Page 54 of Craving Theodora
“I think that would be good for you, not me.”
“I’d make it good for both of us,” I countered quietly.
Her eyes widened in reproach. “Your parents arerightthere.”
“They can’t hear me.”
“I can hear you,” Draco announced, grinning happily.
“Stop eavesdroppin’,” I ordered. “Kara, put a muzzle on him, will you?”
“I’ve tried,” Kara said with a sigh. “It never works.”
“Hey, Teddy,” my dad called. “Before I forget, Grease wanted me to ask you to come in Monday morning.”
“Oh, okay,” Teddy replied, sitting a little straighter. “Do you know why?”
“Somethin’ to do with you lookin’ for a job, I think,” Dad said nonchalantly.
“Oh, what do you do, Teddy?” my mom asked.
The conversation flowed easily late into the night. I was thankful to the brothers and their old ladies, because while most of them had said hello in the first couple of hours, after that they’d mostly left us alone so we could hang with the people I was closest to. It gave Teddy and the kids a taste of the life without overwhelming them.
We rode home in the early hours of the morning, and unlike the first time when Teddy’d been reluctant to ride on the back of my bike, she seemed to revel in it on the way home. Her thighs pressed against my hips, and her hands slipped under the hem of my T-shirt, pressing against the bare skin of my stomach.Instead of sitting stiffly behind me, she pressed languidly against my back, like she didn’t have a care in the world.
The weather wasn’t supposed to turn until sometime next week, so I didn’t bother with the garage door and parked outside. Teddy climbed down and was holding my helmet out toward me by the time I’d swung off.
The kids had left the porch light on, but the house was dark when I led her inside. I quietly set the helmet down on the floor and locked up behind us, then made a quick check to make sure Dylan had secured all the doors and windows while Teddy grabbed a glass of water and downed it.
“I can’t believe we stayed out so late,” she whispered as she followed me toward the stairs. “I think the last time I was awake at three a.m., I was feeding Finn.”
“You have fun?” I asked, reaching for her hand as I tugged her upstairs.
“Actually, yeah.”
“That surprised you?”
“I guess not,” she said with a laugh. “But I also didn’t imagine we’d be drinking beer next to a bonfire with your parents and brother and sister-in-law all night.”
“That’s the best kind of night,” I informed her. “It’s even better when Charlie and Bishop have a sitter for the night. Once Jenna’s a little older, we’ll have to set somethin’ up.”
When we reached the top of the stairs, all the lights were off except the ones in the bonus room. We wandered that way, mostly because I wanted to turn off the light, but I wasn’t ready to let go of her hand yet, so I made her come with me.
We stopped in surprise just inside the large open space at the end of the hall.
Jesse, Finn, and Dylan were spread out across the floor, with Dylan on one end, Jesse on the other, and Finn diagonally between them. They’d dragged a kitchen chair upstairs and setTeddy’s TV on it. Underneath, on the carpet, was Jesse and Finn’s gaming system.
“That’s an accident waiting to happen,” Teddy muttered softly.
“No shit.” I crossed the room and moved the TV back onto the floor against the wall where it had been when we left the house that afternoon.
“You think we should wake them?” she whispered.
I looked down at the kids. Dylan was rolled up in the comforter from his bed, the top of his head and his feet from the ankle down the only parts of him visible. Finn had flung open his sleeping bag and was sprawled out on top of it with his hands above his head, and Jesse was curled up on their side, completely passed out, a dingy baby blanket pressed between their pillow and cheek.
“Nah, I think they’re fine,” I said. “As long as you don’t care?”
Teddy thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, let’s leave them.”
