Page 21 of No Pucks Given
She turned to look at the nightstand and saw the matching fuzzy notebook. Her jaw dropped open, and she turned toward her mom. “He’s a keeper. Way cooler than Dad.”
I bit my tongue to keep myself from laughing. I loved how extremely blunt and honest Stephanie was. Plus, it felt damn good to know that on one of the first shopping trips in years, I picked out some fun things.
Siobhan came over to her daughter. “Come on, pick out the bedding since we will need to wash it before we get you to bed.”
Stephanie looked over the bedding, and her eyes kept going back and forth between the Parisian sheets and the light purple flowers. Then she did a game of eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Instead of doing a finger point at each bed set she was undecided about, her finger swept from side to side. Which meant that as she ended the little rhyme, her finger landed on the tie-dye set, which caused her to make a grimace.
I grabbed the sheets that she clearly didn’t like. “Well, how about this? We keep them both, and we put the Paris sheets on the bed. These will be extras.”
Stephanie nodded while Siobhan grabbed the two bags.
Chapter 21
Siobhan
As the poison storyline continued, it seemed like the filming days got longer and longer. I had about double the dialogue than I normally did, and the scenes were so emotional that it took some time to get everything just right. After another long day of filming, Duke dropped me off at Carter’s place.
Although it was great that Carter had been added to Stephanie’s school pick-up list, as he picked her up today. It was the second time this week he had picked her up. Judging by the mess I saw when I walked inside, it was clear they were home.
Damn it. We’re guests here.
Stephanie left a trail of her belongings from the kitchen to the den. First, I saw a sneaker, and the matching shoe was about fivefeet away. There was a coat left on the floor and a sock near the doorway.
I taught her better manners than this, and I hated the mess.
Also, why would she take off only one sock when she took off both her shoes?
As I picked up the discarded items, Carter came from the den with a wide smile on his face. “You’re home.”
Thankfully, he didn’t seem perturbed about babysitting or the mess Stephanie made. Instead, he rushed over to give me one of his special bear hugs that melted the stress away and then topped it with a sweet kiss. All I could say was, “Now, this is the way to be welcomed home.”
Then I realized what I said and reddened. I was thinking of his place as a home. Hell, even my house wasn’t really home. It was a place I lived in, but being in the arms of someone I loved was special and what I wanted when I came home.
But I didn’t scare Carter away with that comment. If anything, his shoulders straightened, and his smile just beamed brighter.
Trying not to act like a total twat, I said, “Sorry that Steph made such a mess. I hope she wasn’t a handful for you."
He pulled back and gave me one of those looks, like I was being stupid. I’d done the one thing I promised him I wouldn’t do at the beginning of our relationship. He was caring for my kid, and I felt bad.
“Quit worrying. She’s awesome," he said.
He gave me one more kiss, and I got lost in it. His lips pulled me to another dimension. They were so damn sensual. Or was it his hands that came up my back and pulled me closer to his furnace of a body?
We were just in sync with each other.
But we could only maintain that bliss for so long. Then the real world came back to life as books crashed down to the ground with a very loud, “What’s taking… bleech.”
I wanted to laugh since Stephanie’s acting skills were utterly atrocious, which was kind of a self-esteem blow, seeing as both of her parents are actually good actors. Steph was a complete ham and was always trying to get a rise out of people.
“Really? Aren’t you a little too old to disapprove of your mom getting kissed?” Carter said with a laugh.
Carter was always super sexy. He had that perfect Captain America personality, but seeing him joke around and getting along with Stephanie took it to a whole new level. My panties were completely soaked.
“No… I never said I disapproved of you kissing her. It’s just that you’re a step away from making a baby, and I don’t want a little brother or sister.”
That got me to break apart from Carter, and I looked at my daughter in complete disbelief. Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, but if she learned about sex from her father, I would kill him. “Babies? How do you think babies get made?”
Relations with Russell were already bad enough. I didn’t need to make it worse by reaming him out, but she was way too young to know about sex.
