Page 75 of From the Embers
For several minutes, it was chaos, everyone talking at once, a million questions and stories sailing through their lips faster than my ears could process. As much as I loved my kids, I had a certain someone I needed to get my hands on next. Luckily, there was one failproof method of escaping a dog pile, and I had planned ahead.
“Who wants a surprise?” I asked.
They were off me in the next heartbeat, hopping and chanting, “Me!”
After climbing to my feet, I walked over to my pile of goodies. “All right, girls. These might look like normal stuffed animals, but they are so much more. They have babies inside them.” The gasps made those damn creepy toys worth every penny. “And don’t ask me if I peeked because I didn’t. But also don’t ask me how a unicorn became pregnant with a rabbit. Here, Luna, Rainbow Sparkle Twinkle Toes is yours.” I handed her the unicorn, which was roughly the same size as her.
“Tanks, Daddy!”
I kissed her on the top of the head, my heart so full that I had no idea how it still fit in my chest. “And, Mads, that means Bootsy Glitter McWhiskers is all yours.” I passed her the cat and I swear her eyes were so wide she looked like I’d handed her the world. She tucked Bootsy under her arm and gave my legs a long hug, expressing her gratitude without words.
But it was Asher’s exuberant “Yesss!” that made me laugh the hardest. “That means the pickaxe is mine,” he said, hopping around on one foot, pumping his fists. “That’s what I wanted. I wanted the pickaxe.”
Laughing, I shook my head and bowed, presenting it to him on both hands. “Happy mining, Ash.”
“Thank you!” He snatched it and took off at a dead sprint to the trees in the side yard, and the girls plopped down at my feet, pulling out unicorn and cat rabbits, oohing and ahhing over each one.
I had about five minutes before the novelty wore off, so I grabbed the jar of M&M’s and went to properly say hello to my woman.
She held her hand up to block the sun as I made my way over to her, a grin twitching the side of her mouth. “Is that—”
I did not let her finish the statement before hooking her around the hips, pulling her against my chest, and planting a long-overdue kiss on her sexy mouth.
“Mmmmm,” she hummed, circling her arms around my neck.
“That sounds like you missed me, Sug.”
She frowned, but it was exactly what I’d been going for, so it’d worked.
“I haven’t missed you calling me Sug. But maybe I missed you…a little bit. Are those for me?” She dipped her chin at the gallon-size jar with the black metal lid.
“What, these? Nah, they’re mine. I saved you a Ziploc bag of all the other colors though.”
She pinched my side.
“Okay, okay. You can have them. No need to resort to violence.”
My heart stopped as she took it from my hands. I shouldn’t have been nervous. There was no way Bree would be eating M&M’s before dinner. Not on a good day anyway. But seeing her hold that jar caused a high I never thought I’d feel again.
“Shit, this thing is heavy,” she said. “Did you really sort through this many M&M’s?” She lifted it to the sun and turned it in her hand. “There must be a thousand in here.”
I shrugged. “Three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine to be exact. I ate the last one to give it an authentic feel.”
She laughed and pushed up onto her toes for another kiss. One I did not deny her.
“Is this to replace all of mine that you stole?”
I swayed my head from side to side. “More like a down payment. But we’ll get there.”
Giggling, she face-planted against my pec, and for several minutes, we just stood there, our chests rising and falling in synchronized breaths. We didn’t have to say anything. There were no expectations or pressure. Just having her in my arms was enough for me.
God, it felt good to be home again.
“Mom!” Asher yelled. “What’s for dinner?”
Luna shot to her feet. “I want dinner.”
“Meeeee toooo,” Madison called.
And just like that, our quiet little moment was over. But the chaos was just as sweet.
“All right.” I released Bree and clapped my hands. “We’re going out to dinner and then maybe to an arcade and then the bounce park and anywhere else we can find along the way.”
The kids cheered like we’d been holding them captive, never letting them see the light of day.
Bree snapped her fingers. “Everyone needs to clean up the chalk first and put your new toys in your rooms.”
They leapt into action, swirling around, arguing over who’d had what color chalk first, and I threw my arm around Bree’s shoulders and smiled, enjoying every second.
