“Guess I better go see what’s going on out there,” Ben said and followed my daughter out.
I tried to get Esmerelda to come to me so I could pet her, but now that it was just the three of us, she beelined over to Magnolia, whose brows shot up as she looked at me in disbelief.
“What?” she said rhetorically.
Then Esmerelda nuzzled Magnolia’s neck, making her laugh. She hesitantly ran her hand down the llama’s frizzy neck.
Esmerelda nuzzled her neck again, then lowered her llama snout and stuck it right between Magnolia’s breasts.
Magnolia took a step backward. “Are you seeing this? I’m not kidding about an assault.”
I grinned and moved to Magnolia’s side, putting my arm around her, pulling her into me. “Esmerelda, we could’ve been friends, but you just touched what’s mine.”
The llama snuffed, then turned away, as if she couldn’t care about the fallout of her poor decisions.
“Are you okay?” I asked Magnolia, who was still laughing.
“I’m okay but ready to exit the barn.”
“Good night, Betty,” I said toward the end stall. “Good night, Esmerelda. Pervert.”
As we walked out of the barn, Addie ran up to us. “Daddy, can I have a sleepover with Sienna and her sisters?”
Sienna and Nova followed a few feet behind Addie, their eyes on me.
“Did your dad say that’s okay, Sienna?” I asked.
She nodded, and Nova said, “We can all sleep in our playhouse bunk bed!”
“If Mr. West approved it, you can go,” I told my daughter. “You don’t have any pj’s with you though.”
“She can borrow some of mine,” Sienna said.
“Okay then,” I said. “But Addie? If the other kids aren’t invited, you need to be mindful of their feelings.”
“I will, Daddy!” My daughter ran off with the others, who were organizing a game of capture the flag in the open area on the other side of the house, by the chicken coop.
I pulled Magnolia into the shadows against the house, gently pressed her body against the wall with mine, kissed her, and said, “You know what that means?”
“What?”
“It means we can have our own sleepover.”
“Mmm, I’m in,” she said.
“Good.” I kissed her again. “Because I have plans for you all…night…long.”
“We should probably show our faces for a little longer inside first.”
I put some space between us, recognizing that the longer I kissed her, the harder it would be to not sneak away from Ben’s. “Not only is she sexy, she’s smart,” I said. “What more could a guy ever want?”
Knowing that was true, I ushered her inside while I still could.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Magnolia
The party at the Holloways’ was the kind of party I’d only ever dreamed of being at.
