Page 108 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

“Sure you were.” He rubbed my back, then turned to Bran. “You sure you don’t want me to take him today?”

“The school is on my way to this open house,” I replied. “You can take him tomorrow.”

“You’ve got a deal.” He leaned in close to whisper. “I was thinking of taking a half day tomorrow.”

“Oh?” I replied.

His hand cupped my ass. “You’ve got showings in the morning, right?”

“Mmm, I do, but I’ll be done by eleven.”

“Good.” He gave my ass a squeeze. “Maybe I’ll see you back here.”

I grinned at him. “Maybe.”

He kissed me, but it was quickly interrupted by Bran groaning loudly. “You two aregross. I thought you said we were going to be late.”

“Let me give you an important piece of advice, little man,” Lucas said. “There’s always time for kisses.”

Lucas lifted Bran into the air and bombarded him with kisses on his cheeks. Bran squealed and complained, but was laughing by the time his father put him back down.

“See you tonight,” Lucas told us.

I drove Bran to the Worthington Academy. Most of the cars dropping off kids were luxury SUVs, which made my minivan look downright quaint by comparison. But I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t care if I couldn’t afford a car that was more expensive than most mortgages. Bran was going to the best school in the state, and it was going to give him a huge head start on life.

I could suffer a few pitying looks from the other parents. Being a mom meant doing anything for my child.

My morning was indeed busy with showings for two different clients, running all over town. But I was still able to return home by two in the afternoon to help Sara with the twins.

“I love you so much,” Sara said, handing me one of the babies. “She won’t settle down, and I desperately need a nap. You don’t mind? You’re sure?”

“Go to sleep,” I lectured her. “I owe you dozens of these favors, remember?”

“Just making sure.” Sara gave me a weak hug, then dragged herself into the bedroom to catch what sleep she could.

I rocked the baby and smiled to myself. I remembered these days when I was pregnant. Waking up in the middle of the night to breastfeed. Cat napping throughout the day whenever there were a few moments of peace. Wondering how any mother in human history managed to find the energy to raise a child.

And I only had one to deal with. Twins were proving to be so much more difficult. When one of them slept, the other was fussy—and vice versa.

Sara and Harper were getting through it, though. Not to pat myself on the backtoomuch, but my assistance was certainly invaluable to them.

It helped that I had lots of backup. Half an hour later, I heard the scratch of a key in the deadbolt on the front door, and then Shay quietly tip-toed inside.

“How are they doing?” he whispered to me.

“I just put Ariel down,” I replied. “It took a while to get her to stop crying.”

Suddenly, the baby monitor crackled to life with the wail of a baby. Three seconds later, the other baby began shrieking.

“I swear I didn’t cause that,” Shay insisted, holding up his hands. “I wassilent.”

“It’s not your fault.” I sighed and stood up. “They’ve been like this the past two days.”

Shay put his suit jacket on the back of the chair and began rolling up his sleeves. “I’ll take Conner.”

I’d done a lot of filthy things with my three boyfriends over the past six months. Especially with Shay, fooling around in a dozen or so house showings. The four of us had hooked up in every combination imaginable, in twos and threes and sometimes all four of us at the same time. We’d done things that gave me goosebumps to eventhinkabout.

But there was nothing sexier to me than the way Shay tossed a spit-up towel over his shoulder, raised Conner out of the crib, and began rocking him in his arms.

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