Page 60 of Bookworm
A smile twitched at Dad’s lips and he tilted his head toward the hot tub. “I meantnow. Trust me. It’ll be easier to enjoy the weekend if you get this off your chest.”
“Fine.” With a roll of my eyes, I gave Lacey’s ruddy cheeks a few more kisses before handing her back to Dad.
His grin widened as he tucked Lacey into the carrier he wore holstered around his chest. “You know I’m right.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I muttered and stood, tugging my denim cutoffs further down on my thighs as I crossed toward the hot tub.
Behind me, Dad yelled out to Coen and Cole. “Boys! Time to get out!”
“Aw, Dad! Why?”
“C’mon! Five more minutes!” They both whined.
“Nope!” Dad boomed. “Now. It’s been thirty minutes and you know the rules. Now go inside and wash your hands and dry off before lunch.”
There were groans of protest from my brothers as they begrudgingly crawled out of the water onto the patio.
“Preferablywithoutthe attitude,” Dad called out.
I smiled to myself, remembering those days myself. It was weird watching my Dad be the father I remembered him as… toother kids. Especially when my own childhood was so far in the past.
Little wet feet slapped against the wood planks of the deck as Coen and Cole plodded past me. I lowered myself to the edge of the hot tub, sitting and dipping my feet into the warm, circulating water.
Planting each palm on the edge of the deck beside me, Adam pushed up, lifting himself out from the hot tub.
I stared shamelessly as water sluiced over the rippled muscles of his pecs, abs, and arms. That was a lot of hard muscle he’d been hiding beneath his college-type tweed jackets.
Which only made him that much sexier in my eyes.
“Hey you,” he grinned and kissed my cheek.
I stole a quick glance over my shoulder, confirming that everyone had gone inside the house, giving us some privacy.
“Hey,” I said.
There must have been something in my voice because his smile dropped immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“I ran into your dad last night,” I blurted out quickly.
There was no point in dragging this out and making it any more painful than it had to be.
A series of emotions flashed over Adam’s face in a matter of mere seconds. Shock, relief, apprehension, panic. “Okay… Please tell me you two just avoided each other?”
I dropped my cheek to my shoulder giving Adam a look. “When have you ever known either of us to be passive like that?”
Adam winced. “He knew I was visiting Maple Grove this weekend.”
“Yeah,” I said.”He told me.” In an attempt to keep the emotion out of my voice, it accidentally came out deadpan.
“He did?”
“Yep. Right before I dumped a beer on his head.”
“Youwhat?”
“In my defense, he was being pretty awful.”
“Harper, Jesus.” Adam swiped a wet palm down his face, then reached for his towel that was draped over a deck chair beside him.
