Page 51 of Single Mom for the Firemen

She does as I ask, standing on tiptoe to open the door. I notice the tee she was sleeping in riding up slightly above her shorts, showing off a strip of her bare belly. I almost get distracted, until the scent of burning bacon meets my nostrils and I’m reminded of what I’m meant to be doing here.

I clear my throat as she lays the plates out next to me, and she observes me for a moment, tipping her head to the side as she watches me.

“What is it?” I ask, raising my eyebrows at her.

“Nothing, I just…” She pauses for a moment, clearly considering how best to phrase this. “I just figure that you’ve made a lot of breakfasts for women, over the years.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” I chuckle.

“You were so charming with me when we met,” she teases. “I guess you’ve had a lot of time to practice on lots of women, over the years…”

“You make it sound as though that’s the only thing I’ve been doing with my life.”

“I don’t know, isn’t it?” she fires back, grinning. “You could have a whole harem of women that I know nothing about…”

“Oh, and that’s your business, why?” I counter, taking the food off the heat and turning to her, wrapping my arms around her waist tight. “As long as you’re one of them…”

She leans up to kiss me, brushing aside the last part of my sentence as our mouths come together once more. I push my hand into her hair and pull her against me. Last night, the look on her face when she came—it’s burned into my brain, stirringdesire in me even now when I should be focused on making breakfast.

“I just mean,” she murmurs as she pulls back, pausing for a moment to speak. “That I was with three men last night. I wouldn’t exactly have any room to complain if you were with other women…”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” I assure her, brushing my thumbs along her cheeks. “You’re the only woman I want.”

“Good,” she giggles. “Because I want all three of you all to myself…”

We both laugh as we fall into another kiss, but his one grows a little more hot and heavy than the last, and I spin her around to press her against the counter, the food forgotten…

Until both of us hear a noise on the stairs behind us, and we spring apart—there’s only one other person in this place, and she’s not someone I want to walk in on a make-out session.

“Good morning, sweetheart!” Vanessa calls to her daughter, biting her lip at me before she heads out to greet her little girl. I turn my attention back to the food, doing my best to keep the cocky grin off my face. Yeah, I know we’re going to pick up on that later—and when we do, it’s going to be all the better for waiting for it.

Vanessa and Callie make their way into the room, Callie in her mother’s arms. Her hair is all over the place, as though she has been tossing and turning all night, but she smiles at me in greeting anyway.

“Killian’s been kind enough to make breakfast for us,” Vanessa tells her, squeezing her hand as she plants her at one of the seats at the breakfast bar.

“Thank you,” Callie chirps to me sweetly, and I can’t help but smile as I dish up the food.

As I distribute it along the bar, and the three of us begin tucking in together, it strikes me how long it’s been since I’ve been in a situation like this one. This kind of normalcy, sitting down with the two of them for food and conversation before we get started on our day…I haven’t experienced it since I was living with our foster parents.

And what’s even crazier to me is the realization that I have missed this. God, I have missed it so much, I don’t know how I made it all that time without it. The sunlight filters through the window behind Callie, lighting up her hair in a halo as she laughs at something Vanessa says, and it’s like my brain takes a snapshot of the image on autopilot.

I haven’t allowed myself to want this. That’s why it feels so different. I haven’t allowed myself to want something as intimate and familial as this, because of how I lost it before. I pushed away the thought of anything other than the least serious encounters with women, and I moved out to the middle of the woods to hide from the rest of the world. I have done everything in my power to keep from opening myself up to this, because the thought of losing it again was more than I could take.

But now I sit here once more, surrounded by it, drenched in it, and I know I can’t let it go. Not a chance in hell. Now that I have it, I know I need it, and I won’t let it slip through my fingers again.

Vanessa glances over at me. She seems to notice that something has shifted in my demeanor, and she gives me a quiet look, her eyebrows rising to silently question my well-being.

I just reach for her hand and nod. “I’m good,” I assure her. “Hey, Callie, how are you enjoying your breakfast?”

“It’s really good,” she replies, spraying a mouthful of eggs over the counter as she speaks.

Vanessa laughs and shakes her head. “Callie, what did I tell you about eating with your mouth full…”

“Hey, I’m the one who asked her a question,” I cut in. “It’s on me, if it’s on anyone.”

“So you’re saying that you’re the one who should get in trouble for this?”

She rounds on me, a fork in one hand, a playful grin spreading over her face.

---