Page 214 of Push

“Hell, yeah!” Toby tackled me in a bear hug, my feet disappearing off the ground as he swung me around. “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” His lips crashed onto mine, and after leaving me completely breathless from his deep kiss, he pulled back with a sly grin. “Wanna sneak up to the bathroom and recreate history?”

Embarrassment burned a fiery trail up my neck. “Toby!” I darted a look over his shoulder to make sure Liam had already slunk off to lick his wounds. I puffed out a relieved breath. The living room was empty except for the monstrosity of a tree.

Toby’s big palm squeezed my butt. “Yes, my Gwen?”

“Twenty people are outside!”

“We’ll need to be quiet then.”

I swatted his shoulder. “Absolutely not.”

“You wanna get loud? Naughty. I’m totally open to th—”

“No!”

“Later?”

“Athome.”

“Done deal!” He pecked a kiss on the tip of my nose, but before he pulled back, he squeezed the breath right out of me again in another hug. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“No backsies?”

“Never.”

Smiling, Toby held out his hand. “If I can’t tempt you to join me in the bathroom, may I escort you back to the Christmas festivities, my lady?”

I laced my fingers through his. “You may.”

We rounded the corner just as Tanya lunged for the drinks tray Cat offered around the room. She chugged down a glass of champagne in one gulp and grabbed another.

Toby’s brows shot up.

“There are way too many freaking kids here,” Tanya explained.

A horn tooted.

She’d barely managed to trip out of the way as the kiddie-sized jeep zoomed past. Noah was a speed demon, and no one was going to stop him from trying to get that jeep airborne. He blasted the horn again, and Alfie Rawles melted into a fit of giggles in the seat beside him as they shot out of the dining room, onto the patio, and hooned across the grass.

Tanya’s jaw dropped in horror. “What maniac bought those two a car?”

Toby stuffed his hands in his pockets and started whistling.

“I should have known.” She shook her head and gulped the champagne. “I think I’m officially in hell.”

Toby grinned. “Still not maternal, huh?”

“I wonder why?” she scoffed.

Toby’s smile wobbled at the edges. “Did you, uh…” His shoulder lifted. “End up seeing Mum?”

He snuck a cautious look at me but shouldn’t have worried. I looped my arm around his waist and tugged him close. My husband couldn’t help having a big heart—and he’d done everything he’d promised.

Sarah Sullivan had never darkened our doorstep again.

One of my last duties as trustee of the Sullivan family fortune had been to sign on the dotted line and revoke the trust once and for all. Tanya had only accepted one of the properties as a nest egg, and except for the rainy-day fund she’d insisted we keep aside for Noah, everything else had been sold off. The money had been donated to charity.

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