Page 24 of Surprised By Love

“Me too.” Emily turns to me. “Can we go outside and play, daddy?”

“Sure, but can you say hi to Amelia’s mommy and auntie first?” I say, holding onto Jake’s little hand.

“Hi.” Emily waves in excitement. “Can we go now?”

“Yes.” I chuckle. “But make sure you stay in the front yard. We’ll be out there in a minute.”

“Okay daddy,” Emily yells as she and Amelia take off out the side door.

“Well. You kids have fun.” Vicki grabs her purse from the bench beside the door. As she walks past me, she winks. Good lord, this town. I shake my head.

“Sorry about my sister. She is determined for me to get back out in the dating scene again.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I told you that.”

“It’s okay.” I grin. “Sometimes it’s nice to have family around. Other times well…”

She laughs, and the sound is like a choir singing and I suddenly want to hear that sound again. What is with me? I look down at my son, who is patiently waiting to go join his sister. “This is Jake,” I say, introducing them. “Jake, this is Amelia’s mommy, Sam.”

Sam bends down to get eye level with Jake, reaching out her hand. “It’s very nice to meet you, Jake.”

Jake shakes her hand. It makes me so proud my little man has such good manners. “Nice to meet you, too. Can we go play in the snow now?”

“Of course we can,” Sam says, grabbing the red ski jacket from the hook above the bench.

“Here, let me,” I say, taking the jacket, holding it open for her to slide her arms into. Just because I can’t date her doesn’t mean I can’t be a gentleman.

“Thank you,” she says, as she looks down, zipping up her jacket. I can see a little blush rising in her cheeks. I wonder why such a simple gesture would make her blush?

Was my Grams right? Was her ex that much of an asshole? That something so simple could cause that reaction?

Chapter Ten

Sam

Twentyminuteslater,wehad three little snowmen in the front yard. Two girls and a little boy. They are the cutest snowmen I’ve ever seen. Amelia ran into the house, coming out with a couple of her old scarfs to put around their necks.

“Mommy look!” Amelia squeals. We all turn to see what she’s looking at and there is a little tabby cat on top of the hood of my car. Amelia and Emily run towards it and the cat takes off.

“I wanted to pet her,” Amelia says, her bottom lips sticking out.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but I’m sure she just came by to say hi. She probably has a family and is heading home now.”

“Yeah,” she sighs. “It would be nice to have a kitty, though.”

“We’ll see,” I say. This is the second time we’ve seen that cat, and Amelia is adamant we need to get one of our own.

Suddenly, I feel something solid hit my back. I spin around and see Josh, Emily and Jake crouched down at the side of the house, building snowballs. The kids laughing.

“This means war!” I say, squatting down to collect some snow of my own. “Come on, baby girl. Let’s show them what we got.”

“This means war!” Amelia shouts towards the Prescott clan.

Amelia makes a small snowball, tossing it towards them, it misses by a foot.

“Good try sweetie,” I say.

I stand up and throw mine, hitting Josh right in the shoulder.

His eyes narrow as his gaze locks with mine. I feel more than a little tingle in my belly. I blow it off. He’s just playing. This is nothing. I duck as a snowball comes flying right at me.

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