“She sure does love Florida.”
“I could tell that even over the phone. When she started talking about moving back, I knew I had to do something.”
He smiled, his eyes warm. “Even if it was crazy.”
“I think the words you used were batshit crazy.” She watched his brow furrow for a moment, as though he was trying to remember saying it. “But Lisa also told me the tall and hot part of it, so I didn’t take it personally.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about the hot part right before we go to bed.”
Good point. “You think you can stick this out for a month?”
“Told you I would.”
“And you’ve got Gram wrapped around your little finger already. I’ll have to start complaining about you once in a while or when it comes time to tell her I broke up with you, she’ll never believe it.”
“True. Maybe you should tell her I broke up with you.”
Emma tossed a balled-up napkin at him. “Funny.”
“You can worry about that later. For now, your grandmother believes you’re madly in love with me and that’s all that matters.”
“So you’re telling me Emma’s grandmother actually fell for it?” Kevin dredged a fry through a puddle of ketchup and popped it in his mouth. “I don’t believe it.”
Sean shrugged. “I’m tellin’ you. She doesn’t give us funny looks or anything.”
He’d taken off midmorning to give Emma and her grandmother some time alone since he and Emma would be working the next day and because, after three days of pretending, he needed a break. He’d done some errands and then showed up at Jasper’s Bar & Grille to see what was going on. He’d gotten there just as Kevin’s wife and daughter had arrived to visit him during his lunch break and they’d invited Sean to join them.
Beth slid Lily’s high chair closer to her seat and farther from Kevin’s. The tot was trying to trade her cut-up banana for her daddy’s fries, not that Sean blamed her. “I have to admit, I didn’t think it would work.”
“Neither did we,” Sean told her and they all laughed.
“Isn’t it weird?” Beth gave Kevin one of those wifely looks when he slipped Lily a fry, then looked back at Kevin. “I can’t imagine living with somebody I don’t know.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. Maybe being in the army helped. I’m used to living with whoever came along. And it’s not so bad. Cat’s a wicked good cook.”
“Takes so little to make a Kowalski man happy,” Beth mused.
Her husband smiled and leaned across the high chair to kiss her cheek, slipping the kid another fry. “I seem to recall winning your heart with my Jasper burgers.”
“Among other things. And when Lily has a bellyache later, you’re dealing with it.”
Sean turned his attention from the domestic bliss to his fish-and-chips basket. He was happy for his cousins—all paired off and doing the parent thing—but it wasn’t for him. Maybe in a few years when he’d found a place he wanted to stay in and a woman he wanted to stay there with. But for now, he wasn’t even looking.
When Lily decided she’d had enough of her high chair and started making her displeasure known rather loudly, Beth packed up all her baby debris and kissed her husband goodbye. “Good luck, Sean. I’ll see you Saturday.”
“So,” Kevin said when they were alone, “how are those sleeping arrangements going?”
“She’s still on the couch.”
“I think Josh took two nights for the pool. He’s out.”
Sean shook his head, a little disgusted by his youngest brother’s lack of faith in his self-control. “You’ll all be out when the month’s over. Out money, that is.”
He said it like he believed it, but it was shaky ground. Three nights of sleeping in the same room as Emma was playing hell on his sleep cycle. And when he’d dreamed of her last night—naked and hot for him, with her dark cloud of hair tickling his chest—and woken sweaty and hard and aching, not crossing that ten feet of bedroom had almost killed him.
Going to work tomorrow would be a good thing, he thought. Even though he’d be alone with her, a little physical labor would do his body good. Maybe if he tired himself out, he could sleep through the night without his dick trying to lead the way to her like some kind of damn dowsing rod.
“I’ve gotta get back to work,” Kevin said, breaking into thoughts he was better off not having anyway. “Your lunch is on the house today.”
“Thanks, man.” He stood and shook his cousin’s hand before polishing off the rest of his lunch.
On a whim, he took the scenic route to Joe and Keri’s house and, since both their vehicles were in the driveway, he pulled in and got out.
Keri answered the door, looking frazzled and not having the best hair day he’d ever seen. “Hi, Sean. I was just thinking, gee, I need more Kowalskis in my life right now.”
He laughed and stepped into the big foyer. “Baby acting up?”
“I thought the Kowalski men were royal pains in the ass, no offense, but you guys have nothing on the girls.”