Bonus Kisses - Freya Barker Page 0,76
a list of things to bring.
Our campground is only about two hours away, but you still don’t want to have to drive back home for something you forgot. I would’ve liked to venture out a little farther but staying a bit closer to home this time makes sense. Ed’s health is a bit unstable, the dogs are still pretty young, and this’ll be our first trip together. In addition, we plan to have a talk with the kids, which—especially in Sofie’s case—is at best unpredictable. Better not to get trapped a day’s drive away in case things go south.
“Sofie, don’t let Stitch pull on the tent flap like that. He’ll tear it.” Still a little shaken by the dog’s rampage yesterday, she’s quick to pull him away.
“Is this good, Dad?” Spencer calls out and I walk over to inspect the peg he managed to get halfway into the ground.
“Well done, Son. You can be my helper next week when we set it up at the campsite.”
“Sofie! I get to be Daddy’s helper!”
“So what?”
Ignoring the familiar ensuing bickering I inspect the tent, not finding any holes. I pick up Lilo, who seems to have found a place to nap inside, and close the zipper for the bugs.
“Guys, let’s grab something to eat, okay? We’re dropping you off at Kathleen’s for a few hours in the pool after lunch.”
With the dogs in their crate for a nap and the kids having a sandwich at the table, I walk inside to check on Taz who said she’d be right out.
“Watcha doing?” I find her curled up in one of the club chairs; her laptop perched on her knees. I sit down on the armrest and look at the screen. She starts to close the lid, but I stop her and point at one of the couches, a dark tan, leather sectional. “I like that one.”
“So much for the surprise,” she mutters under her breath.
“Surprise?”
She tilts her head back to look at me. “Your birthday is in a few weeks, I thought…never mind. It was a stupid idea.”
“Not stupid at all. I can imagine a lot of fun things we could do on that couch.”
“The kids,” she hisses in warning.
“Are busy eating their lunch.”
I tilt her chin up and lean down for a kiss. I plunder her mouth, fueled by images of Taz bent over the armrest of the leather couch, her lush ass in the air and my cock sliding in and out of her, slick with her juices.
A sharp intake of breath functions like a bucket of ice water on my libido.
Fuck.
Taz
“I didn’t want to believe it.”
Mom is standing in the open front door, looking at us with hurt in her eyes.
“Mom…” I scramble to my feet, setting the laptop on the table, but Mom holds up her hand, pressing her eyes closed.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” she repeats. “Not from that nasty cow, Sheila. Never could stand the woman. But when Mrs. Myers hinted at the same thing this morning in church I started wondering. I’d noticed a change—a word, a touch—but I convinced myself it couldn’t be. No way you would betray Nicky’s memory like that.” She looks up, her face marred with disappointment. “Now I know they were both telling the truth. How could you?”
“Grandma?”
My head swings around to find Sofie standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking confused.
“Why don’t you drop the kids off at Kathleen’s.” My voice is flat, almost resigned, as I turn back to my mother.
“I’m not lea—” Rafe starts to object, but I cut him off.
“Please, Rafe. The kids.”
I wait for a tense minute, my eyes focused on my mother’s, until finally I hear Rafe gathering up the kids, mumbling to them in a hushed voice.
“She’s barely cold in her grave,” Mom says in a low voice the moment the door closes behind them. “I’m almost glad she doesn’t have to know how her own sister didn’t waste any time moving in on her family.”
“Mom, you don’t know—”
“I don’t?” Her voice is shrill as anger starts to trump disappointment. “I know plenty. I know how you threw yourself into Rafe’s arms when your sister was pregnant with his child. I know how you tried to put a wedge in their marriage three years after that, when she was expecting Spencer. I know you cared so little about us you stayed away for years—years. I thought you’d changed. Thought maybe this time you came back for the right reasons, but boy, was I