Dangerous Rescue - Linzi Baxter Page 0,59

he said, “but the guys will help with the rest next weekend. Now I’m going to spend the night kissing every inch of your body.”

18

Siena

Siena taped another box and set it near the front door. She didn’t have a lot of stuff in her house, and most of it, she planned to donate to charity. The pictures on the wall and a few trinkets, she would keep. The rest, she would give away. This was Mia’s first home. It held memories, but she was ready to start new ones.

Sidney offered to watch Mia while she came to the house to pack. Hudson and Siena planned to tell Mia about the move that night. They wanted to do it as a family, but Hudson had to go to work that morning. A new mission was coming up. He couldn’t talk about it, but she knew it meant he would leave soon.

The idea of him going to the unknown still worried Siena, but Sidney had told her the girls would hang out with her. Siena had met the other men on Gumby’s team. They were all nice, and she loved the wives and girlfriends even more. They made her feel at home and not like an outsider.

Siena grabbed another box from the pile and stuffed a few of Mia’s toys in it. Moving in together was what she’d wanted years before. She’d wondered a few times if their relationship worked better this way. It sucked that Mia had spent so many years apart from her dad, but Siena wasn’t the same person she’d been six years before, and Hudson hadn’t been as settled. Yes, their time apart had sucked, but she thought it made them stronger too.

Siena groaned as she reached for the last toy on the shelf. The night before, she and Hudson had gone more rounds than she could count, and every muscle in her body hurt. The ache was a reminder of what they had, and she wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world.

When they got home, they planned to have a family dinner and explain to Mia that they were going to stay at Hudson’s house for a while. Hudson had discussed everything with Kaiden already, and the teenager was excited for them to move in. The kid worried about Hudson being alone when he went off the college.

Hudson had also sat down with Kaiden and talked about his options and what he truly wanted. He understood his nephew had a gift for football but that his heart wasn’t in the game. After Hudson showed him the balance of his trust fund, Kaiden almost had a heart attack. Once he knew money wasn’t a problem, he finished the application to the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado. Siena was excited that he wanted to stay in the states, making weekend trips to visit him easier.

Selfishly, she couldn’t wait to try his cooking. The things he already made for them at night blew her away. Now that he would be classically trained, she volunteered to be his guinea pig for anything he wanted to try out on someone.

Hudson and she talked about getting him a trip overseas for his graduation. They were going to spend one week with him abroad, then he would travel through Europe on a one-month culinary experience. Siena still knew a few people in the travel industry and planned to ask them to create the package.

It would be their first vacation as a family. Siena had traveled the world for years, but it was always for work. When she finally got time off, she didn’t want to jump on a plane or sleep in a hotel. Her vacation was curling up in bed and reading or binge-watching the latest shows on TV. She didn’t have time for those things when she traveled. Now she couldn’t imagine not sitting down on Thursday night and watching Grey’s Anatomy.

Her phone rang, and she swiped across the screen. “Really, I’m next door.” she laughed.

“I’m getting dinner laid out. The girls and I wondered if you wanted to come over and grab a bite. Then we can help you finish packing. But, I want to go on record saying I’ll miss you as my neighbor, but I understand.”

“It’s not like I’m moving to another state. Hudson’s house is only a ten-minute drive from here and we talk on the phone practically every day.”

Angel let out a chuckle. “You’re right. It just seems like a big