“Damn it,” he grumbled under his breath as he dropped the hot pan of biscuits on the counter and shook his hand wildly at his side. When that didn’t work, he placed the tip of his thumb in his mouth, trying to stop the burn. “Stupid fucking pan.”
I cleared my throat as I continued into the kitchen. “What’s all this?”
With his finger still in his mouth, Jared turned to face me. His eyes instantly dropped to my bare legs, widening with appreciation as he stood there ogling me. Several seconds later, he removed his finger from his mouth and said, “I was making you breakfast in bed.”
“Oh, I guess I kinda messed that up.” I stepped over to the stove and asked, “Need a hand?”
“Nope, I’ve got it covered, Besides, this is for you. I wanted to do something special to celebrate the new job.”
“Oh, that’s really sweet of you, but—”
“No buts.” He pointed the spatula over to the stools at the counter. “Have a seat, and let me work my magic.”
“Yes, sir.”
I sat down and crossed my legs, quietly watching as the man I loved finished scrambling our eggs. His eyes skirted over to me as he said, “You’re gonna have to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like that,” he fussed. “I’m trying to work here, and I can’t concentrate when you do that.”
“How exactly am I looking at you?”
“Oh, you know.” He motioned his spatula over in my direction and said, “And it wouldn’t hurt for you to put on some sweats. Those big, ratty ones you wear all the time.”
“My sweats aren’t ratty!”
“If you say so.”
Loving that I was getting to him, I propped my elbow on the counter and rested my chin in the palm of my hand, giving him my best sultry look. He glanced over his shoulder with a grumble, then warned, “Bree.”
“Yes?”
I got up and sauntered over to him and was about to wrap my arms around him when I felt a sting on my thigh. Jared held up his spatula as he warned, “Behave, woman.”
“You have a thing for spanking me.”
“Yeah, and you have a thing for being spanked.” He gave me a wink before popping me with the spatula again. “Now, go sit and let me finish cooking.”
“Fine,” I pouted.
I went back over to the counter and sat down, quietly watching as he fixed our plates. While I thought it was sweet that he’d made me breakfast, I wasn’t really hungry—at least not for bacon and eggs. I was hungry for him, so as soon as he sat down next to me, I placed my hand on his thigh. I let my fingertips slip under the leg of his boxers teasing him as I whispered, “This looks great, babe, but I have a better way for us to celebrate.”
That’s all it took. Without saying a word, he turned and pulled me into his arms. After pushing our plates to the side, he propped me up on the counter and positioned himself between my legs. “You’re an evil, evil woman.”
“I know.” I wound my arms around his neck with a smile. “But you love me anyway.”
“Yes, I definitely do.”
There were times in my life when I wondered if I would ever find my happy ending, but as I sat there wrapped in Jared’s arms, I knew I’d found it. He was my family. He was my home, and when he dropped his mouth to mine, I knew the best was yet to come.
Epilogue
Three Years Later
“Oh my God! He did it again!”
“Who did what again?”
“Caleb!” Aubrey shouted. “My phone is on the fritz again. It’s in Chinese this time!”
“Bring the phone in here, and I’ll fix it.” I looked down at our two-year-old son, and I couldn’t help but smile. While he looked like his mother with his ivory skin tone and crystal-blue eyes, he had a thing for messing around with technology like his ol’ man. I knew he hadn’t intentionally changed the settings on Aubrey’s phone. Hell, the kid was too little for that, but he’d managed to push just the right button and set his mother on a tangent. I offered him another vanilla wafer and said, “You gotta stop fooling around with your mom’s phone, buddy. Otherwise, she’s gonna get us both.”
“I sworry, Daddy.”
“It’s okay, bud.”
“No, it’s not okay.” Aubrey knelt in front of Caleb’s highchair and showed him her phone as she asked, “You know you aren’t supposed to play with Momma’s phone, right?”
Caleb pursed his bottom lip with a pout as he nodded. “And you’re not supposed to play with Momma’s iPad or the TV remote?”
Caleb nodded again. “That’s right, sweetheart. Those are my things, and when you start pushing buttons, it’s easy to get things mixed up like the language and my passwords.”
When our sweet boy nodded once more, I thought she was going to continue scolding him, but instead, she turned her attention to me. “I blame you for this.”
“Whoa... what?”
“Oh, don’t play Mr. Innocent with me.” She ran her hand over Caleb’s little head. “He watches you like a hawk. He wants to be just like you.”
“Don’t see how that makes me to blame here.”
“He sees you doing all that stuff you do, and he’s trying to copy you.”
“Babe, he’s two. He can’t begin to do the things I do.”
She held up her phone as she argued, “It’s in Chinese, Jared! And he’s changed the password on my iPad three times now.”
“Point taken.”
“Good.” She ran her hand over her stomach and added, “Because I’m not going through all this again with this baby.”
“This baby?” I felt my heart skip a beat as I asked, “Are you pregnant again?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I just took a test, and I am, indeed, pregnant.” She placed her hand on her hip and said, “I was on my way in here to tell you when I found that my phone was in yet another language.”
“I’ll fix the phone, Bree.” I went over and pulled her into my arms. “So, we’re having ourselves another kid, huh?”
“Mm-hmm.” She pressed her lips together with a grimace, then sighed. “I know it’s not what we were planning, but I think it would be kind of nice to have a little girl running around with my nose and your eyes.”
“It definitely would.” Overcome with pure and unadulterated joy, I lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her long and hard. “Things just keep getting better and better with you.”
“Right back at ya.”
“You know we’re supposed to go watch the game at the clubhouse today.”
“Yeah, I know. We better get going.” Her eyes danced with mischief as she said, “We don’t want to miss the big kick-off.”
As much as I loved watching the game with my brothers, I wasn’t looking forward to this year’s rival match against Alabama, and for good reason. Tennessee hadn’t had the best season, and everyone and their mother knew Alabama was going to cream Tennessee, and I had no doubt that Bree was gonna give the brothers and me hell about it. She didn’t care a flying fuck about football, but she loved giving us shit whenever we played Alabama. I cocked my eyebrow as I warned, “You better behave yourself today.”