Page 52 of Mine To Keep (Southern Wedding)

I roll my eyes. “It was decent,” I joke with him because it wasn’t just decent. I think I saw fucking stars it was that good.

“Decent, my ass,” he retorts, and I laugh out loud. “Now, couch or bed?”

“Ugh,” I huff, “might as well get you a good night’s sleep since you have to be a dad in the morning.” He smiles. “Don’t smile like you won the fight, big boy.”

“Are you sleeping here?” His smile is even bigger if that’s possible.

“I mean, technically, you did, but it’s still under review.” He nods. “But you set the alarm for five thirty.”

“Let me close up down here, and we can go up,” he says, letting me go. Walking over to the kitchen, he turns off the lights but leaves the light on top of the stove on before he slips his hand into mine, and we walk up the stairs to his bedroom.

He walks in front of me and turns on the lights, and I stop in my tracks. “This is a lot different than I thought it would be,” I admit as I look around the light room. The exposed beams on the ceiling make the room seem older. The king-sized bed faces a wall with white and beige bricks holding a television and a fireplace. A sitting area off to the side makes you want to sit down and look out the back window, which must have a patio since the doors look like they slide.

“What did you think my room would be like?” he asks as he walks toward the bed and turns on the lamp on the mirrored side table. A picture of him and Meadow when she was a baby is front and center.

“I thought for sure a dungeon.” I turn around. “Some chains, maybe even a swing.” I look over at the big bed that has a white cover with a brown throw blanket on it, with a bunch of throw pillows. “You make this every day?”

He shakes his head. “Nope, the cleaning crew comes every Saturday, so it’s like this on Saturdays. The rest of the week all this stuff is there.” He picks up the throw pillows and tosses them over to the couch. He walks over to the door and closes it all the way, then walks over and pulls out the baby monitor from the top drawer.

“I have a toy in my top drawer also.” I clap my hands. “Can I borrow a T-shirt?” I ask, and he motions with his head to follow him. I walk over to the side where the walk-in closet holds all his clothes. He walks over to the rack with his T-shirts and puts out his hand for me to choose one. I grab a white one in my hand and pull off my own, along with the bra, before I slip off the skirt and then put on his T-shirt. “This is good,” I say as it falls to my mid-thigh. “What do you sleep in?”

“Usually naked, sometimes boxers,” he says, his eyes going dark as his gaze roams up and down. My nipples rub against the material, and when I look down, you can see them a bit through the shirt. “This is going to be a long night.”

twenty-four

Caine

“You can’t go to school in that.” I look at Meadow as she walks into my bedroom as I put on my jacket.

“What? Why?” she asks, looking down at her green shorts, pink shirt, and then orange socks.

“You have too many colors on,” I say, and she looks down at herself.

“But I like this,” she explains, and I just nod.

“You need to either change your shirt or your socks.” I give her the option to change one of them. “And put on white of either.”

“But I like this,” she starts to whine, and I look at her. “I don’t want to change.”

“You can wear that outfit as soon as you come home.” I try to reason with her. “How about you wear the outfit I put on your bed for now, and you can change when you come home?”

She takes a couple of seconds to think about it before actually storming off to her bedroom. “That was easier than I thought,” I say as I walk out of the closet, kicking one of the throw pillows to the side before I look over at the bed Grace was lying in yesterday morning.

The whole night I didn’t let her go. The minute she slipped out of my arms I would find her and pull her back to me. When the alarm rang at five thirty, I shut it off. She quietly got out of my bed, went into the closet, and came back out wearing her skirt with my T-shirt, her shirt and bra in a ball in her arms. I didn’t want her to leave and tried everything to get her to stay, but she had homework to do, and she wasn’t sure how Meadow would react, and neither was I. We did have coffee in the kitchen together and then a hot and heavy make-out session at the front door before she finally left. She even texted me when she got home, and I called her last night before I crashed. My alarm rang this morning, and I already had my workout done by the time Meadow woke.

I walk out of my bedroom and head to her room, finding her in the middle of the bed reading a book. “Meadow, we have to go.”

“I’m reading a book.” She holds the book up for me to see. “I need to finish it.”

I take my phone out, knowing if we don’t leave now, there is no way I can get to work at the same time as Grace and maybe corner her a bit before we start work. Pulling up my text messages, I send her a message.

Me: I am going to be late this morning. We had a wardrobe situation followed by a reading situation.

It doesn’t take her long to answer me.

Grace: That sounds like an eventful morning. I’ll see you when you get in.

I put my phone away and it takes me another twenty minutes before we get into the car. It was I have to brush my teeth. I need a drink. I need to get my vitamin. I quickly put her in her classroom and stop to get myself coffee before getting into the office. I also order one for Grace, grabbing a napkin and writing I miss you under it.

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