Page 70 of Where It All Began
“Donovan is one extra kid to us,” Phoebe told him. “This is three extras. With access to blueberry pie and scissors. And sometimes Jax wakes up in the middle of the night—”
“We’ve got this,” Elvira said, nudging her toward the stairs. “Go pack a change of clothes, and I don’t want to see your face before ten tomorrow morning.”
“The dogs need fed. The cats, too. The cows and horses are done, I think. John did you feed the donkey—” Phoebe ran through her mental list.
Elvira pinched Phoebe’s lips shut. “We’ve got this. No one is going to starve to death or be neglected by 10 a.m. tomorrow.”
Phoebe’s brain did the math. Sixteen hours of uninterrupted peace. Sixteen hours of not hearing “Mom, Mama, Mom.” Sixteen hours of peeing by herself.My God, she could take a shower!She looked at John and saw the spark of hope in his beautiful gray eyes. Sixteen hours of enjoying each other.
“Yeah, I see that look. Wash my sheets,” Elvira reminded them.
Chapter Twenty-Five
At 9:59 the next morning a brand-new Phoebe returned home. John, loose and relaxed behind the wheel next to her, sighed.
“I was planning on working another hour on the transmission last night after dinner.” His fingers toyed with the skin on the back of her neck.
“And leave me alone with those three monsters again?” she teased.
“I didn’t say it was agoodplan. But I thought if I got the transmission working last night, I could get a jump on spraying this morning. Then we could take the rest of the day off. Swim in the pond or go into town for ice cream. Wear the boys out so I could enjoy some more quiet, quality time with my wife after they fell asleep.”
His hand brushed her hair back from her face. She’d cut it shorter a year ago. It came to her shoulders now, straight as an arrow. It was easier than taking care of her long tresses that were irresistible to little fingers that gripped and pulled. But there was still enough of it for John to run his fingers through.
“With a locked door this time,” Phoebe reminded him. “We don’t need Jax asking even more questions about naked wrestling.”
The corner of John’s mouth turned up. “I swear I locked it last time. I don’t know how those buggers got in there.”
Seven years in, and he was still the sexiest man on the planet to her. He still felt like home and heaven and everything good and steady in her life. The life they’d built together—sure, it was a mess sometimes—but it was a damn good mess.
Phoebe rested her hand on his thigh and squeezed. “I love you, John Pierce, grower of sunflowers and raiser of boys.”
Tenderly, he pulled her across the bench seat of his truck to him. “And I love you, Phoebe Allen Pierce. Keeper of books and tender of children and pets.”
He kissed her softly, sweetly. A gentle reminder that even when all else was chaos, this,thiswas good and safe and solid and oh so right.
She cupped his face, enjoying the scratch of stubble on her palm. “Maybe if I pack you a sandwich, you can work through lunch, and we can still take the boys into town for ice cream tonight?”
“Sounds like a plan, my brilliant wife.”
They got out of the truck and took a moment to stare up at the house.
“You know,” Phoebe sighed. “I’m awfully glad I was your Mrs. Pierce. It would have been a shame for you to have to tear this place down and build from scratch.”
He laughed. I’m awfully glad you came back and yelled some sense into me that day. He brushed his lips over her cheek. “Are you ready?”
She bit her lip. “As insane as they drive me, I missed them last night,” she confessed.
“That’s the Pierce charm,” he said with a wink.
Their boys burst through the front door still in their pajamas. “Mom! Daddy! Mama!” Little voices greeted them, little arms embraced them, and in motherly amnesia, Phoebe forgot all about the disaster of last night and let herself love.
“We played Atari with Uncle Mike!”
“Me ate fwee eggs!”
“Can Donovan wiv wiff us?”
Michael, Hazel, and Elvira joined the party on the porch with coffee mugs and donuts.
