Brody pretended to think about it for a long moment before he answered, "Yeah, that would be okay, but you have to help me clean up all the crumbs after."
"I can do that!" Jacks exclaimed before she ran into the house.
I sauntered toward Brody. "Caved like a house of cards," I teased. "You're nothing but a big marshmallow."
Brody leaned his elbows against the railing on the deck. "Actually, it was the image of you in a bikini that gave me the final push."
Speaking of pushing, I nudged his shoulder with my hand. "You'd give your daughter whatever she wanted just to see her smile at you the way she just did."
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me closer. I fell against him with an oomph. "Don't ever tell her that or she'll abuse her power for evil rather than good."
I laughed, tilting my head back so I could look up at him.
Brody brushed his fingers over my cheek. "I love you, you know."
God, would hearing those words ever stop affecting me?
"I love you, too," I replied. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah."
"So when things are fine, you and Monica yell at each other?" I asked.
Brody sighed. "Obviously."
I squeezed him a little tighter with both arms. "C'mon. Spit it out. You'll feel better."
"Monica has a problem with me having a girlfriend who spends so much time withourdaughter."
I frowned a little. "She has a problem with me?"
"I don't think it's you, per se," Brody replied. "It's more of the fact that there's another woman in Jacks' life that gets her full attention. Until I started dating you, she was the most important woman in her life. Now, she feels like she's being replaced and she doesn't like it. Jacks doesn't give her as much attention and she talks about you all the time."
"Doesn't Monica realize that to get attention from her daughter, she has to give it?"
"Monica is all about Monica. Her parents were persistent in teaching her that she was the center of the universe and she hasn't forgotten the lesson, not one little bit."
I made a face. "Ugh. How could she not see what a special little girl her daughter is?"
Brody shrugged. "Anyway, there's nothing she can do. Not without getting off her ass and she's as lazy as she is selfish. She's not going to make the effort unless she has to."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help, okay?"
"You're already doing it," he answered. He hugged me a little tighter. "Just by being here."
I smiled at him again. "Ha! I told you I could make people happy by my mere presence."
"You were ten at the time," he deadpanned.
"Doesn't mean I wasn't right," I pointed out.
His only answer was to kiss me.
