Love: Uncivilized (Uncivilized, #1.5)
by Sawyer Bennett
Acknowledgment
This book is dedicated to all of those married couples who find that marriage is never easy, but it is certainly worth the effort you have to put in to make it work.
Chapter 1
Moira
“Cannon,” I call up the stairs. “I need you down here right now so I can get your shoes on. We’re going to be late.”
And God knows I totally don’t need your father smirking at me over that since I’m always giving him shit for being late.
“Cah—” Jaime says as she points at the stairs. With blue eyes and chocolate-brown hair sticking out in tufts all over her little eighteen-month-old toddler head, she’s the miniature version of Zach. Well, Cannon also looks just like Zach with the same hair and eyes, but Jaime just sort of has that domineering look that is descended directly from Zach’s DNA.
“Cah—” she says again, trying to say her older brother’s name. Two years separate them, but you can’t tell that to Jaime. She abhors being separated from Cannon and doesn’t understand that big boys can go up the stairs by themselves and sweet, little babies that toddle around like drunk monkeys half the time need to stay down with Mommy.
“Can-non,” I annunciate slowly as I squat down in front of her. Giving her a smile, I encourage her again. “Can you say Can-non?”
Her lips quirk upward in a grin, showing her cute baby teeth. With an evil twinkle in her eye, she says, “Boom!”
I roll my eyes as I lean in to kiss her forehead. “I’m so going to kill your father for teaching you that.”
Zach thought it was hilarious to yell, “Boom!” every time Jaime tried to say Cannon’s name. It only took about four times and she was doing the same.
Yup… need to kill Zach for that one, and I’d be happy to oblige if I could actually get fifteen minutes of quality time with him to cheerfully wring his neck. Damn, but I miss that man. All he ever seems to do these days is work, work, and oh yeah, more work. He gets up every weekday morning with the kids, affording me an extra-blessed hour of sleep while he feeds and dresses them, and then gets to spend some precious “daddy” time playing with them in the den. I get up, he hands me coffee, kisses me quickly on my morning-breath mouth, and jets out the door. Most nights, I’m lucky to still be awake when he slides into bed, so exhausted he does nothing more than snuggle up to me to murmur softly, “’Night, Moira. I love you,” before he’s falling dead asleep.
I sort of knew that marriage and kids could change your life.
For the better, of course.
But I also knew, compliments of my older and wiser sister, that the minute kids came along, your priorities as husband and wife would completely change. First and foremost, our lives now revolve around Cannon and Jaime. Secondly, around Cannon’s Department Store where Zach works. I get that he’s trying to prove himself. Zach’s trying to make his way in the corporate world, and he couldn’t rest on the laurels of just being godson to CEO, Randall Cannon. No… he has to go out there and show everyone that he has what it takes to run a major business.
Sometimes… just sometimes, I wish I could escape with Zach; maybe go back to the Amazon rainforest where we first met and live by ourselves. I want my wild and uncivilized man back who only had eyes for me. Now I’m lucky if his tired eyes can stay open long enough to give me a once over before he falls asleep.
Tiny feet pounding down the stairs snap me out of my musings, and Cannon comes skidding into the den, holding his shoes in his hands.
“Up on the couch,” I tell him, and he dutifully hops up there for me. Jaime struggles to pull herself up beside Cannon. She’s getting good at swinging herself up, my little Tarzana in the making, but sometimes she needs a boost. I grab her by the waistband of her jeans and do just that.
“Is Daddy going to eat with us tonight?” Cannon asks with excitement, and guilt floods me that my child even has to ask such a thing.
When had we gotten to the point that it was almost a miraculous event for Zach to sit down with his family for a meal?
“He sure is,” I say with a smile as I tie his shoelaces into double knots.
And I can say that with assurance since it was Zach’s idea… no wait, it was his command that we all meet up at Vortex Burger to celebrate. I internally smile over his exuberance last night when I told him I got the job.
Not just any job.
The. Job!
The job of all jobs!