it’s okay with Ken, of course.”
Rafe cleared his throat straightening from his position on the floor. “I’ve got stuff to do.” He tossed the doll to the side and started to rise from the floor.
“Daddy, don’t go. We haven’t gone for ice cream yet.” Molly dug through a plastic bin filled with little plates, glasses and silver ware. She scrounged around for a minute and pulled out two tiny ice cream cones. “Please, Daddy. We got to get ice cream.”
JC couldn’t resist teasing him. “Yeah, Daddy, we’ve got to get ice cream.”
He swung his gaze to hers with an I’m-going-to-get-you-for-this look on his face. But his lips twitched and his blue eyes glinted. And for one crazy second, she wanted to lean down and give him a kiss. “Dollar can’t carry three people.”
“Barbie’s car is a four door. We can leave Dollar here and go in her car. What do you say?” JC suggested.
“Okay.”
They settled the dolls in the car with Barbie in the driver’s seat and together the three of them crawled over the hardwood floor with Molly in front, pushing the car along. Rafe glanced at JC. “Don’t even think about telling Linc you watched me playing dolls with Molly,” he said in a soft voice only she could hear.
JC batted her eyes. “Why, Ken, I wouldn’t dream of such a thing.”
Rafe’s gaze lowered to her lips for a moment then back to her eyes. “See that you don’t or there’ll be major payback.”
He could lick the red off her candy any day. Instinctively, she knew whatever retribution Rafe had in mind, would probably be the slow, sensual kind of punishment.
The three of them continued around the side of the sofa and over to the coffee table, resting on a beautiful rug with southwestern designs. Molly stopped the car under the table. “What kind of ice cream do you want, Ken?”
“I want chocolate with chocolate sprinkles.”
Molly put one of the tiny cones filled with fake ice cream to Ken’s plastic lips. “Taste it.”
Rafe licked his lips and made an mmmm sound deep in his throat which caused heat to rush to a lot of secret, hidden places in JC’s body.
“What flavor do you want, Chandra?”
JC pulled herself out of her haze and said, “I’ll take anything.” Molly handed JC the cone. JC held it to the doll’s lips. “Nice and creamy. What about you, Barbie?”
“I want vanilla with different colored sprinkles.”
Rafe said in a low voice, “My flavor is chocolate. What flavor is yours?”
For a second, JC couldn’t speak. She was dumbfounded thinking about what it would be like to taste ice cream on Rafe’s lips. “Strawberry.”
“Hey, where is everybody?”
At the sound of Linc’s voice, Rafe’s eyes widened. He dropped the doll, snatched up the newspaper from the coffee table and plopped on the sofa with the paper held upside down. In a moment, Linc strolled into the room and took in the scene. Ken lay flopped over the hood of Barbie’s car and JC couldn’t help laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“Me and Daddy and JC were playing dollies,” Molly said.
Linc grinned as he walked over to Rafe and examined the upside down newspaper. He crunched the top of the paper with his hand. “Playing dollies were we?”
Rafe jerked the paper back up in front of his face. “JC was playing. I was just watching,” he said from behind the paper.
“Daddy was Ken, I was Barbie and JC was Chandra,” Molly piped in.
Linc’s mouth twitched and JC could tell he was trying hard not to laugh. “Daddy was Ken, huh. Interesting, sorry I missed it. I’ve never played dolls before, Rafe. Maybe you could show me how to play sometime?”
Rafe slapped the paper down on top of the sofa cushion, stood and closed in on his brother until their noses were almost touching. Linc grinned from ear to ear and Rafe scowled. “If you breathe one word of this to anybody your days on the bench are over,” he said in a quiet voice.
“Are you threatening a judge?” Linc said with mock seriousness.
“You’re damn right I am.” Rafe leaned closer to Linc’s ear and whispered something JC couldn’t hear. Whatever Rafe said to him, Linc’s cheeks grew red. “You wouldn’t?” he said.
“Faster than a cow can flick a fly, brother.”
Chapter Seven
JC crawled into bed, pulled up the covers and sighed. She thought of Rafe sprawled on the floor playing dolls with his daughter. He had shown her a deep tender side that made her care for him even more.
Steady on,