Page 76 of Always Be Mine

“It smells like pancakes!”

“You know it does.” Craig returned to the stove, grabbed a plate, and slid his masterpiece onto it. “What do you think?”

Meri clapped her hands. “I’m six!”

“You sure are, kiddo.” Lucy led her to the table and settled the tiara onto her head. “Now, would the birthday princess like syrup or whipped cream and strawberries?”

Meri’s eyes grew wide, and Craig laughed when she declared that shehad to haveboth.

He leaned back against the counter as Lucy drizzled syrup on Meri’s huge number six pancake before spraying whipped cream on it and dropping strawberries on the top.

He shook his head, but he couldn’t keep the smile off his face. In all the years he’d been making his daughter’s birthday pancakes, six was proving to be the best one yet.

“What do you think your dad’s smiling at?” Lucy had a wicked grin on her face. She pointed the whipped cream can at him. “Do you think he wishes he had some whipped cream?”

Meri picked up on her meaning right away. “Oh yeah.”

“I think so, too.” Lucy held the whipped cream can out and stalked toward him.

It took a valiant effort to keep his thoughts G-rated, because Craig could think of about a million things he’d like to do with that whipped cream and the woman who wielded it.

“You want some, don’t you?”

Craig swallowed hard.

“Behave.” She mouthed the word at him before aiming the can directly at him and pressing the nozzle.

Meri squealed with delight as her father’s face was covered in whipped cream.

“I can’t believe you did that.” He reached up and wiped whipped cream from his cheek before putting the finger in his mouth to lick the sweetness off.

Lucy’s eyes widened, and she licked her own lips.

If only they were alone.

He swallowed back his growing desire and before she could react, Craig wrapped an arm around Lucy and pressed her back up against his chest. With his free hand, he snatched the can of cream from her and with Meri cheering and screaming in delight, he covered Lucy’s face in the sweet stickiness.

A full-fledged whipped cream fight ensued, with Meri standing on her chair, breakfast forgotten as she took turns cheering for both of them until finally Lucy declared it a tie because they needed to get cleaned up and get organized for Meri’s birthday party.

Lucy tossed him a towel to clean up.

Craig made sure Meri’s attention was back on her breakfast before following Lucy to the sink. “I think we both know who won that one,” he whispered in her ear.

She spun around, so there was only inches between them. “I never lose.” She winked. “And not to worry, I’ll claim my prize later.”

“Promises, promises.” Craig forced himself to walk away and headed straight into a cold shower.

Saturday was technically Lucy’s day off, but she didn’t care. More and more, Lucy chose to spend her time off with Craig and Meri because it was so much better than the alternative. There truly was nothing else Lucy would rather be doing with her free time than spending it with them.

She knew exactly what Mandi would say about it if she told her. Which was why Lucy had kept that particular piece of information from her best friend. Not that she’d been able to keep everything from Mandi, though. Her friend had some kind of specially honed radar for the juicy details and had somehow sensed from a simple video chat that Lucy and Craig were involved.

Involved.

It didn’t seem like an adequate word for what she and Craig were. But at the same time, Lucy had no ideawhatthey were.

What she did know was that she would like very much for them to be more. Meaning, it had been a very long few weeks and if they didn’t find themselves with some time alone soon, Lucy was afraid they might break down and take a risk in order to finally be together.

She was trying very hard to respect the fact that Craig wanted to keep their relationship quiet, but it was becoming harder and harder. And for the life of her, Lucy was having trouble remembering why exactly he’d wanted to in the first place.

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