sack and who’d taught her that she could have an orgasm during sex, so long as she was with someone who actually paid attention and had the patience to learn what she enjoyed.
So, asshole had met learning experience.
Thus, the path of her life had been laid.
Ha.
“Come on,” she said, pushing to her feet and folding the blanket. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
She wasn’t really. Not after the pastry and salad Jaime had bought her.
But she needed to do something that wasn’t sitting on the back steps thinking about one of her asshole exes and then wondering if and when Jaime would become one of them.
Because as much as she liked him, felt a draw, enjoyed how sweet he was being, she also knew that at some point, the other shoe would fall.
And she didn’t want to think about that.
Tucking the blanket under one arm, she extended her other toward her sister, giving her a hand up.
“What if it’s because I haven’t lost the baby weight? My body isn’t the same and—”
A blip of fury flew through Kate.
“Then I’m cutting off his balls and feeding them to him,” she growled. “You had a baby two months ago, sissy. If that’s his problem, then I will cheerfully make him a eunuch and—”
“It’s not.”
Kate glanced up, saw that Dave was standing on the porch. She’d missed him opening the back door, missed him stepping out, but what she didn’t miss was the fatigue and dark circles beneath his eyes.
And the concern in the pale brown depths.
Concern that made the fury slip away. Especially when he walked over to Ann and took her into his arms with barely a look at Kate.
As it should be.
“What the hell are you thinking, baby? I love you,” he said, tone fierce. “Just the way you are. You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.”
“I don’t know what I’m thinking,” Ann said. “I just feel so alone and . . .”
Heart squeezing, but glad that this conversation was taking place, even though it wasn’t exactly how she and Ann had planned it out, Kate slipped through the back door, closed it, and hung up the blanket.
Then she walked down the hall, intending to help her mom with dinner.
Instead, when she strode into the kitchen and saw what was happening inside, every cell went to rigid attention, her breath caught, and her feet slid to a stop.
Because Jaime was in the kitchen.
Holding Lacy.
Swaying side to side as he rocked her gently, his big hand cradled over the back her head, his palm on her back, rubbing circles.
She’d felt those circles, had that palm on her back.
Which was why this time it wasn’t just her ovaries that exploded, but her heart as well.
Nine
Jaime
“You’re good with her,” Kate’s mom said as she bustled around the kitchen.
“I’m the oldest of four,” he told her, patting little Lacy’s back when she began fussing again. “I did my fair share of babysitting.”
Marabelle crossed by him, pulling out a carton of herbs from the fridge and pausing to pat his cheek. “You’re a good boy.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said, “but I do my best.”
She smiled and shook her head but didn’t argue with him.
“Can I do anything to help?”
“Besides hold the baby?” She slanted a look over at him. “No, honey, you just keep working your Lacy magic. I swear, she hasn’t been this content since she was born.”
He lifted Lacy up, smiling at the adorable little munchkin. Chubby cheeks, big eyes, a rosebud mouth, she was a beautiful baby. “Have you been giving your parents the run around?” Her face screwed up, and he wasn’t sure if it was his question or because he’d dared switched positions. Quickly, he put her back against his shoulder, began rubbing circles on her back. Glancing up, he met Marabelle’s amused eyes. “I guess that answers my question.”
She laughed then turned her focus back to the sauce she was stirring.
“Where are your parents now?” she asked as he kept walking and rocking, gaze periodically going to the hall. He’d been able to catch a glimpse of Kate’s bright red hair through the glass door on the back of the house. She and her sister had appeared to be in serious conversation.
So serious, in fact, that Dave, her sister’s husband, had taken one glance at the sisters, wrapped in a blanket with their arms around each other, and had hustled down the hall, with hardly a look at the strange man