Page 160 of The Heart Breaker

I didn’t even let myself think about a future before her. So all I want is her.

She stops in front of me and reaches for my coffee without asking. She takes a sip, grimaces, and hands it back. “Still disgusting.”

“Then stop drinking my coffee.”

“I like checking whether your taste has improved.”

I breathe out a laugh and pull her closer, scraping my teeth over her shoulder. “Morning to you too, wife.”

“That is your only redeeming quality, by the way.”

I tip my head back so I can look up at her. “What? Being your husband?”

“Yeah.” She glances out toward the beach and sighs. “And being hot, I guess.”

I huff a laugh, sliding my hand higher on her hip. Ten years later, and she still says shit to annoy the hell out of me.

“Was complimenting me painful for you?”

“Very.”

I chuckle and brush my mouth over her shoulder, kissing my way up to her neck and jaw and capturing her lips with mine.

When I pull back, her mouth curves into this dazed, gorgeous smile that almost makes me drag her right back inside. Instead she turns, resting her hands on the railing as she looks out over the water where the kids are running around with Austin and Isabella.

I stand behind her for a second, my hand settling at her hip while I look out at the same view, and it hits me again how insane all of this still feels sometimes.

How we all watched each other grow up, fall in love, get married, have kids, build lives that used to feel impossible when we were all just trying to survive college.

The back door opens and Ryan walks out holding his daughter’s hand, the kid glistening from being lathered in sunscreen.

Maisie’s right behind him, her hair twisted up in a bun, a swimsuit cover-up fluttering around her legs, carrying two fruity drinks. She hands one to Aurora on her way past, taking a sip out of hers.

“I want to play!” Blair says, pointing toward the beach where her brother and the twins are.

Ryan lets out a long sigh and drops her hand. “Alright. Go.”

She takes off right away, her little legs running across the deck and then the sand, making a beeline for the others. Being three years younger than her brother, she’s in that phase where she follows him everywhere.

I glance at Ryan, who’s standing there watching her go with a huge grin stretched across his face.

I chuckle and turn back toward the beach just in time to see Austin heading up from the water with Ava tucked under one arm.

“Alright,” he says, setting her down on the deck. “You’re in time-out for biting your sister.”

She frowns immediately, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re mean.”

Austin’s face softens like it physically pains him to discipline one of his daughters. He drops to one knee in front of her. “Sweetheart,” he says, sounding apologetic, because the guy is a complete sap when it comes to his girls. “You know I don’t like being mean, but what you did was not okay.”

“Leah stole my shell,” she says, instantly defensive.

Austin sighs and looks at his wife. “Freckles, help me out here.”

Maisie walks over and crouches beside her daughter. “We’ve talked about this, Ava. We do not bite people.”

Ava blinks up at her, then points straight at me. “Uncle Cole bites Auntie Aurora all the time.”

Aurora laughs and folds into my side, and Austin shoots me a glare before looking back at his daughter. “That’s different,” he tells her. “Your uncle Cole is a feral animal.” My lips twitch. “And you’re not an animal, are you?”