Page 119 of Defending her Heart

“Funny.” She smacks my chest.

“Fine. You can wear something of mine.” I put on my glasses and rummage through my drawers. I toss her a pair of sweats, a t-shirt, and a hoodie.

“Damn, you look sexy in glasses.”

“Seriously?”

“Like you don’t know.” She rolls her eyes and gets dressed. My clothes dwarf her, and she rolls up the waistband of the sweats a few times so they’re not dragging at her feet. “Why do you look so hot in these clothes, and I look homeless?”

“You think I look hot in sweats?”

“Please.” She waves her hand through the air. “Like you don’t know how good your ass looks, and how easy it is to tell when you’ve got a hard on.”

“Baby. If you’re around, I’ve got a hard on.” Kendall rolls her eyes and I smack her ass again.

“Well, for the record, I have the female version of a hard on,” she says as she opens my bedroom door and heads downstairs.

Paisley’s door is still closed, and I figure we have another thirty minutes before her internal alarm wakes her up. When we’re in the kitchen and Kendall starts the coffee, I pick up where we left off.

“What’s the female equivalent?”

Kendall gives me a sly smile. “I’m wet, not wearing any underwear, and my nipples are hard.”

“Christ.”

“Kendall is still here,” Paisley says with as much excitement as she can with a pound of sleepy seeds in her eyes. Startling the shit out of me, she reaches out her arms for Kendall, who scoops her up and snuggles my daughter’s face to her neck.

“Morning, sunshine. Did you sleep well?”

Paisley nods and wraps her arms around Kendall’s neck, soaking in her warmth. Damn. I’ve never been so jealous of my kid before.

“Are you hungry or do you want more time to wake up first?”

“Do we have school today?”

“We’re on Christmas break, remember? No school for two weeks.”

Paisley pops her head up, suddenly filled with energy. “For you too? Are you going to be here every day now?”

I pour two mugs of coffee and dump a stupid amount of hazelnut creamer in Kendall’s, how she likes it, and offer it to her.

“Good question, Pais.” I sip my coffee and stare at Kendall over the rim of my mug.

“As much as your dad needs me.”

My mouth turns to an instant frown. This is what I didn’t want. Kendall to be here out of obligation. She rests her cheek on Paisley’s head while staring back at me.

“It seems like your father has been quite...needy lately.” Her eyes drop to the front of my sweats and the corner of her lip lifts. “So I may be around more than usual.”

I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page now. I set my coffee down and move over to my girls, sandwiching my daughter between Kendall and me in a group hug.

“What would you think about that, Pais? Kendall sleeping over every night?”

“Every night?” they both ask, their eyes equally wide.

Okay, maybe I pushed it a little with theevery, but it brings my daughter as much excitement as it does me.

“Can we have sleepovers every night, please?” Paisley pleads to Kendall.

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