Page 31 of Designs on You

He moved into her, his shoulder brushing against hers. “This might surprise you, but I do know how to read.”

She shoved her shoulder against his. “I know that. But we have a bedtime routine. And they abuse it every chance they get.”

“Okay. Tell me about it.”

“They get one story each. They’ll try for more along with trips to the bathroom and glasses of water.”

“I think I can handle it. Why don’t you pour yourself a glass of wine and put your feet up.”

She kept giving him incredulous looks. “You really want to do this.”

“I do.”

She shrugged. “Fine. Call me when you’re ready to surrender.”

He laughed and headed down the hall to Christopher’s room.

Christopher was sitting up in his bed, his covers tuckedaround his hips. A stuffed dinosaur sat next to him. God, the kid was cute.

“Where’s Momma?”

“She’s…busy, so I’m going to read to you tonight, if that’s okay.”

Christopher nodded. “Okay.”

“Great. What are we reading?”

Christopher handed him an awesome-looking book about some amazing dragon and his adventure, so they settled in to read. From the kid’s constant yawns, he figured he wouldn’t get to the end of the book before he was asleep.

He was so wrong. It took four books, one trip to the bathroom, and several sips of water resulting in another trip to the bathroom before Christopher finally fell asleep while they were talking about his go-kart.

Okay, so maybe he didn’t have it all in hand.

Camryn, on the other hand, was sweet and smiley and said it was her job to read to him. She read three chapters of a book about a little girl detective that was really kind of cute. He was disappointed when she said she was tired and ready to go to sleep.

“Thanks for letting me read to you, Eugene,” she said, her little face earnest and oh so sleepy.

“I want to know how the rest of it comes out. Maybe you’ll read to me again soon.”

“Maybe. Goodnight.”

That was a definite dismissal. “Goodnight, Cammie.”

She told him to turn her colorful light globe on, which he did before he turned off the overhead light. Then he popped his headin and checked on Christopher. He stared down at his pink-cheeked little face and felt a pang of something he’d never felt before.

These kids were adorable for sure.

He wasn’t at all ready for kids, figured he wouldn’t be for a long time.

But Natalie’s kids were easy to like.

He made his way downstairs. “You were right. That took a—”

Natalie was on the sofa, curled up in a sleeping ball.

There was that flood of warmth again. Eugene smiled and walked over to pull the blanket from the back of the sofa. He covered her and started to leave, then thought about it for a second before taking a seat on the sofa next to her, picked up her feet and laid them in his lap. He picked up her untouched glass of wine and took a long swallow before taking out his phone to check his emails.

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