“Don’t you want to go?” He was rubbing her upper arm through her thin sweater, his touch distracting her.
“It’s not that. I’d love to go with them. It’s just, the kids,” she said lamely.
“The kids that I’m volunteering to watch that you said you trust me with.”
“Beckett, I can’t ask you to do that. They’re my responsibility.” She could feel herself getting upset. Frustration rising up from her belly.
“Red. Stop.” He turned her to face him and held her in place by the shoulders. “You don’t have to do it all on your own anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” She frowned up at his handsome face, and tried not to notice the softness in his eyes.
“It’s been just you and those kids for a long time. Having someone help out every once in a while doesn’t hurt anyone. Having other people you can lean on, doesn’t make you weak or dependent.”
He’d hit the nail on the head, she realized. She was so used to being the only responsible parent that she didn’t know how to let go.
“Most parents share the responsibilities with a partner. And the really lucky ones have extended family they can rely on,” Beckett continued. “You now have an extended family of about two thousand people, plus me.”
Gia glanced over her shoulder to make sure they didn’t have an audience. “As my secret lover, I don’t expect you to take over childcare duties.”
“As your friend, I’d love to watch the kids. They crack me up. If it makes you feel better, I’ll bring them over here and let them have the run of the farm for the day.”
The kids, she knew, would love it.
“I just feel like I’m passing them off to everyone these days. Both kids had sleepovers last weekend, they’re hanging out with Carter and Joey right now. Evan watches Aurora for me two nights a week because of yoga. And I feel like I’m pawning them off.”
“Red, how long have you lived here?”
She shrugged. “Six weeks?”
“And you feel like a sleepover, a riding lesson, and you teaching two evening classes a week is pawning them off?”
She nodded and bit her lip.
“Gianna.”
“I know. It sounds stupid to me, too,” Gia said covering her face with her hands.
“Imagine how stupid it would sound if you turned me down and stayed home doing laundry Saturday with the kids instead of being there when Summer tries on her wedding dress.”
“I bet juries eat right out of your hand, don’t they?”
Beckett grinned. “I go in for the kill with logic, style, and charm. And if that doesn’t work, I yell a lot. Don’t make me yell, Gianna.”
“Are you really, really sure you want to watch them. They can be a handful. Well, Evan can be quiet and pouty, Aurora can be a nuclear disaster.”
“I want to. I’ll bring them out here, we’ll ride horses, play with the pigs, I’ll let them do a tasting at the brewery …”
“Okay,” Gia sighed.
“Okay?”
“Okay to everything except the beer tasting. I get to sample before they do.”
“Good girl. Now, go tell Summer that you’ll be happy to join her Saturday.”
Gia looked over her shoulder again and, spotting no one, rose up on her tiptoes to kiss Beckett on the cheek. “You’re the best secret lover and friend a girl could ask for.”
24
The week hustled by in a blur of kids’ school activities, busy yoga classes, and the as-often-as-possible morning or afternoon tryst with Beckett.
Her work with Summer was going well and she was starting to feel a sense of ownership in the magazine. Between her business, Summer’s business, and Beckett’s … “business,” she fell into bed exhausted and smiling every night.
She had started a load of laundry the other evening and her heart had taken a hard stumble when she peeked outside to find Beckett throwing football with Evan in the yard. She and Aurora had joined in until the evening chill had chased them all inside. Beckett worked thugh an algebra problem with Evan while Gia made her father’s famous homemade hot chocolate. They all enjoyed steaming mugs — with Aurora’s ‘smarsh-smellos’ — before she sent the kids up to bed.
She and Beckett had then enjoyed several steaming kisses before she sent him home.
It had been blissfully … normal. And she had more than a fleeting moment of wishing that it could be real life for them all. In the dark of that cool autumn night, lying in bed staring at her little fairy garden, she let herself wonder what it would be like to have Beckett as part of her family.
What it would be like to fall asleep in his arms every night. What it would be like to touch him whenever she wanted, like she wanted to do now as he hefted Aurora up on his hip in Carter’s foyer.