Page 327 of Branded
I was hopeful that I could swing kindergarten math (though I definitely knew that I could crush kindergarten level reading).
I lifted my fist so Ethan could bump it again, left enough money on the table to cover the tab and a tip (though not the hundred-dollar one we’d been passing back and forth because that I’d found shoved into my pocket the night before, the sneak). “Let’s go say goodbye to your mom, yeah?”
“Okay!” Ethan clambered down from the stool and beelined for Jules, who was filling cups with ice and soda.
I followed with less clambering and speed, but I still made it in time to watch Ethan wrap his arms around her waist and squeeze her tight enough to make her grunt. “We’re going home, and I’m gonna to help Cas with his homework,” Ethan declared.
Jules' lips turned up as she bent and kissed the top of his head. “You are, honey?”
“Yup.” A pop on the p at the end. “Then he’s going to help me with mine.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, held long enough that the warmth there, the brightness and light inside her was focused solely on me.
My pulse picked up.
“He is?” she asked softly.
“Yup.” Another pop at the end.
“Well, that sounds like a plan,” she said, pulling her eyes from mine and glancing down. “And then you’ll go to bed without giving him any trouble?” Now Mom had entered her tone, and it was a side that I hadn’t seen before. A side that had my lips twitching, not only because of Ethan’s immediate reaction, but because I was stifling the same response.
That being to straighten and nod in agreement.
Mom Voice meant business.
“We’ll be fine, gorgeous,” I told her. “Ethan and I are set.”
She started to turn for the hall. “I’ll get you my keys so you can get his booster seat out.”
I cupped her jaw. “I grabbed one from Target today, sweetheart. Ethan’s covered.”
Her eyes flared. “He’s covered?”
I leaned in closer, pressed my lips to the spot on her cheek which was just in front of her ear, into which I whispered, “He’s covered, and you’re covered.”
“I’m…covered?” she whispered.
I tugged out the hundred-dollar bill and slid it carefully into her apron, disguising the action with a brush of my lips over hers. “Text me when you’re on your way home,” I ordered quietly as I straightened. “Or call if you feel tired and need to talk to stay awake.”
Teeth pressing into her bottom lip, making me want to kiss her again, and not just a brush this time. Longer, deeper, and without an audience of bar patrons and five-year-olds.
“You with me?”
She nodded. “Thanks again for doing this—I know you’re busy and?—”
Fuck it.
I kissed her, and it was a little more than a brush that time, though less than I’d wanted. And yeah, maybe I had an ego, but I couldn’t help that I liked the slightly dazed way she stared up at me when I pulled back. “No thanks needed,” I whispered, brushing my hand over her glistening bottom lip. “Okay?”
She nodded again. “Okay.”
“All right, gorgeous,” I said with another brush of my thumb over that tempting, tempting lip. “I’ll see you later.” A glance down showed me that Ethan was looking up at us curiously—and with an amount of bright in his deep brown eyes that rivaled his mom’s that hit me hard. “Ready, bud?” I asked, though my heart was pounding against my ribs.
“Yup! Love you, Mom!” he declared with another squeeze to his mom’s middle before he took my hand. “Ready, Cas!”
My heart kept pounding.
This kid.
