Page 49 of A Package Deal

“Argh!” I blew out a frustrated breath. “You know what I mean. I didn’t want Anton to find out about our marriage that way.”

Warrick shrugged, his hands coming to my hips. “He’s worried about you, Em. He needs to see with his own eyes how well you’re doing.”

Part of me wanted to curl up against his chest and let those words soak in like a warm drizzle of honey on freshly baked bread on a cold night. Then I remembered everything I had to do in the next two days and that warm and fuzzy feeling was dashed.

“I don’t have time for a visit! I have exactly two days to get the bedroom done before your mother is here.”

Warrick huffed, his hands coming up to cup my face, pinning me in. “Make time for your family, Em. I didn’t always give my father the attention he deserved because of my work schedule and now I’m paying for that.” His thumb swiped across my cheek so gently, pain visible in his eyes when he was usually so careful to mask it. “Forget the bonus. It’s yours anyway, whether you finish in two days or not.”

My spine stiffened. “No. I won’t take that bonus if I haven’t earned it.” When he looked like he’d argue, I interrupted him. “But I will visit with Anton. Because you’re right. Family is important.”

He dipped his head to kiss my forehead. “Thank you,” he murmured against my skin. Like my agreeing to see my family helped him somehow. But maybe it did. The man took care of every little detail for me when he didn’t have to. Maybe he really did care that I remained close to my brothers. Which was opposite of Cayden. My ex had tried to keep me away from them as much as possible, one of many red flags I’d ignored.

“Warrick,” I moaned, the onslaught of all his sweet gestures hitting me harder than they should.

He kissed his way down my cheek and across my chin. “I love it when you groan my name, baby.”

And then his mouth was on mine, reminding me of every delicious moment last night that I’d tried to forget about this morning. His thick thigh pushed between my legs and suddenly my hands weren’t pushing him away anymore. I was gripping his shirt in my fists, like I was afraid the sweet, caring man I’d come to know would disappear in front of my eyes. We stayed there long enough for me to consider letting him lay me out naked on that blanket and do unspeakable things to me while my crew was nearby, but he pulled his mouth from me, his lungs pumping.

“I better let you get back to work,” he said hoarsely. Then he pushed away and let his hands drop. His jeans looked painfully tight. We stood there staring at each other, both of us obviously turned on and breathing hard, but unable to do anything about it in the middle of the day.

I turned to grab my tool belt off the blanket. “Thank you for lunch.”

Warrick had a twinkle in his eye when I straightened, fastening the belt around my waist. “Don’t want to disappoint Pip. I’ll have to give you the wiener schnitzel later.”

Walking away, I couldn’t help but laugh.

As I walked back to the house to keep working, I wondered if I’d ever laughed this much with Cayden. The answer was an easy, absolute no.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Warrick

Em had insisted on sleeping in the guest room with Georgia, which I tried not to take personally. When she got up before dawn to start banging around on the house, I realized how laser-focused she was on finishing the job on time. I only had myself to blame for dangling that ten-thousand-dollar carrot in front of her. That early start to the workday meant Georgia and I were blurry-eyed and tired as we dropped her off at preschool.

“Wa-wy?”

“Yeah, Peaches?” She held my hand as we walked across the parking lot to her classroom.

“Miss Amber says we only have five days of school left before summer vacution.”

“Vacation,” I corrected her.

“Yeah.” She was unfazed. “So, can we go fishing again? And maybe swimming? I don’t know how, but Mama says I could take lessons. And Aster says everybody goes to fires at night.”

I nodded hello to the principal and various teachers as we headed through the school gates. Fishing and swimming sounded like a perfect summer, but I wasn’t so sure about the fires. I’d have to find out what she meant. “How about we talk about our summer plans over dinner tonight with your mama?”

Georgia stopped at the door to her classroom and tugged on my arm. Her blue eyes were wide and intense, so like her mother’s that I hoped she didn’t ask for something outlandish in the next breath or I’d fold and agree to it just because she was so darn cute.

“Mama is gonna work…” The way she dragged out the word like it was a despicable swear word was enough to have my lips wobbling.

I sobered quickly though. Em was doing her best and I wanted her daughter to understand that. I crouched down so that I was eye to eye with her. “Listen, your mama works hard to make a good life for the two of you. She’s the toughest woman I know and I respect her something fierce. However, we can talk to her tonight and come up with a plan so that summer is also fun. It’s called compromise.”

Georgia wrinkled her nose, ready to argue with me. Also like her mama. I pulled her into a hug before she got going.

“But right now, you need to go to school. We’ll talk tonight, I promise.”

She ran inside to sit by Aster and I headed back home. Anton was coming today and I wanted to impress him. This house remodel may be almost over, but I had intentions toward Em that didn’t have an expiration date. Making sure her older brothers knew my intentions were pure—well, most of them anyway—was high on my priority list.

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