I'm mortified and glance at Kace to see him staring at his little girl with an expression that's a mix of amusement, horror and absolute panic. As though it's only just occurred to him that one day his baby girl might have one of her own.
"Uhhh…Dani, baby."
"I'm just pretending, Daddy," Dani says in her sweet little voice while shooting her father a look that says she can't believe he thought it was real. "I don't wanna be sick all the time like Lindsey. Yuck." She makes a gag face. "It's gross. Sorry, Lindsey."
Despite my embarrassment, I nod and rasp, "Totally okay, sweetheart. It is gross."
"Well, on that note," Gabe says, "we should get back to the station and let you, uh, rest."
Sully's barely holding it together. I see the way he's covering his smile with his hand and pretending to cough to try to cover up his ongoing laughter at Dani's antics and words. The man obviously has an ornery side, and he currently revels in Kace 's discomfort. And my own.
"Yeah, man, we'll leave you to this," Sully says, lowering his hand to give Kace a fist bump. "Good luck, Daddy."
Sully can joke all he wants. But he isn't the one stuck in the house with Dani and Kace—and feelings I need to get under control fast.
Chapter
Ten
Kace
It's a couple of hours before I recover from Dani's little playtime-pretend session of being pregnant.
Sully heads out the door before either Lindsey or I recover from his assumption that I'm the father, but after calling Sully an idiot, I realize Gabe will undoubtedly correct the error on the way back to the station.
After the guys leave, I somehow manage to set aside my horror at the thought of my baby girl having sex one day in order to get pregnant. What dad wants to think about that? The thought makes me want to kill her imaginary husband, and he's still a kid as yet.
Lindsey fixes a late lunch and brings my meds while Dani plays in her bedroom. There's an awkwardness between us now. One born of embarrassment and tension and all the questions we've yet to go over and work through. "We should probably get some things settled before Mads gets home from the bookstore and we have that talk."
I see Lindsey square her shoulders and take a breath, like she's bracing herself for whatever comes next. I don't blame her. We're both exhausted. But this isn't a conversation that can be put off any longer.
"I suppose you're having doubts? I mean, after Dani's… I understand if you're having doubts," she says. "I get that I'm not the moral influence you might want for your girls."
"Hey, no judgment from me. You're more than of age to make decisions regarding your life. But I do think we need to get those boundaries and stories straight before we talk to them. Are you up to discussing it now?" I'm honestly too tired to have this conversation, especially when the pain med is kicking in, but I don't want to put it off any longer. If Lindsey is going to be staying with us and taking charge of the girls to a certain extent, we need rules. Limits. Reminders that this is temporary.
"What do you have in mind?"
I scrub a hand over my face to fight off the drowsiness. "Well, for one, I think we need to talk about the fact you're pregnant."
"As in don't be Lindsey," she murmurs. "I get it. I'm the after-school special."
I feel like crap for agreeing, but she's right when it comes to the two girls in my care. "I just don't want them…romanticizing it."
"I understand. And believe it or not, I agree. Especially given their ages."
Good. It's good to be on the same page.
"But I really don't think either of them sees anything romantic about my situation. I mean, yes, Dani was pretending, but I remember doing the same thing as a kid playing dressup. I knew enough to know babies were in mommy's bellies, and it was part of playing pretend. I had a Midge."
I frown at the statement. "A Midge?"
Lindsey smiles and it lights up those gorgeous eyes of hers.
"Barbie's best friend, Midge. Midge came with a pregnant belly—and a husband and family."
Okay then. News to me. "Okay, I get it. Pretending's okay." I think a moment more because things are starting to muddle more than a bit due to the drugs. "Mads, though..."
"Madison had a friend in Virginia who got pregnant and had to get a DNA test to identify the father. Trust me, she isn't romanticizing anything. But it does bring up another subject where Madi is concerned. Did Gabe talk to you while Dani and I were gone?"
