A smirk lit on my face. Of course they were. It’s just what we did, supported each other, however our lives were going down. “They said if I was coming back, then they were, too.”
“Are you sure you want Kallie around all of them? Is that not weird?” Protectiveness rose up in her when Kallie’s name was mentioned, like she felt the need to defend her daughter. Truth was, the thought of Kallie hanging around all my hard-ass friends who had not a clue how to act around a little kid was kind of weird. But they were going to have to get used to it.
“It’ll be cool,” I said with a shrug.
Her smile was soft. “I think I’d like that then.”
“Good.”
A big yawn took her over, the girl all sleepy and sexy and about five seconds from being my complete undoing.
“It’s late. I better let you get some rest.”
“Yeah…but it’s hard to let you go,” she admitted shyly.
“Not letting me go. I’ll be right here and I’ll be there to pick you up at ten, okay?”
“Okay.”
A smirk flitted all around my mouth. “Goodnight, Shea from Savannah.”
Her expression darkened with her storm, something severe and profound.
Her voice was rough. “Goodnight, Sebastian from California.”
At five minutes before ten, I pulled up in the Suburban in front of Shea’s house.
This morning I was up with the sun, too anxious to sleep.
I cut the engine and jumped out, running up her walk and onto her porch, something like joy taking over every cell in my body with each pounded step.
The second I rang the doorbell, the front door flew open. Kallie stood there, bouncing on her feet, excitement blazing from her like a full-body halo.
“Baz, you’re here! I missed you so, so much!”
She was wearing a blue and white checkered swimsuit and a pair of denim shorts over it, flip-flops on her insanely tiny but chubby feet. Of course she had that butterfly crooked in her elbow.
Jesus help me. I couldn’t do anything but pick her up, hug her, because fuck if I hadn’t missed her, too. I held her to me and murmured, “I missed you, too,” into all that wild hair, my head spinning because I was still having a hard time wrapping it around all of this.
She jerked back, eyes swimming with a thrill. “You’re gonna take me to the beach?”
“Yep. Does that sound okay to you?”
“I love the beach!”
“Good thing because we’re going to play on it all day.”
She formed a fist, her little arm pumping like she was giving me a cha-ching. “Yes!”
A chuckle rumbled from me and my attention drifted to Shea who was standing at the bottom of the staircase, one hand on the railing, tender smile trained on us.
Adrenaline spiked, a churn of it rushing through my veins, and I was itching to drive my fingers into all that blonde flowing down around her, that temptation brushing over her bare shoulders and swinging down her back.
She was dressed for a day outside in the sun. A long, printed flowy skirt hugged her waist, draping down to end at her calves. A tight, white tank barely concealed the black bikini top outlined beneath it, thin straps coming up to tie around her neck.
Fucking gorgeous.
Knock the wind right out of me kind of gorgeous.
Sing from the mountaintops kind of gorgeous.
Leave me begging on my knees kind of gorgeous.
Yeah. That kind of gorgeous.
Redness crawled up her neck, and I knew her mind had gone traipsing into thoughts the same, eyes sucking me down like she’d witnessed the sunrise for the first time.
How in the hell was this girl mine?
I strode toward her, Kallie still tucked in the crook of my arm. I didn’t hesitate, just drove a hand beneath the river of her hair and gripped her by the back of the neck. I kissed her hard and she kissed me back. Nothing salacious or obscene. But with purpose. Reluctantly, I pulled back, thumb caressing her cheek. “Good morning.”
Kallie started giggling and Shea was all smiles and blushes, and every kind of sexy when she swayed in my hold. “Good morning.”
“Are you ready to go?”