Keaton gasped, and I gave him a wink that had him flushing red. I probably needed to give him a break, but he loved being spanked so much I was having trouble leaving his wonderful asscheeks alone.
Mrs. Carmine walked up the steps to the platform in the center of the trampolines and waved at us while dragging her pink cardigan closer around her body. She was such a sweet woman, and she’d been charming while accepting our invitation to stay all day and overnight tonight in our guest room. Luckily, she’d also suggested watching Ginny later so we could have time to ourselves.
And oh, did we ever need a free evening.
Ginny popped up and started bouncing again, trying to make us fall over. Keaton grabbed my hand, and my breath caught. I squeezed back.
“Fall! Fall!” Ginny put all her effort into trying to bounce us over without actually jumping on top of us, screwing up her cute face in concentration. Keaton and I shared a look and flopped over onto our backs while Ginny squealed in victory and marched around us. She leaped, a girl walking on the moon with big, exaggerated steps.
Keaton touched my face. “You look happy.”
Grinning, I kissed his cheek. “I am. I haven’t felt this good since before my parents died. Before times got bad. And that’s all thanks to you. I love you.”
His face flushed a sweet pink that he would deny for a million years if I pointed it out. “I love you, too.”
He leaned close and brushed his lips over mine, and I melted into the kiss, wriggling closer, but then a horrible pain in my gut had me groaning. Keaton was in the same predicament as Ginny hit the trampoline between us—after conveniently using our stomachs to break her fall.
She grabbed our shirts and shook us.
“No more pop for you!” I said, trying and failing to do anything but laugh.
“Are you boyfriends?” She stuck her face in mine in that too-close way all little kids perfected that was intrusive but still mostly endearing. “Barney at school, he has two moms! This is the same, right?” Her eyes were wide as she glanced between us.
Keaton hugged her while I tried to disentangle her fingers from our shirts.
“More or less,” he said.
“There are some key differences to the scenario,” I murmured.
He rolled his eyes, but Ginny was off like a shot to Mrs. Carmine. I gathered by her pointing at us that she was sharing the good news that had only just now occurred to her.
“Kids are so funny.” I glanced at Keaton and frowned because he was tense. I followed his line of sight to Mrs. Carmine, but she only smiled and nodded, then gave us a friendly wave. His shoulders sagged in relief, and I wanted to build a time machine for the sole purpose of murdering everyone who had ever put that fear of being himself in his brain.
“Let’s go tell Ginny there are presents to open at home.”
Keaton got up and my heart leaped at the way he easily hauled me to my feet. “I think you spent too much.”
“Come on.” I shoved him, and he bounced, keeping his balance. “We only covered the dining room table in gifts. We didn’t even stack them.”
Keaton frowned. Fuck, he was adorable. I decided then and there to double the amount of presents on his birthday.
“You know most of it is stuff she needs.” I put my hands on my hips and bounced in a circle. “Clothes. Bike helmet. A new big girl bike. Roller skates. A bowling ball, so she can win next time because the green ones are lucky, but her own green one would be luckiest.” I stopped ticking off things as Keaton raised an eyebrow.
I kissed him in a sneak attack.
“What will you do for Christmas if you go all out like this for birthdays?” He scratched the back of his head and gave me a little pout that adorably reminded me of Ginny.
I tweaked his nose. “Spoil her, of course, but you’re supposed to spoil kids during the holidays.”
He wrapped his arms around me and swung me off my feet.
A shrill whistle blast broke us apart.
“No roughhousing!” A teenage girl with braces and a no-nonsense expression pointed at us, then her lime green shirt that matched the other employees, as if to prove she had the authority to boss around adults.
Ginny pointed at us with both hands and danced around, clearly enjoying us getting into trouble.
“On that note, let’s go home.” I turned toward Ginny and shouted, “Presents?”
