He nodded then looked around the room giving nonverbal greetings, smiling at his gorgeous daughter and his good-looking boy.
His eyes scanned the room one more time right before he was going to turn to walk down the hall and he saw Dusty twisted, bent double and there was no back to her dress. Just her phenomenal skin exposed in a deep vee that started wide at her shoulders and tapered to a point at her waist. She was listening to Adriana who’d been released by her father and seemed very earnest in telling her something and Dusty’s profile looked just as earnest in listening.
He was forty-three. She was thirty-eight.
He’d done it before and he was almost through it with only minor bumps along the way for the kids, the only major one being their parents’ divorce.
He looked to Reesee smiling up at Fin as he murmured something to her Mike couldn’t hear. Then he looked to No who was bumping fists with Joaquin, one or the other of them had apparently done well at the game.
His eyes went back to Dusty to see she’d leaned deeper into Adriana, she had her hand wrapped around the side of the little girl’s head and she was pressing their foreheads together while they both giggled softly about something.
He raised two great kids even doing it mostly alone.
Watching Dusty, suddenly he was looking forward to doing the same thing but together. With her.
His eyes shifted from his woman to the door to see Layla out there going nuts.
“Reesee, beautiful, go let Layla in before she explodes,” he called.
Reesee looked at him and called back, “Sure, Daddy,” but it wasn’t her who headed to the door. It was Fin.
Christ, who would have thought Finley Holliday would be a gentleman.
Fuck.
Smiling at the same time shaking his head, he turned to walk upstairs to change.
*
Wednesday late night…
“Mike, honey, uh…maybe you’re not in the state right now to make that decision.”
This was Dusty. They were in bed after dinner, after the Riveras had gone to their hotel, after his kids had gone to bed and after sex. He was mellow. They’d had a good time that night. For some reason Mike did not get, No loved Swank’s, a high end restaurant in Indianapolis. For the past three years, Mike had been taking him and Reesee there even though they had to dress up and it cost half a fortune, this year with everyone there and Mike firm on paying for them all, a full one. No got it once a year so it was a once a year hit Mike was willing to take for his boy on his birthday.
And Mike had just told Dusty that when she was ready to try for a baby he was ready to talk about it.
He was on his back. She was pressed to his side but her torso was angled up and she was looking down at him.
“In what state?” he asked.
“This is a big day for you,” she said quietly.
“How’s that?”
“No turned seventeen. This is on the heels of all that’s gone down with Rees. They’re getting older and fast. That’s gonna make you feel –”
Before she said something that might piss him off, he did an ab curl, rolling into her and switching their positions, taking her to her back. At the same time, he lifted a hand and cupped her jaw, his thumb resting lightly on her lips.
“Stop right there, darlin’,” he ordered softly. “Yeah, I’ll admit, comin’ home tonight, I felt what you’re sayin’. But comin’ home tonight, I also heard Adriana laughin’, I saw you with her and I liked what I saw. I’m not sayin’ you need to go off the pill tomorrow. I’m sayin’ I know you want this, seein’ you with Adriana it’s come to my understanding I want this with you so when you’re ready, we’ll talk so we can plan.”
Her eyes were wide and her lips moved against his thumb so he slid it away while she said, “You want this with me?”
“Yeah.”
“So it’s not just you giving me what I want, it’s you wanting it too?”
He grinned and repeated, “Yeah.”
She studied him closely and asked softly, “Sure?”
He dipped his head and against her lips whispered, “Yeah.”
Her arms slid around him and he felt her lips smile against his while he watched up close her eyes doing the same.
He brushed his mouth against hers and lifted his head away an inch as she held his eyes and whispered back, “Then we need to plan.”
She wanted a kid and she wanted to start now. He wasn’t surprised. Dusty knew what she wanted and when she did she wasn’t one to fuck around.
“Right,” he replied gently. “Then this is the thing. I want more time just you and me. Not years but some time. And I’m not plantin’ a baby in you if you aren’t wearin’ my rings and don’t have my name so our baby has our name.”
Her eyebrows drew together and she told him, “Our baby would have your name anyway.”
“That’s not what I said. We bring a kid into this world, our baby will have our name.”
Her brow relaxed but her teeth bit her upper lip for a second.
Mike did not take that as a good sign and he’d know why when she stated, “I was, um…so you’re talking marriage?”
Fuck.