“Dad!”
Josh strode to the door and pulled it open a crack. “What’s the problem?”
“We’re hungry,” said Shane. Dillon stood right behind him nodding in agreement. “We want breakfast, please.”
“All right. You go on downstairs. I’ll be there in two minutes. Think about what you want to eat.”
“Pancakes!” cried Shane.
“Hot cocoa!” shouted Dillon.
“Shh. Riley’s probably still sleeping,” Josh whispered in consideration for Dillon’s supposedly sleeping mom. “Keep it quiet, okay?” As both boys nodded sheepishly, he instructed, “Go on down. I promise I’ll be right there to get your breakfast started…”
“I’ll get my mom, too,” volunteered Dillon in a stage whisper. “She likes breakfast a lot.”
“Hold on,” Josh replied before Dillon could dart to Riley’s door and discover that his mother wasn’t inside. “She might want to sleep a little longer. I’ll check on her before I come down.” Dillon frowned but didn’t object. Josh threw in a carrot to draw them downstairs. “Have a juice box eachif you want one.” He looked at Shane. “If you can’t wait, help yourselves to cold cereal. But be sure to leave room for the pancakes, eggs, sausage and cocoa…”
“O-kay!” Shane replied. He turned to Dillon. “Let’s go…”
And off they went.
Once the boys disappeared down the stairs, he shut the door and turned to find Riley standing a few feet away. While he’d worked things out with their sons, she’d put on everything but her socks and boots. Those, she clutched in either hand.
“I don’t like lying to Dillon,” she said. “Or to Shane, for that matter.”
“They’re five,” he reminded her. “Some things I try to avoid getting into with a five-year-old.”
She shrugged then. “You may have a point. They don’t need to know too much right now.”
He wanted to kiss her. A lot. For so many reasons. Because she was a great kisser, and he liked holding her close. And hot damn, they were having a baby. He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around that. Big changes were coming.
Should he be more freaked out about this situation? Probably. After all, Shane was a surprise baby. He’d been stunned, terrified and kind of pissed off when Lenore had laid the big news on him. Ambivalent. That was the word for the way he’d felt back then—that he had no idea how to be a husband or a dad.
Still, he’d proposed, and she’d said yes. The marriage lasted two years. He and Lenore had gone to counseling at the end. But it just wasn’t working. They divorced.
As for being a dad… Best thing that had ever happened to him. He still had his issues with his ex-wife. Their livesweren’t perfect. But Lenore loved Shane as much as he did. Their son was a happy little boy…
And now he would have a second child.
Yeah, there was a lot to work out. So what? He was up for it. He could not wait. He’d always wanted more kids, but his issues with Lenore had made him gun-shy about relationships.
With Riley, though, he didn’t worry. Next to his cousin, Joe, she was the best friend he had. Having a kid with his best friend. The more he thought about it, the more he felt certain that, one way or another, it was all going to work out great.
“Whatareyou thinking?” Riley demanded.
He gave her a smirk. “You really want to get into that now?”
“No, I do not,” she said sternly. “I want you to put on the rest of your clothes and get down there before the kids come back up here to find out what’s taking you so long.”
“Fair point—and hold on.” He put up a hand. “I’ll check to make sure that the coast is clear and then you can dart across the hall to your room.”
She gave a little snort-laugh. “You are having far too much fun.”
“There is no such thing as too much fun—now, step back and let me look…”
He stuck his head out the door and checked up and down the hallway. Then, carefully shutting the door, he turned to face her. “Okay, all clear.”
“Thanks,” she said with more than a hint of sarcasm. He caught her arm as she tried to slip around him. She looked at him from under her lashes. “Josh. Stop messing around.”
