Charlie grins at me. “Why are you smiling, Dad?”
Shaking my head, I smirk. “Never you mind, kiddo. Let’s get inside. Aspen’s here and we need to let her get home.”
Her dark brow lifts and she grins, “Really? I bet you’d rather she stay.”
Shaking my head, I groan. Glaring at her, I growl, “It’s like you’re a thirty-year old in a ten-year old’s body.”
She giggles and darts out of the car as soon as it’s stopped, hollering for Aspen.
I follow slower when really I want to run and find her too.
I’m a mess. But I can’t stop smiling at my two girls when I walk in the door and find Charlie yapping like a little chihuahua and Aspen laughing so hard, she snorts.
How can you not love a girl who snorts when she laughs? I know I can’t.
Now all I have to do is make her realize that she really loves me and she wants to spend her life with me. No problem, right?
CHAPTER 3
Aspen
What just happened?
I would really like an answer. But I don’t know what the heck just happened.
I watch Sebastian dance around the kitchen happily with his little daughter who’s laughing and telling him to stop even though she’s not trying to pull away.
It’s the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen and I don’t know how my ovaries haven’t gone up in flames at this point. I never realized that they were combustible but there’s no way that they aren’t on fire and dancing right now.
Charlie is the most adorable little girl. Her blue eyes are the spitting image of her father’s right down to the little sparkle in them.
“Aspen! Come in here and dance too!” She hollers at me and my cheeks turn pink, my mouth dropping open when Sebastian turns to me and winks…winks!
“Come on in here, Aspen! Don’t make me be the only one up here dancing with Charlie.”
Biting my lip, I stand slowly. “Ummm….I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“Don’t start the klutz talk again or I’m gonna…”. He stops talking and I can’t help filling in the blanks in my head. What’s he gonna do? Tell Santa on me? Spank me?
Sparks tingle up and down my spine, settling in my core. My mind can’t stop picturing lying across his lap with his big palm on my backside.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I watch Sebastian’s eyes darken to sapphire blue, gold glints firing up. His broad chest is rising and falling a lot faster than it was earlier and I can’t help wondering if he’s having the same thoughts that I am.
A low grumble rolls through the sudden quiet of the room and my head shifts right and left, searching for a dog.
“Did you hear that?” I ask. “Do you have a dog?”
Charlie frowns, her little brow scrunching up. “No.” She darts a glare at her father’s back as he turns back around and quickly flips the sizzling burgers on the griddle of the stove. “I keep asking Daddy if we can get one but he keeps telling me no.”
Her father smirks at me and there’s something knowing and hungry in his blue eyes that has me flushing dark red.
“If you want a dog you’re going to have to take care of it and I don’t think you’re ready for that much responsibility.”
“I am. I really am.”
“We’ll see.”
Charlie rolls her clear blue eyes. “Right. Well, I’m gonna go upstairs and do my math homework. Can you call me when it’s time for dinner?”
