There seemed to be some kind of scuffle going on in the hallway on the landing. She uprooted her feet and headed in that direction.
The house had four rooms at the top of the stairs. Two on one side—that’s where the kids slept. Lola and Harmony in one room, Rohan in the other. They had their own shared bathroom between their rooms.
On the other side of the landing was April’s bedroom, with its own en suite bath. And the guest bedroom across the hall that used to be Kent’s office. That bedroom did not have an attached bath.
She stepped onto the landing and—
Oh, for goodness’ sake. Three children were lined up crisscross-applesauce, a campfire-style semicircle, ass to carpet, in the hallway outside the bathroom where Jack was showering. At least, that’s what April assumed he was doing, given she could hear the shower running.
April’s pulse sped up, even as she commanded it to remain steady.
Her kids were all in on their Jack curiosity. Once he’d showed up for his shower, he unwittingly adopted three little people shadows and one canine shadow. Because, yes, Mayonnaise had even made the trek up the stairs to sit with the kids outside the bathroom door. And Mayonnaise never came up the stairs. Stairs were beneath her.
April eyed where Jack had hung his suit right outside the bathroom door. Apparently, he didn’t want it to get steamed by the shower.
If she had a suit that expensive, she’d probably not want it to get steamed by her shower water, either. But if she had a suit that expensive, she sure as heck wouldn’t wear it around her kids. Or her. Or her house. She just wouldn’t wear it,ever.
“Don’t wait outside the door like this,” April whispered, trying to shoo her kids along. But they were, all three of them, clearly not interested in moving, because no one budged at her request.
The man enthralled her kids.
To be honest, it was sort of hard not to be. What with him being new and shiny and… No, she refused to think of the odds of him being naked behind that door.
She’d just bet that Jack’s body was as good as his voice—and that was saying bunches.
“C’mon,” she continued, shooing only air with her hands. “You cannot wait for himhere.”
Lola shoved her thumb in her mouth. Rohan licked at a spot on the wall. Harmony squeezed one side of her mouth into her I-do-what-I-want smirk.
“I like Jack.” Harmony’s words were dreamy. Like Jack was a celebrity, and he deserved all sorts of adoration.
Fine, so the kids weren’t about to move. She would’ve sworn all four of them—dog included—seemed to settle their bottoms firmer into the carpet. Even little Lola, who usually went with whatever flow April needed her to, happily munched her thumb instead of moseying along down to the kitchen.
“Kids…” April shoved her hands into the curls she’d worked so hard on.
None of them met her gaze.
“What if I said this hallway is now the home of time-out?” Because usually she couldn’t get them to sit in time-out for any length of time. Usually, in the mornings, they were all energetic balls of childhood bouncing off the walls.
“If this is time-out, are we prepaying?” Harmony asked.
What on earth was Harmony talking about? And why on earth wasn’t shemoving?
“Prepaying?” April asked.
“Like at school if we give extra money to the lunch lady so we can use it the next day?”
Oh, well then—
“No, you are not prepaying.” April lifted a reluctant Lola into her arms. “And you can say good morning to Jack at breakfast.”
“Jack.” Lola pointed at the door, squirming to get April to release her grip. When that didn’t work, Lola went totally limp, which had the odd result of making her three times heavier. Thus she slid down the length of April until her bare feet were back on the floor. April released her because…man, what else was she supposed to do? Lola cemented her bottom to the carpet once more.
“Ribbit,” Rohan said, with a pointed look at the door.
The shower turned off. Gah. Jack would come out here and there was this whole audience thing going on.
April kneeled next to her son. “I get it. Jack’s interesting. But you can’t wait for him like this. It’s rude to stand outside the bathroom door.”
