Page 40 of When We Met

“There’s a bar up the road,” I tell Kacy, grabbing Sev’s hand so she doesn’t punch my nut sac again. You ignore the first punch, and she always goes for the jewels. “I take the girls there on Friday nights.”

Kacy glances out the office windows to see it’s still snowing. “Can we get there in this weather?”

Jace and I laugh as I haul Sev into my arms. “That’s what trucks are for.”

I could give her a ride into town. Let her stay at a hotel, but then how would I get to know her? Exactly, I couldn’t. So I take her out to the bar with my kids.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Nope. Should’ve stopped at one.

BARRON

“Is it always this cold here?”

Reaching forward, I start the truck and crank the heater. “In the winter.”

“And the summa’s hot as the devil’s balls,” Camdyn tells her, because yeah, cowboy lifestyle we live here, and my kids hear it all.

“Camdyn,” I growl, glaring at her.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, flopping back into her booster seat and buckling herself in.

That’s when I notice Kacy beside me. She’s darting her eyes around my truck, shivering to the point she’s shaking. “Do you have seat heaters? My ass cheeks are numb.” And then she slaps her hand over her mouth. “Shit…shoot. I meant shoot.” The girls start giggling. Kacy’s eyes snap to mine. “I’m sorry. I’m not used to being around kids.”

Part of me wants to know who she’s been around. What life did she have before she rammed her car into the side of my shop? Speaking of ramming…. Smiling, I shrug. “No seat heaters, sorry.” Without thinking, I peel my jacket off and hand it to her. “Here.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

But do you notice she doesn’t hand it back to me? She wants me. We exchange a look, one that screams “take me now.” Too bad my kids are in the back seat because I might. And the expression on her face probably isn’t a “take me now” kinda face, but in my very much sex-deprived state, I think it is.

With a soft smile, Kacy stares at the snow. “Wow, look at it coming down.”

“I wanna eat it,” Sev tells us, too loud in my ear as she rips my hat from my head and throws it on the floor.

I shove her back carefully. “Get in your seat.”

“I not wanna,” she whines, using the tops of the bench seat in the front of my truck as a balancing device for her jumping.

“Sevyn Rae,” I warn, twisting around to look at her. “If you want to eat, you’ll sit your monster ass down in that seat and buckle up.”

She puts her tiny face right in front of mine, her eyes glowing in the dim lights. “I’m hungry,” she grumbles in her very distinct monster voice.

I crack a smile and growl back, “Sit. Down.”

When I turn around, I notice Kacy watching us with a huge grin. “They’re so cute,” she says, laughter on her hips.

“Uh-huh.”

“Where’s this bar?”

Adjusting the heat again, it blasts a fresh warm breeze through the frigid air in the truck. “Up the road about five miles.”

Looking over my shoulder, I grab hold of the shifter and make sure the girls are buckled in. The headlights of Jace’s Jeep dance on their smiling faces. Of course they’re happy. We’re going to their favorite place outside the barn.

When I turn back around, I sneak another stolen glance at Kacy. The way she’s watching me, the not-so-innocent desire in her eyes, this girl, she’s trouble. Trouble I desperately want to be in.

Clearing my throat, I force a smile. “Ready?”

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