Page 57 of That One Heartbreak

“It’s the speed your blood pumps around your body,” he told Addy. “Your mom’s just got a little slow there. The juice will help.”

“Myjuice,” Addy said proudly. “It’s like medicine.”

He gave her a grin. “Yeah it is.” God, he loved that kid.

“Hey!” Ethan said. “Why’s nobody looking at me or asking how I’m doing? I’m the one with an injury here.”

This time, Kate was smiling at him.Welcome to the madhouse,her eyes were telling his.

Yeah, well, he was pretty psyched to be here.

Chapter

Sixteen

After they’d annihilatedthe pizza, Ethan insisted they make smores.

“You promised,” he told Kate. “You said we could do it the next time we had a Friday night dinner.”

“What about your hand?” she asked him. “Doesn’t it hurt too much to cook?”

“Of course it doesn’t. I’m not a baby.” He looked at her beseechingly. “Please?”

“Okay,” Kate agreed. “But first I want you and Addy to put your pajamas on. It’s almost bedtime.”

So James had pulled the gas grill out and set it up, looking to Marley for confirmation that he’d done it right, while Kate had gotten the two younger kids cleaned up and in their pajamas.

Now all five of them were sitting outside, their graham crackers and marshmallows and chocolate squares wrapped in foil and sitting on the top of the grill while they waited for them to melt. Kate had put on some music in the kitchen and it was spilling out into the yard. Some old, mellow rock album that made the air around them feel soft and warm.

“I put some wine in the refrigerator earlier,” she said to Marley as they sat on two chairs facing the grill. James was standing over the cooking smores, Ethan next to him, with a pair of tongs in his hands, waiting for the right moment to take the packets off the rack. Addy was on the swing set.

“I have to drive home,” he told her. “Remember?”

“You could walk.” She shrugged. “Or run.”

The corner of his lip lifted. “My car’s outside. What would everybody say if it was there overnight?”

She tipped her head to the side, her jaw jutting out. “Let them talk.”

“You’re just high from the carbs,” he said. “You’d hate that.”

“Honestly, I don’t care. Have a drink with me.”

The smile he gave her made every cell in her body start to vibrate.

“Okay then.” He stood. “I’ll get us both a glass.”

After the kids finished their smores, and Kate and Marley had finished half the bottle, James went upstairs to shower. Kate agreed with Addy and Ethan that they could watch a cartoon on their tablets in bed for half an hour if they promised to brush their teeth extra well.

An hour later, all three of them were asleep. She’d been in to check on each one. Addy was curled up like a ball, Ethan’s arms were slung out over his head like he was doing some kind of cheer, and James had nodded off with his headphones still on his ears. She managed to gently pull them off, and then plugged his phone into the charger so he’d have some juice in the morning, all without waking him.

It had been a long week. Kate hoped they’d all sleep in late tomorrow.

“Everything okay?” Marley asked as she walked into the kitchen. He was loading the dishwasher. The man knew how to foreplay.

“Everything is perfect. By some miracle they’re all asleep.” Her lip curled as she stepped toward him. And there they were, those flutters again.

She was getting used to them whenever he was around.

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