Jack Leroy was a bit of an enigma.
A very hot enigma. Maybe it was just that it had been a long time since I’d had any sex of any kind. But I feared more that it was the high from having him under my thumb, desperate for me.
I put Hazel on her feet once I got downstairs, walking into the living room to say hi to Aspen. I crouched and put a kiss on his head. “You end up sleeping okay?”
“Yeah. Harper and me read a book together.”
I gave him a hug, grinning because while they were getting closer, neither of them could read yet. “I love that.”
Hazel immediately started playing with some toys so I went to the kitchen to see if Jack needed help.
Of course, he immediately shrugged off my offer to help, his brows stitched together as he poured some beaten eggs into a hot pan. The sun streamed over his stubble and accentuated my side view of his eyelashes and strong nose as he focused on the stove. He wore his sweats from the night before, plus a white tee since he’d chosen to torch the sweatshirt. His hair was mussed from sleep and his bits of beard reminded me of his mouth coasting over my hip.
I cleared my throat to bring myself back to reality. “Thanks for all this. We got dinner and breakfast, huh? Trying to impress me or something?”
The tiniest smirk curled one side of his lips as he scrambled the eggs. “You think any more about it?”
I chuckled. “No.”
Like we hadn’t just been talking, he bellowed out, “Kids! Breakfast!” so loud it made me jump. “You can eat this stuff, right?”
I looked over everything. “I might go light on the eggs. I have to watch histamine. I can have some, but not a ton. And bacon is way more worth it than eggs.”
He gave me a quizzical look. “Histamine? Like allergies?”
“Sort of. It’s the mast cell stuff I told you about. My body is especially eager to dump histamine into my blood, so I have to make sure I’m not adding fuel to the fire to prevent a reaction. Sometimes it’s food that messes me up. Sometimes it’s just stress.”
“Sounds like you need a low stress job,” he deadpanned.
I rolled my eyes. “Have you thought about anything else since 9:38 p.m. last night?”
His eyes combed over me. “You gave me plenty to think about, Mara.”
The air pulsed between us, caught up in the memory of what we did. My chest flushed red as I remembered the bizarre fever dream of mutually jacking off with Jack. I probably shouldn’t have been jacking off with him while our kids slept upstairs, but . . . I don’t know. Two consenting adults, right? I was thirty-two years old. I had the right to an enjoyable sex life.
Even if it was to a guy who asked me to marry him moments before that. Guess that part made it pretty strange.
The kids rushed in, Hazel trailing after them with a toothy grin.
“Shit, I don’t have a high chair or anything,” Jack said, running a hand through his hair.
“It’s alright. She can sit with me.”
“I can hold her,” Jack offered.
I waved him off and sat at the table, pulling Hazel into my lap.
“Daddy, I wanted chocolate chip pancakes,” Jace whined. “Blueberries feel funny.”
“Sorry, bud. We’ll save the chocolate chips for cookies.” Jack turned to me. “What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?”
I’d been wearing pretty much a constant smile, but this was the first time it dropped. This would be our first Thanksgiving with just me and the kids. “Oh, probably nothing big. A rotisserie chicken and some mashed potatoes.”
“You got family around here?” he asked, sinking his teeth into a buttered piece of toast.
“My mom and stepdad are in Georgia and my dad’s . . . somewhere.”
Jack studied me. “Is your mom coming to visit?”
