He came back before I figured it out, still frowning that adorable frown.
I rubbed his arm. “Did you lose any timber?”
“Nope. And no one heard the rumble either. Do you think we imagined it?”
“Both of us?”
“Yeah. I mean, maybe we’re so connected we have the same dreams.”
He was taking the piss, and I’d been awake at the time of whatever the hell we’d both heard, but I liked the sentiment. It made my stomach flutter and my chest feel warm. “Works for me.” I kissed his cheek. “Maybe it was Charlie, though. That little git has farted me into oblivion more times than I can count.”
Fen laughed loud enough to wake Charlie up, but it wasn’t with a jump, it was with a smile, and he slid from the couch and toddled into Fen’s arms.
Grinning, Fen lifted him, holding him between us like our most precious thing.
Charlie poked me. “What doing?”
“Something with Fen,” I answered. “I don’t know what yet.”
“We could go to the fair in Tassleton,” Fen said. “Take Addie and Mae too.”
“That’s how you want to spend your day off?”
“It’s not my day off. I need to check on the stalls there—we have two, one at each end. And I promised your sister I’d get her some goose fat from the Wobbly Bottom Farm stall while I was there.”
“What does she need goose fat for?”
“Christmas Day potatoes.”
I’d had two breakfasts, but my mouth watered all the same. “If you’re helping Safia load her pantry, does that mean you’re coming for dinner?”
Fen shrugged. That was it. His full and complete answer.
I kind of wanted to punch him, but I wanted to spend the day with him and the kids more. And I knew full well my fist would bounce off his solid mass and have no impact whatsoever, so it was a wasted effort all round. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a stubborn motherfucker?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Am I?”
I rolled my eyes and texted my sister. Needless to say she accepted our offer to take her oldest monsters off her hands for the rest of day and pretty much tossed them down the mountain to join us.
We loaded them into Fen’s car, three kids in the back and us in the front.
I forgot myself and kissed Fen’s cheek as he turned in his seat to reverse through his gate.
The kids didn’t blink, and neither did he.
14
Fen
I felt like Dick Van Dyke inChitty Chitty Bang Bangwith all the kids bundled in the back of my car and it wasn’t a bad feeling. Rami was pretty scrumptious too, and I found myself whistling the accompanying song.
Rami rolled his eyes. “Didn’t have you pegged for a lover of musicals.”
“I can love anything that makes me feel good.”
