“Yes,” he declares and rolls me on top of him.
The blanket falls away, the night air kissing my naked body and causing goose bumps to skitter across my skin.
Cupping my breasts, he gazes up at me, but it’s hard to think when his fingers are doing such wonderful things to my nipples.
“Yes?” I ask, so much hope and happiness infused in that one word.
“I want it. You and the kids. I want it all.”
My thighs clench around him, and I run my greedy hands over his chest because I can’t stop touching him.
“I have one question,” I say, kissing up the masculine column of his neck.
I discovered the other night that one of Fallon’s erogenous zones is the back of his ear. When I nibble on a soft patch of skin, he moans. So I do it again, enjoying way too much my effect on this man.
“What’s that?” he rasps, his hands convulsing on my hips.
Sitting up, I begin to work my way down his body. “What’syournumber?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
ELIZABETH
The Love of Family
“Where doyou want all this shit?” Fallon swaggers into the kitchen, his arms burdened with a heavy takeout box of food from Ruby’s.
The way he commands a room’s full attention isn’t on purpose; it’s just who he is. He exudes natural masculine sex appeal. His stunning face, his body, his larger-than-life arrogance. The way he talks and the things he says. He’s the forbidden bad boy every father warns his daughter about but who is every woman’s bad-boy fantasy.
“You can put everything down over there.” I gesture with my chin to indicate the breakfast nook since I’m washing my hands so I can start shucking ears of corn to grill.
“Why didn’t you get Ruby’s to cater the entire thing?” Fallon takes out covered aluminum pans from the box and stacks them on top of each other on the table.
That’s an excellent question. My feet hurt from standing in the kitchen all day, I’m sweaty, and I still have brownies to make.
“Remind me of that the next time I decide to throw a barbecue for almost three dozen people. Is Xander coming?” Theman is like a ghost. I haven’t seen him since we flew back from Italy.
“He’s not good with crowds.”
So, that’s a no. “Oh, Meredith and Bryce aren’t going to be able to make it. There was some delivery emergency at the bar that Bryce had to handle, and Mandi and Piper are down with a stomach bug. Mer insisted on describing the upchuck fiasco in graphic detail so I could enjoy her trauma.”
“I’m glad I missed out on that part of parenthood.”
He says it unpretentiously, but I hear the sadness tucked underneath.
Scrubbing off the stray corn silks from the cob under the faucet, I set it on a large platter and turn toward him. “Fallon, you would have made the most incredible father. You already have if you count Devon, Knox, Trevaughn, and Butch.”
Those boys love him and worship the ground he walks on. He may not have intended for it to happen, but he became the father figure in their lives that they so desperately needed.
I wish I could give him that. A child of his own. I know it’s a ridiculous thing to think, but he shouldn’t have waited for me. He should have found someone, had a child and a family…like Jayson did.
I shake away the melancholy that brings. I hope that Jayson and Bethany can find their way back to each other. After losing Elizabeth Ann, he shouldn’t have to lose another child. He worked hard to get sober and fight his demons, so I know he has it in him to work just as hard to reconnect with his daughter.
Covering the corn with plastic wrap, I head into the pantry and come back out with two boxes of brownie mix. “Want to help me make brownies?”
Fallon comes over and curves a hand around my waist. “What I want is for you to tell Charlotte or Chris to do it so you can take a break. You’ve been at it since this morning.”
“Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, wait. I did. Marcus is at the shop until four, Christopher is on grill duty, and I sent Charlotte to the store to get more—what are you doing?” I ask when Fallon lifts my hand and places it on his shoulder.
