Melissa’s smile was angelic, coy, and purely calculated. Amanda fought the laughter that bubbled up in her chest. She’d thought they’d have trouble with Lee. Melissa was going to be pure hell. That is, if Jake ever let her out of the house.
“Oh, okay, baby. Monsters it is.”
“Then can we go riding?” Mick demanded.
“Yes, Daddy, please!”
Jake’s smile broadened noticeably as he shot his wife a triumphant smile. “They’re my kids all right.”
“We’re going to have to change the name of the ranch,” Amanda quipped. “To the ThreeRs.Reading, Riding and Roping.”
Jake slanted her a look of pure deviltry. “What about writing?”
She arched him a scowl. “That’s aWword, Jake.”
“I knew that. I just wanted to see if you did.”
“If you do,” she challenged, meeting that suddenly warm blue gaze with her own, “then you might want to use thatWword on your brother. He’s a little upset that he hasn’t heard from you.”
“My handwriting’s still a mess,” Jake protested.
“Daddy!” Melissa objected, tugging again and giving him another nudge with the book.
Amanda knew he wasn’t paying attention anymore. “You’re still using that as an excuse,” she accused, struggling against the smile that his challenge was provoking. A smile of combat, of imminent skirmish. Although, Amanda knew all too well by now, the contest wouldn’t be verbal. And, with two children sitting on the couch, it wouldn’t be immediate. They’d tease each other with it for now, meeting in odd places to cast barbs, to join in a few steps to heighten the tension until they could be alone. Until they could spark the embers that always throbbed between them.
Never taking his gaze from her, Jake disentangled himself from the kids. “Excuse me a minute,” he apologized absently. “I have to go have a few words with your mother about a man’s prerogatives.”
“Prerogatives?” Amanda countered, eyebrow arched. “Getting pretty snooty on me, Mr. Kendall.”
“Daddy!” Melissa protested in a rather disgusted voice. “Mommy!”
“They’re fighting again,” Mick informed her.
“Yes, they are,” Jake and Amanda answered at once. And smiled.
Amanda didn’t move from where she sat on the easy chair, her feet curled up beneath her, the books piled around her. She shot an expression of amused anticipation at her husband.
“Aunt Lee says they fight just so they can make up,” the little boy informed his sister.
“We have to stop letting her baby-sit,” Jake told Amanda.
Amanda chuckled as his hands rested on the arms of the chair alongside her. “She’syoursister. Besides, who else is going to watch the kids while we’re gone?”
He leaned closer, his eyes darkening, softening. His scent seeping into her senses. “Clovis. He loves kids.”
Amanda ran her tongue over her lips, loving the reaction it set up in her husband. “Only if they whinny.”
“Aunt Lee says they have a bet,” Mick offered. “That you’ll find a new baby in Scotland, just like you found me in New York and Melissa in Venice. What was I doing in New York, Mom? Are we going to have a new baby?”
Amanda felt Jake’s proximity right down to her toes. Her heart skittered in welcome. Her chest tightened. Her hands ached for the taste of his taut belly beneath them.
“What do you think?” he asked. “Is it a good bet?”
Amanda offered him a smile that held everything he was to her in it. “I already put ten dollars down with Lee. Is that okay with you?”
His smile softened. He lifted a hand to her cheek that cupped her in strong, callused warmth. “I already put down fifty,” he said. “I guess it’s finally time to stop bucking the odds.”
“I think you’ve done your share already,” she agreed, lifting a finger to play with a button, holding his gaze with hers.
