“Just a hint?” I teased as I decided to take his advice and dish up sorbet for them both before the kitchen got so hot it melted it before they could take their time enjoying it.”
“Well, let’s just say that the end of morning sickness did mellow out the plots a smidge,” Maverick admitted. “You’re still on midnight feeding duty and laundry patrol, but we’re no longer planning to remove one of each sock from your drawer and stash them in random hiding spaces.”
“Oh good, it’s bad enough with the dryer stealing them.”
“Yeah, that pesky dryer can be evil that way,” he replied, giggling.
“The dryer hasn’t been stealing my socks, has it?” I asked.
“Some of them are really soft.”
“And you’ve stuffed them in the nest, haven’t you?”
“Every bit of fluff helps.”
“Uh-huh,” I groaned, deciding it would probably be easier to just go out and get more socks, since they had at least two more months of nesting and I was sure a few more socks would go missing during that time.
I placed the bowls on the table along with a pair of spoons. Maverick dove right in, as did Leo when he emerged from the bathroom. They were halfway through when Maverick’s phone began to chime, and he nearly sent it skidding off the table in his effort to snag it while still shoveling sorbet into his mouth.
“What in the world?” I asked as the phone went off three more times while Maverick bobbled it and sent it spinning towards Leo, who picked it up and handed it to Mav.
“Yes!” he declared as soon as he’d checked his messages. “Our packages are out for delivery. With any luck they’ll be at the house when we get home for lunch.”
“Sweet, that means we can find spots for everything,” Leo declared.
“And what have you guys been ordering this time,” I asked, “and will it require me to break my toolbox out again?”
“Probably,” Leo replied. “This might be the batch with the toy chest and the hampers.”
“It is,” Maverick explained, “and the ABC bookcase shelf, which is probably a good thing, since two of the other boxes are filled with children’s books, and the crib sheets and bumper guards have arrived too, along with the mobiles and the night light projector.”
“Which one did you wind up choosing this time?” I asked since we already had three.
“The forest scenes,” Maverick explained. “We got a smart speaker for their room too, so we could have thunder and wind sounds and other ambient music playing through the night for them.”
“What do you two do, shop while I’m sleeping?”
“Naa, usually it’s while we’re waiting for you to come home from work,” Maverick said. “In between napping, nibbling, and actually getting work done.”
There was a smear of sorbet staining the corner of his mouth that I couldn’t resist leaning in and kissing away, though Mav decided that he was interested in more than just a brief brush of lips and gripped my hair, lugging me into a fiercely sexy, toe-curling kiss with plenty of tongue that left me aching and my mate snickering, fully aware of what he’d done to me.
“You just wait until we get home,” I hissed, rubbing noses with him.
“Am I finally gonna get the foot rub you promised me?” he asked, folding his hands beneath his chin in the shape of a heart and batting his eyelashes at me.
“You will absolutely get your foot rub tonight as long as you don’t pass out on me again,” I replied, brushing my fingers through his hair.
“Feel free to rub them even if I do pass out,” Mav replied, purring low, then louder when I cupped his cheek.
Nuzzling against my palm, he sighed contently and peered up at me with those vivid emerald eyes of his.
“Shall I keep that rubbing limited to your feet, or am I free to let my hands wander as much as they’d like?”
“Well, it’s not like you can knock me up if you decide to be a frisky kitty, so I suppose anything is game,” he teased. “As long as you don’t wake me up…well, scratch that, you can wake me, but you’d better be creative about it.”
Laughing, we rubbed noses again before I turned my attention back to the work I still needed to do as Leo waddled back to his seat.
“Okay, so what has our mate done now?” Leo asked as he got settled.
