Page 47 of Trick or Treat

Trick could swear he felt the caress of her eyes as they moved slowly up his body. It felt as real as if she were touching him with her soft hands. Her eyes finally met his and he was floored by the heat in them. She cleared her throat and went back to washing and rinsing the dishes. How long did it take to wash a bowl and two beaters, he wondered. He wanted her to turn back around and look her fill at him once again. He was surprised how badly he wanted that.

She mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “sweet baby Jesus,”, but it was hard to tell with her back to him. She rinsed the last dish off and reached for a towel. She turned to face him again. “What are you looking for?”

Standing with a handful of Keegan’s clothes in one hand and a handful of Reagan’s sparkly clothes in his other, he replied, “I’m looking for a clean shirt, but I can’t seem to find one.”

“Did you check the dryer? Maybe you left some in there,” she suggested.

“Okay, the game is all picked up. Can we have a brownie now?” Keegan asked as he entered the kitchen.

“Yeah, you can have a brownie after you and your sister put away your clothes.” He handed a stack to Keegan and then a stack to Reagan. She stuck out her arms and waited for her load. Once Trick laid them on her small arms, he pushed her arms up enough to pin the clothes to her chest. “Keegan, make sure she puts everything in the right drawers,” he called after them.

“Do you want me to go ahead and get them both a brownie ready?” Lindsey offered.

“Sure, that would be great.” Trick couldn’t believe how much he loved seeing Lindsey in his house, moving around the kitchen. It felt so natural for her to be here with him and his kids. It was too easy imagining her being here all the time.

He hadn’t thought about ever bringing a woman into his children’s lives again after everything he’d been through with Michelle. In fact, the only women he tended to be with were usually for a single night and he never brought them around his kids.

For some reason Lindsey was different. She made him think that a woman like her would be worth holding on to. She was good with his kids and they appeared to really like her. Add to that that she was sexy as fuck and his match in every way in the bedroom and she was damn near the perfect woman.

“There’s plates in the cabinet next to the sink.”

“Okay.” She went to reach for the plates in the cabinet when the other hand came in contact with the very hot glass baking dish on the counter. “Ow!” she hissed, jerking her hand away quickly.

“Lindsey, are you okay?” Trick was across the small kitchen in a blink. He had the cold water on and her hand under the faucet in no time. “Damn, Linds, you burned yourself.”

She was biting her lip for a whole other reason now. She had tears forming in her eyes that she stubbornly refused to let fall. “I was stupid. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. I was distracted.” The last part was probably supposed to be said under her breath, but he’d been standing close enough to hear it.

“What were you distracted about?” His voice was barely above a whisper, but he knew she heard him. He kept her hand under the cold water.

Her laugh was self-deprecating. “Like you don’t know.”

“I don’t know. That’s why I was asking.” He thought he knew, but was afraid to read too much into it.

Her face turned up to look at him. “You. You were what was so distracting. You came in here with no shir—” He cut off what she was going to say by placing his lips against hers. She didn’t immediately push him away, so he took it as a good sign and deepened the kiss.

“Dad!” Keegan shouted from down the hall.

He leaned back and shouted back. “What?” He settled his forehead on hers, not wanting to let her go. She was finally back in his arms and he couldn’t deny that’s where he always wanted her to be. He could hear the two of them down the hall arguing and knew it was only a matter of time before one or both of them came storming in there to tell on the other one. “I should probably go see what the two of them are squabbling about.”

“Yeah.”

He pulled back and shut the water off then checked the burn on her hand. It was still pink but it was only on two of her fingers on her left hand. It could have been a lot worse. “How does it feel?”

“Fine. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Wanna stay for dinner?” he asked.

“Um,” she didn’t get to finish before Keegan was shouting down the hall again.

“Dad! She won’t listen to me!”

“Damn it,” he grumbled under his breath. “I need to go see what they’re doing.”

“Okay.”

He took a step back and turned to leave the kitchen. A sharp gasp from Lindsey had him turning back around. “What is it?” Did she burn herself again?

“You might want to put on a shirt.” He didn’t know what happened but the Lindsey he’d been watching with his kids and the one he’d been having a moment with was suddenly gone. In her place was someone he’d never met before. All emotion had left her face and her once hungry gaze was now as cold as the weather outside. What the fuck happened? She must have realized he didn’t understand what she was talking about, so she cleared it up for him as she drew closer. “I don’t think you want the kids to see your back.”

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