Nice and Easy: Boys of the Big Easy book three Read online

  Caleb laughed, relieved and amused and…something else he couldn’t quite name. “You’re so mean.”

  “I know, right?” She smiled up at him.

  “So—” Caleb glanced at Jack. “How do you usually handle this?”

  “His my-life-is-over fits?” Lexi glanced back at her son. “I ignore them.” She looked back to Caleb. “I used to try to redirect him and sometimes that would work, but now—” She shrugged. “I tell myself that it’s time he learns that tantrums aren’t going to help him get his way. But sometimes I think it’s just that I’m really…tired.”

  Caleb felt that something-else-he-couldn’t-quite-name again. His hand itched to lift and tuck her hair behind her ear. But he couldn’t. Then he realized that yeah, he could. She was living here and he’d laid everything out—that he wanted her and that she was in charge. He could touch her now and not worry about sending mixed messages or confusing her. His messages would be very clear. I love touching you and I want to do a lot more of it.

  Was the sex thing in her court? Yes. But did that mean he wasn’t going to encourage her to take charge sooner rather than later? No. Hell, no.

  He brushed the back of his knuckles over her cheek and tucked her hair back. He was gratified to see her wet her lips. “So we handle these the same way.”

  She looked pleased by that. “Well, that’s good.”

  His hand fell away because he couldn’t think of a good reason to keep it there, but neither of them made a move to leave the spot.

  Lexi tipped her head. “It’s interesting. We’ve never really talked about that, have we?”

  “The tantrums?”

  “Well, that,” she said. “But also the discipline thing or how to handle this stuff.”

  He thought about that. “I guess you’re right.”

  “But what we’re doing is working.”

  She almost put a question mark on the end of her statement. He could practically hear it. But no matter what was going on with Shay and her brain injury, she was well-behaved—for a four-year-old—and generally happy. She got frustrated sometimes and ended up in time-out, and Caleb didn’t know how much of that had to do with her condition and what was just being four. He supposed that was another question for the experts—should he be disciplining her for things like frustrated breakdowns that were caused by things she simply couldn’t do? Probably not. But how did he tell the difference?

  Forcing the tension out of his shoulders, Caleb nodded, “It is,” he told her. “The kids are both happy.” That much he could say for sure.

  “Yeah.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Her lips distracted him. Even more so now that he’d tasted them. And told her that he was all in on tasting them again.

  “Oh my God, I can hardly think straight,” she finally said, glancing at Jack again.

  The kid could go for a solid twenty minutes so Caleb just shrugged. “I’m hoping he can find a well-paying job that requires him to yell. I haven’t come up with anything yet, but we’ve got a few years.”

  Lexi gave him a smile, though she shook her head, as if confused.

  “What?” he asked.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Come on.”

  She took a breath. “I just…when you talk about ‘we’ and things that are years down the road as if we’ll still be doing all of this…I just…”

  They would still be doing all of this. The idea of not being there to see Jack graduate high school or get his first job—a yelling job or not—stabbed Caleb in the chest. As did the thought that Lexi might not believe he’d be there. “Lex—”

  “I just really like it,” she said, finishing her thought. “A lot of the time I feel like I’m functioning day to day, maybe week to week. While I was in school it was semester to semester. But I don’t really think long-term.” She swallowed. “I guess that’s why my mom moving to Shreveport with Greg kind of surprised me. But it shouldn’t have.” She shook her head. “I think that’s why I’m so…unprepared all the time. I don’t think ahead. I just take things moment by moment or day by day.”

  Maybe that was good. Just take it as it came. Not think about what things Shay wouldn’t be able to do when she was eight or what things might frustrate her in high school. Just take today for what it was and do his damnedest to make it as good as he could. If he couldn’t fix today, he sure wouldn’t know what to do with a teenage girl who couldn’t keep up with her peers.

  Lexi was staring at his chest now instead of looking him in the eye. As always, Caleb had the instinctual urge to reassure her and tell her that he’d take care of whatever she needed so she didn’t have to think ahead.

  But before he could speak, she looked up at him again. “I have to quit assuming that everything will always stay the same,” she said. “Right? Things will always change.”

  They did. Always. And often times it didn’t matter how prepared you were. Caleb saw it every day. Knew it firsthand. You could go to bed with the next day’s lunch packed and Thursday’s report done and weekend plans confirmed in your day planner, and you could wake up in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke and your whole world turned upside down and shaken. You could go out to mow the lawn in preparation for the barbecue you were hosting the next night and fifteen minutes later, you could be lying in your too-long grass, praying that the ambulance would get there before your heart completely stopped.

  You could go to the pediatrician for a checkup and walk out with your entire reality altered.

  “That’s why you have to wallow in the moments when everything is good and just how you want them to be,” he said.

  Without thinking about it any further, he cupped the back of Lexi’s head and pulled her in as he bent. She was a lot shorter than him, but he didn’t mind leaning over to cover her mouth with his. He kissed her, lips only, for several long moments, just relishing the feel of her, the taste of her, the scent of her. But she didn’t pull back. In fact, she leaned into him, and soon it wasn’t enough. He parted his lips. She followed his lead, and a moment later he was stroking his tongue along hers, slowly and deeply.

  He felt her go on tiptoe and fist the front of his shirt and he slid his other hand from her shoulder to her ass, bringing her up even more fully against him. Damn, that was something he’d wanted to do for so long.

  She smelled sweet—that ever-present bubblegum scent—and tasted even sweeter. Then there was the feel of her ass in his hand, her silky, warm hair between his fingers, and her hands holding the front of his shirt as if he was all that was keeping her upright. But it was the sound of her that really fired his blood. The soft whimpering sound against his mouth was needy, a wordless plea, the sound of a woman who, yeah, needed him, and what he was doing—and could do—to her.

  He started to turn her so her back would be against the wall and he could press closer. Harder.

  But suddenly he heard a sniff and, “What doing?”

  6

  Jack’s tantrum was over.

  Of course it was.

  Damn, Caleb hadn’t even noticed the little boy had stopped crying.

  But nothing could distract a guy from a good pissed-off conniption like some dude kissing his mom like he wanted to… Caleb cleared his throat. Truly, just kissing her was probably enough to get Jack’s attention. That was definitely something they’d never done in front of the kids.

  Then again, they hadn’t even sat around the coffee table and talked about new apartments, or had breakfast together, or played with the kids while the other showered. Today was full of firsts.

  Lexi stepped back from him and combed her fingers through her hair. It took her a second to look away from Caleb, but when she did, she turned to her son and said, “So you’re finished with your fit?”

  Jack was sitting in the middle of the foyer, his face red and wet. He rubbed a fist in one eye and sniffed again. “Uh-huh.”

  “Good,” Lexi told him. “That one was pretty loud.”

/>   Jack just nodded.

  She crossed to where he was sitting and squatted down in front of him. “It’s okay to get mad about stuff. Sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to and that’s not very fun.” She reached her hand out and set it on top of his head, looking into his eyes.

  Caleb found himself shifting so he could see both of their faces more easily, mesmerized. He’d seen Lexi with Jack, of course. Mostly when he greeted her at the door when she came to pick him up, or at the family events for the support group. But there, Jack was playing and distracted by the games and other kids. Caleb was sure that in two years he’d seen her discipline Jack or talk to him seriously, but for the life of him, Caleb couldn’t remember a time. Of course, Jack had just turned two a few months ago. Maybe her tactics had changed. It made him feel strangely…strange to not have witnessed this before. Or to even know how she generally approached disciplining the little boy they both loved so much.

  They really were parenting more like exes who had joint custody. They both had a hand in the parenting, but they didn’t do it together and rarely saw the other one doing it.

  He wanted that to change. The thought hit him suddenly, and hard. But it felt right to think about doing this, all of this, together.

  “But screaming doesn’t mean you’re going to get your way,” she said. Jack sniffed and then suddenly launched himself into her arms. She gathered him close and said, “Sometimes I just want to scream and cry, too, honey. I understand.”

  And Caleb had to force oxygen into his lungs.

  Damn. That was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. It was crazy, really. He’d seen Lexi looking beautiful many times. Most times. Every time he saw her. Hell, he’d seen her breasts—finally—last night. And yet this was what drew him like a bee to honey. Of course Lexi hugged Jack. He’d seen Jack go running to her and fly into her arms before. But there was so much love pouring off of them in this moment, Caleb swore he could feel it across the five feet that separated them.

  Jack’s breathing had calmed and he was no longer sniffing by the time Lexi stood with him and turned to face Caleb fully.

  She gave him a funny look. He could only imagine what expression was on his face at the moment. A mix of wonder and affection and lust, he was sure.

  “Looks like everything’s okay,” he said, his voice gruff.

  “Yeah.” She swallowed. “Being held is sometimes all a person needs.”

  Caleb felt a jolt and his knee-jerk reaction was to open his mouth to say he’d hold her anytime. But she quickly looked down at her son, almost as if wanting to interrupt before Caleb said anything at all.

  “Everything’s okay, right?” she asked Jack.

  “Yep,” the little boy told her.

  “Okay, then.” She crossed to Caleb and handed Jack over. “I’m heading to the s-t-o-r-e, then.”

  She was leaving? They didn’t need any groceries. He usually stopped by the store on Wednesday and Lexi went on Saturdays. She got the bulk of what they needed and all of the staples. Caleb’s trip was usually to pick up the stray extras they either forgot to put on the list or ran out of.

  * * *

  They were almost never both off on Fridays and if they were, Lexi wasn’t here. She was at home with Jack. Except now this was her home. And they were all going to spend the day together.

  “Oh, no, it’s zoo day,” Caleb said. A family outing. That wasn’t something they’d done together before.

  Lexi looked up at him quickly. “Zoo day?”

  “Zoo!” Jack crowed.

  Lexi winced and Caleb grinned. Once the kids knew about it, she wasn’t getting out of going.

  “Yep, it’s Friday. Zoo day. Right, Jack?”

  “Zoo day!” Jack agreed.

  Fridays really were zoo day for him, Jack and Shay. It wasn’t completely manipulative to put it into the two-year-old’s head that they’d all go out together.

  Lexi sighed. “Really?” she asked Caleb.

  “Sure. We’ve never done that together before. It’ll be fun.” He started into the living room with Jack to grab the kid’s shoes. “Shay, zoo day.”

  Shay looked up from her coloring page. “Now?”

  “Yep.”

  Shay immediately grinned. “Yay! We can see that girl I like!”

  Caleb grinned. There were actually three girls that the kids liked. He was ninety percent sure that Shay was talking about Lauren, but, for some reason, Shay had a hard time remembering all their names even though they saw them every Friday. Kara was Jack’s favorite, though Naomi was a very close second.

  Shay got up and ran to get her shoes and Caleb dropped onto the couch with Jack in his lap to pull the boy’s shoes on. Thankfully, he remembered to do a swipe and fished a dried orange slice out of Jack’s shoe before he stuck the boy’s foot in. He did, however, note that something crunched in Jack’s left pants pocket. It wasn’t anything from breakfast. He’d made sure Jack left the table with nothing in his hands. But sometimes Shay got snacks from the cupboards for him. Caleb was getting pretty good at figuring out what Jack had squirrelled away just by touch through a pants pocket, though. This had to be cereal or the tiny cheese crackers shaped like dinosaurs. Caleb didn’t have time to clean Jack up right now. Lexi might use that as an excuse to leave for the store without them. And hey, smashed cheese crackers wouldn’t be any messier in an hour or so than they were right now.

  Caleb didn’t look up until he set Jack on his feet and sent him to grab Caleb’s cap from the pile of shoes, caps and jackets by the front door.

  Then he noticed Lexi watching him with a hand on her hip.

  “What?” he asked getting to his feet.

  “Who’s the girl Shay likes?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Lauren. I think. It could be Naomi. But Lauren is the one who feeds the monkeys.”

  Lexi’s eyebrow went up. “There are two girls that the kids are excited to see?”

  “Three, actually.” God, he wanted to kiss her again. The kids were preoccupied. He could just get a quick taste.

  “Three?”

  His eyes were on her mouth as he nodded. “Your son has lots of girlfriends he needs to say hi to.”

  He took a step closer to her, his attention on her lips. Hell, they didn’t do things just the two of them, either. And he’d really like to change that soon.

  “My son has lots of girlfriends he needs to say hi to,” Lexi repeated.

  She sounded dubious, and Caleb’s gaze bounced back up to her eyes. Ah, she thought maybe he was the one who wanted to go flirt with the girls who worked at the zoo. Well, they were all very cute and yeah, Naomi had given him some signals. But he hadn’t taken her up on it. Mostly because you didn’t pick up one-night stands at the zoo. You might pick up a woman you actually wanted to date, if you were into that kind of thing. Because she’d then know, up front, that there were kids involved, and he’d know up front that she was good with it. And yeah, he knew that guys with kids, guys with the dad-vibe, were attractive to some women. He’d have to be dead or stupid to not know that. If not from personal experience, then from trips to the park with his friends who were dads. Or trips to the water park. Or trips to the grocery store. Or…just about anywhere else he and his single-dad friends had ever been with their kids.

  Women loved a guy who was good with kids.

  But he had never, not once, used that to pick up a woman. Because what he wanted from the women he spent time with had nothing to do with Shay and Jack.

  And because he already had the perfect woman involved with Shay and Jack.

  And she was standing in front of him right now.

  “I’m very sorry to break it to you, but your son’s a ladies’ man,” Caleb told her.

  “My son is, huh?” she asked. “Why do I think maybe these ladies didn’t notice Jack first?”

  He laughed as Shay and Jack came running back in just then, ready to go.

  He’d just take her to the zoo and show her that there
was nothing with these girls and him. The girls and Jack on the other hand…this little mama was about to see her son flirting for the first time. Caleb grinned as he swung Jack up into his arms and took Shay’s hand, heading for the door.

  “You’re sure we all have to go?” Lexi asked as she watched him load the kids into the car.

  He pointed to the buckle on Shay’s booster seat. “Buckle up, Shay-doodle.”

  She giggled at the nickname and strapped herself in. She managed to get the thing buckled after three tries of inserting the metal tab into the right slot. Caleb put Jack into his seat and got him secured.

  He’d bought an extra car seat for each kid within a month of him and Lexi figuring out how to swap childcare and work schedules. It was simply easier than loading and unloading the seats each time they exchanged the kids. She’d protested, of course, and he’d insisted, of course. And he’d gotten his way. Of course.

  “We don’t have to go,” he agreed, turning back to Lexi. “The kids and I can go. You can stay here and relax.”

  But he knew she didn’t want time alone at home. She just wanted donuts. And now she was curious about the zoo.

  “No, I’m fine, I guess,” she said, moving toward the front seat.

  He moved to block her. “I’ll stop by the store on the way home and buy you the coconut crunch donuts you’re jonesing for.”

  The grocery store where they shopped made their own mini-donuts every morning. He knew Lexi didn’t splurge on junk food much at all. Not for the kids or herself. He was the one who bought the pudding cups and the occasional package of cookies. But he’d been, well, charmed when he’d found that she’d stashed donuts. Charmed wasn’t a particularly manly word, he knew, but it was how Lexi made him feel. Often, in fact, if he really thought about it.

  Her eyes got wide. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He grinned. “You really thought you could stash them in the Crock-Pot and I’d never find them?”

  She frowned. “You found them in the Crock-Pot?”