a draw.”

Lindsey got to her feet, the biggest smile on her flushed face. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and laughed. “Your children are a couple of cutthroats when it comes to Twister. They showed me no mercy. They didn’t even care that I haven’t played this game since I was Keegan’s age. Well, thinking about it, I guess the last time was when I was sixteen and it was at my friend Jenna’s birthday party. We were playing in the basement and,” she suddenly straightened and cleared her throat. “Anyway,” she went to change the subject. “Enough about that.”

Trick laughed, wanting to hear more about this game of Twister she played in her friend’s basement.

“Guess what, Dad?” Keegan drew his attention. “She’s not nearly as heavy when she falls on us as you are.”

“Yeah. I bet.” One side of Trick’s lips kicked up. He’d had Lindsey riding him once and Keegan was right, she wasn’t nearly as heavy. By the way Lindsey was finding it difficult to look him in the eyes, she must have been remembering something similar. It was his turn to change the subject. “What is that wonderful smell?”

“Brownies!” Reagan skipped around in a circle at his feet. Yeah, that’s what she needed. Sugar.

The timer on the oven went off, serving as a way for Lindsey to escape. “I’ll, uh, go get that.” She hiked a thumb over her shoulder toward the kitchen.

“Right.” He turned to the game lying in the floor. “Why don’t you two get this game picked up while Lindsey gets the brownies out of the oven. I’m going to go put on something dry.” He left his kids to clean up their mess and went off in search of something dry and hopefully warm. He’d love to get in the shower and warm up, but he didn’t want to miss any time he might have with Lindsey.

He went to his room and peeled himself out of his wet jeans and thermal Henley. He found a pair of sweatpants to slip on and was looking for a clean shirt when he remembered he had all the clean laundry on the kitchen table. He picked up his wet clothes and took them to the kitchen and tossed them in the laundry room. It wasn’t really a full-sized laundry room. It was more of a washer and dryer in the kitchen behind accordion style doors. As he was digging through the piles of clothes, he asked Lindsey about his kids. “How did they do for you?”

She’d pulled the brownies out of the oven and was washing the few things she’d used to get the brownies ready for baking. Her back was still toward him when she answered. “Oh, they were great. At the risk of inflating your head, you have amazing children.”

He chuckled at her teasing tone. He did have good kids and he was damn proud of them. It was hard to believe considering how much time they were with their mother. He knew Michelle bad-mouthed him on a regular basis and he really hated that for his kids. That’s why he worked so hard to keep shit between himself and Michelle away from them. He wanted them to have as good a childhood as he’d had growing up. “Yeah, all in all, they’re great kids.”

He shuffled the piles around. Where were his shirts? He knew he’d washed some. “Reagan didn’t try to get her way and make you watch a princess movie, did she?”

“No, after theAvengers, we made brownies and,” Lindsey suddenly stopped talking. He looked up to find her staring at his bare chest, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. Her cheeks were flushed, but he had a feeling it didn’t have anything to do with the heat from the oven when she pulled the brownies out and everything to do with him being naked from the waist up. Soapy dishwater dripped from her hands while she stood frozen.

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