Page 112 of When We Met

Boys. They’re almost as much trouble as Sev.

Johnny takes the girls out for ice cream while I lay Austyn down for a nap. That’s when I hear Barron’s truck pull in the driveway. I smile at the sound, carefully closing Austyn’s door and loving every single detail about my life.

My kids are dirty all the time. I’m barefoot most of the time too, and if my husband comes in the house wearing a flannel, and scruff on his jaw, I still want to rip his clothes off and fuck him. We still live on the ranch, same house he built, just a little bigger these days. I work for the repair shop in my free time but most of my days are spent raising kids. And I fucking love it.

“Where are the kids?” Barron asks, staring at my legs in my jean shorts. I can wear cut-off shorts. Our daughters can’t. Barron’s rules. Not mine.

I waggle my eyebrows, posing in the hallway. I even draw my bottom lip into my mouth and slowly let it out. “Girls are with Johnny getting ice cream and Austyn’s down for a nap.”

“Fuck yeah,” he mumbles, walking toward me, ripping his shirt off in the process. “I’ve been thinking about you all morning.”

“Austyn peed on Johnny’s leg.”

Barron laughs, attacking my neck with kisses. “That’s my boy.” His body makes contact with mine. “Now, show me how much you missed your husband, Ma’am.”

He did that on purpose. “You’re all sweaty,” I note when my hands slip on his shoulders.

“You know you love it.”

He’s right. I do.

Look at us doing it up against the door to our room, unable to wait another second to be inside one another.

“Do you believe in fate now?” I ask him out of the blue as he lays me on the bed.

He smiles, his eyes wrinkling in the corners. “I believe in you,” he whispers against my heated cheek, the warm summer sun shining into our bedroom. “I’d say that’s pretty much the same thing.”

When we’re finished, we dress and Barron opens the door to find Austyn standing there. He hands him his diaper, smirking at his dad. “Hi,” he says, waving.

Barron looks at him and then me. “Do you think he heard us?”

“Oh, probably.” I pick Austyn up. “But he doesn’t know what we’re doing.”

Barron smiles at me, and then Austyn who reaches out for him. “How’s my boy?”

Without words, Austyn lies his head on Barron’s chest and my heart melts when Barron cradles him closer.

This guy, he makesforevermore than a word andtomorrowa promise.

---