Then Ichabod looked over, arched an eyebrow, and asked, “Me too?”
And right there in front of the girls and everything, Ellis answered, “Yeah, honey. I love you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Between Ellis’s dad coming and animals needing fed and snow falling and kids having every blasted thing to do in the whole world, it seemed like Ichabod was never going to have a chance to talk to Ellis in private.
Like, really in private.
He knew he’d hurt Ellis’s feelings, but he also knew what he had done was right. They needed to make sure they could live together. They needed to make sure they could make a life before they made any permanent decisions. He deserved that, the kids deserved that, and Ellis deserved that.
But he hated that he’d hurt Ellis’s feelings.
He just didn’t know how to fix it.
Now Ellis’s dad was going to be here any minute, all four of the kids were nervous, andhe burned the hell out of the bacon.
Good thing Mavis was happy to eat the disaster, even if it was burned black. Hopefully it was okay with Ellis too because Ichabod let her have it.
“Daddy, it’s smoky!”
“I know Allie.” He closed his eyes and counted to ten.
“Dude, Dad. Smoke alarm.” Zane grabbed the broom and started waving it in front of the smoke alarm. “Michael, open the door! Let the smoke out.”
“On it!” Michael came running and started waving the door like a mad thing, which made the fire in the hearth start to burn a little bit brighter.
Chrissy was sitting there staring at them from the broom to the door to the broom to the door to the dog.
About that time Ellis walked in with a gentleman who looked just like Ellis except older. “Hey guys, this is my dad, Joe McIntyre.”
Zane poked his head around the cut-through in the kitchen, nodded. “Hi, this is my dad. He burned the bacon. Come in and have a seat.”
“At least he didn’t catch himself on fire this time.” Oh, Michael was so helpful. An absolute joy to be around.
He wiped his hands on hisWorld’s Greatest Dadapron, praying that the grease wasn’t too much. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you. Let me restart some bacon. I was thinking BLTs for lunch.”
He’d actually been thinking about something fancy, but that wasn’t going to happen because he didn’t have that many more pounds of bacon.
Joe chuckled. “Well now, I know having a guest at the holidays is nerve-wracking, so I brought sausage biscuits and a box of cinnamon rolls from Snowmass.”
Ellis held up a big bag and a box.
“Cimmamons!” Chrissy came to hug Joe’s leg. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome, little bit. I had to stop anyway.”
Oh, God help him, he could see exactly where Ellis got his personality from. Joe was a cowboy, through and through.
Allie came up to Joe and said, “You’re Bell’s daddy. Does that mean you’re a grandpa?”
Joe grinned at her. “I can totally be your Grandpa Joe.”
She grinned. “Okay, sissy, this is Grandpa Joe.”
Chrissy nodded. “Bob-a-Joe!”
Zane put the broom down and held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Zane. The guy waving the door is Michael.”
