“Okay, that’s a little older, yeah. But if you got started now, you could have three back to back. I’m game.” He glanced at the floor. “Carpet looks clean enough. Let’s go.” He went for the snap of his jeans.
She laughed hard, which didn’t help his ego any. “Yeah, right. First of all, thanks for taking one for the team.”
He shrugged and sipped his cocoa. “I tried.”
“Second, I don’t ever want to know that I conceived my firstborn on the floor of a house I don’t own. And third, I’m not ready to have children yet. Husband first, kids second.”
“Oh. I hadn’t realized you had an order to it.” He grinned, enjoying this look into Piper’s thought processes and dreams.
“Well, I do. I’m an independent woman, financially set. But I still want a family. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
“Whoa. You sound a little defensive there, Piper. Don’t look at me. I agree with you.”
“You do?” She glanced up from her iPad. “Because Sam thought we should wait, but he didn’t want kids with me, as I learned later. My mother used to harp on me not to get married right away after graduating high school, to make a decent living for myself first. But then she’d constantly ask when I was getting married. I’ve set myself financially. But now...” As if realizing what all she’d been confessing, she shut her mouth.
“What? You’re among friends. I won’t judge. Heck, Piper, I’m in the same boat as you.”
“You are?” She blinked at him. “But you’re so young.”
“So are you.”
“You’re twenty-eight. You haven’t even hit thirty yet.”
“And?”
She shrugged. “And you’re twenty-eight.”
“I’m financially independent. I’m ready for a family. And I agree that I’d like to be married before I have children. While I know so many people get married and divorced like it’s no big deal, my long range plans don’t include divorce.”
“I doubt anyone’s plans include divorce, Grant.”
“You never know.” Not the way a few of his fellow teammates had gone about things.
She started walking again, so they moved through the downstairs into a huge office at the back, then past a laundry and mudroom through into a smallish backyard.
He studied the space. “Do you think this is too small? I mean, if we’re talking four kids, we’d need some space.”
“I think so too. But for Mandy, this should work. She’s got two teen girls, who I doubt need all the backyard space. But this would really work for a dog.” She opened the back gate, nodded, and closed it again. “There’s a dog run across the back alley. That’ll sell this even more.”
Back inside, they moved through the home toward the stairs.
“You want four kids too?” she asked him.
“Oh, yeah. Well, like you said, two to four. That works for me. A nice size family.”
“I think so.”
On the second floor, they walked past an open area currently occupied by a foosball table, down a hallway and looked into two bedrooms of good size.
“Are you hoping for a boy or girl? Both? Just girls?”
She frowned. “Why so interested?”
“Hey, I’m intrigued by the future. Besides, I know what you look like naked. You have to tell me. We have no secrets.” He looked her over, remembering.
She snorted, not blushing, as he’d expected. “You’re such a pain.”
“Do you like that? Pain?” Intrigued, he stepped closer. “Because I could spank you next time. Or tie you up. Whatever you’re into. I’m game.”
