“Promise?”
“Cross myheart.”
“You guys ready to cut Chris’s hair?” Deniseasked.
“Yes!” Kaden broke free of his aunt’s hold and scooted off thebed.
“I guess.” Kimber didn’t seem as enthusiastic about theprospect.
Right there with ya, littlegirl.
Denise moved closer to her and wrapped her arms around her, kissing the back of herhead.
Kaden stood in front of him, starring up expectantly. “Can I shave patterns in yourhead?”
“Uh. Sure. Iguess.”
“Cool.”
How did he get roped into thisagain?
Bree stopped next to him. “You ready forthis?”
“Do I have achoice?”
“No. Not really.” She patted his chest. “Consider it your civicduty.”
“Hey,” Jase said, grabbing Bree’s wrist. “Hands to yourself, GrabbyMcGrabberson.”
“It was a conciliatory gesture,” shesaid.
“You were feeling himup.”
She shrugged. “Tomato, toh-mah-toe.”
“Yeah, I’ll show you toh-mah-toelater.”
Chris shook his head. “Hello, I’m standing righthere.”
“Good point. Jase, go get your clippers. We have a head toshave.”
He watched her march down the hall, a woman on a mission. “She seems a little too excited aboutthis.”
“She gets like this sometimes. Usually we shoot some targets and she works it out of her system.” Jase shrugged and traced Bree’spath.
Great. Shaving his head was the alternative to his buddy’s woman shootingthings.
When he glanced back in the room, Kimber had rolled over and was hugging Denise. She twirled one of the little girl’s pigtails around her finger while they laythere.
She glanced up and caught him staring. “We’ll be out in a fewminutes.”
The first time she spoke to him all day was to dismiss him. Not that he blamed her. This was a family moment and he wasn’tfamily.
The thought caused his heart to stop for a nanosecond and restart with a hard thud. How did things get so damn screwed up? And how did being part of a family, of Denise’s family, suddenly become the most appealing thing in theworld?
When he arrived on the back deck, Jase had his clippers plugged into an extension cord and was showing Kaden the different attachments forlength.
“Can we start now?” heasked.
