Page 104 of When the Time Is Right
Jesse, God love her canine soul, lay there while our wild, redheaded three-year-old tried for the millionth time that day to make her wear a birthday hat. Don’t even get me started on the things she did to her dad when he was napping. But after Jack and our two other calm, blond children, we’d been asking for it when we tried for another boy. We didn’t get another boy, but damn did she make me appreciate the patience Judy and David had had with me as a child every single day.
“Mom, listen. It’s Jackie’s birthday and Jesse wanted to wear it.”
I closed my eyes, tipped my head to the ceiling, and wondered if noon was an acceptable time to start drinking at a birthday party for my oldest kid. But I still had a veggie plate to make and about three hundred other things to do before our family and friends arrived.
I felt two big hands land on my hips and then a kiss on the top of my head.
“Caroline Rose Bradley, what did your mother just ask you to do?”
God, his daddy-tone still got to me. A bolt lit up my spine.
Hudson’s voice could be tender and gentle when needed, but I was the first Bradley woman to learn it could also mean business. Just as bossy as ever, he gave little option to disobey. Then again, he’d had decades of experience when it came to taming the fiery, stubborn women in his life.
Caroline straightened the party hat once more and then stood as though she’d made the decision all on her own that she was finished tormenting Jesse. “Riri,” she called up the stairs to our oldest daughter. “Can you help me with my ’kini?” Then she lifted her chin and marched to the second floor as if she owned the place.
But let’s be real, she did. It was Caroline’s world and we were just living in it.
Hudson huffed beside my ear and then said in another familiar tone, “Are you sure you don’t want to try one more time for a boy?”
Alone in the kitchen, I spun in his arms and fisted the collar of his shirt. “Listen here, big dick. I have an at-home vasectomy kit in my Amazon cart right now. Do not make me one-click.” Despite my threats, I couldn’t help but enjoy the thought of another tiny blond boy who’d always have my back.
Hudson would have six more if I agreed to it, and sometimes—especially when he grinned at me with that wicked half smile of his—I considered it. But that wasn’t anything I had time to think about that day. That day was about our Jackie Boy and making sure his eighteenth birthday was all about him.
Ignoring his request to procreate again, I wiped a smudge of grease off his cheek with my thumb. “Did you get it all waxed up?”
“The Chevelle has never looked better. Are you sure he deserves it? I mean, he loves it more than both of us combined, but it seems like a lot of power to give a kid who’s barely legal.”
Maybe he was right, but Jack was also the most responsible, intelligent, and deserving young man. Plus, it would drive Cal crazy, so it was an all-around win-win for me. Besides, it would be parked here while he was away at college and we could still drive it whenever we wanted.
“He’s getting the Chevelle. End of discussion.”
He pressed a kiss to my lips. “End of discussion, eh, Mrs. Bradley?”
“I said what I said. My foot is officially down.”
His eyebrow rose. “Think he’d still want it if he knew that’s where Caroline was conceived?”
I laughed, licking my lips with the memory of that date night. “There’s no way you can prove that’s when I got pregnant.”
“Oh, I know exactly every place I knocked your fine ass up.” He leaned down to whisper in my ear, hearing a commotion at the top of the stairs. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as he listed, “Riley Elaine was our first night in this house right after our honeymoon. You were still sunburned, so I got you from behind over a pile of moving boxes just inside the front door. I still have the scar where Boop mangled my ankle when you screamed my name.”
Boop had always had my back, and Boop Two was just as vicious.
I leaned in, enjoying the story and sure he’d continue.
“Melody Jade happened one morning at the beach in our spot. Watching the sun come up, you rode me until you had sand burns on your knees.”
I still had a scar from that one, but that sweet baby loved the ocean just as much as I did.
“And Caroline Rose was in the back seat of my Chevelle after your mom and dad’s forty-fifth wedding anniversary party in the parking lot of the country club like a bunch of teenagers.”
