“I think it’s time we tell them,” she said.
I stopped and spun to face her. I searched her face for any sign of teasing, but she was dead serious. “So do I. I think it’s time for a lot of things.”
“Like what?”
“I think we should try being a family.” I held my breath and waited for her response.
“I’d like that.” She placed her hands on my shoulders, leaned forward, and kissed me on the cheek. I broke into a wide grin.
“I love you, Caro. I never stopped loving you.” The words came from deeper than my heart, more like my soul, my very core, the very thing that gave living things life. I loved her. Maybe I’d always loved her. But this time I loved her as a man loved a woman, and I intended to show her how much.
“I love you, too, Easton.” Her blue eyes shone with the light of a thousand stars, and she was brighter than every one of them.
“It’s taken me a long time to figure out what I wanted. I don’t think I really knew until just now. I don’t want today, or even tomorrow or next week, I want forever.”
“So do I.”
I bent down and kissed her in front of everyone. I might have lost the bet as Puck Brother, and I didn’t care one damn bit. My teammates catcalled all around me but I ignored them.
This was what I’d wanted for longer than I realized.
**Caroline**
Easton stayed the night, and we made love well into the morning. Now I lay cuddled next to him at dawn, our naked bodies entwined. I wanted to wake up like this every morning for the rest of my life, but one step at a time.
We still had some talking to do.
He stirred and opened his eyes and a slow smile spread across his face. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Good morning to you.” He ran his hand down my back and rested it on my bare ass. I laid my head on his chest.
“We need to talk.”
“Oh, God, I hate the sound of those words. You’re not going to boot me again, are you? No regrets, remember?”
I sat up. This needed to be a face-to-face conversation.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and by the shock on his face, I could’ve knocked him down with a feather.
“Sorry?”
“My behavior. I’ve been really unfair to you. All you asked for was to be a part of our children’s lives, and I fought you at every turn.”
Easton nodded slowly, as if he were considering something. “I’m sorry, too, for pushing you when you weren’t ready to be pushed, for not understanding what you’re going through along with the kids. I’m not usually so impatient.”
“I want to tell them, and I want them to have your last name.”
“You do?” He blinked several times, then swiped his arm across his face. His eyes were suspiciously bright. “When should we tell them?”
“How about this morning?”
“This morning?” Now that the final moment of truth was upon him, he looked scared. “What if they throw a fit and hate the idea of me as their father? What if they blame you for keeping this secret from them?”
“They probably will, but we’ll deal with it. Their anger or hurt won’t last forever. They’ll forgive us. You’re a great father, and any child would be lucky to have you in their life.”
“I could say the same about you. Let’s do this.”
I slid off the bed and held out my hand to him. He took a moment to survey my naked body with a naughty smile.
“What is it we’re doing?” he joked, easing the tension slightly. I swatted at him. He caught my hand in his and kissed my knuckles.
I pulled away. “No more good stuff until we’re done with the not-so-good stuff.”
He sighed and stood, stretching his magnificent body and reaching for his clothes.
We showered and dressed. As hard as it was not to linger in the shower, we didn’t. We had a mission, and we were both committed to our mission.
The kids didn’t bat an eye when Easton and I walked out of the bedroom that morning. I’m not sure they understood what was going on, but they seemed okay with it. Junie was making breakfast, and the smell of bacon made my stomach growl.
After breakfast, we sat the kids down at the dining room table. Junie, guessing something big was going on, made herself scarce.
Heath sipped his juice and studied us with a solemn face, too serious for a kid his age. Hailey jabbered away, talking about her riding lessons, the pony she rode, her figure-skating routine, and a kid in her daycare she didn’t like.
I held up a hand and smiled gently at her. “Hailey, honey, I need to you to be quiet and listen for a moment. Easton and I have something very important to tell you.”
Hailey stopped in mid-sentence, her mouth forming a big O. She clasped her hands on the table in front of her and nodded, also serious for once.
I met Easton’s gaze, and he squeezed my hand under the table. Turning back to my babies, I drew a deep breath and dived in. “There’s no easy way to tell you this. Your dad, Mark, was a really good dad, and I never want to take that away from you, but the truth is that you have another dad.” I paused, trying to find the words that six-year-olds would understand and coming up short. Both children stared at me with twin expressions of confusion.
“Like Julie at school has two dads? One is her stepdad, whatever that means,” Hailey asked.
“No, not exactly. Easton is your father, your biological father. Mark was my husband and was also your father because of love, but not physically.” I didn’t know if what I was saying was over their heads or not.
“If Easton is our real father, why didn’t we know until now?” Heath scowled and his eyes narrowed as he glared at me. My son was not happy.
Oh, God, this was difficult. “Easton and I knew each other years ago. I thought Mark was your biological father, but after he died, we did tests, and I found out Easton was.”
Hailey’s lip was quivering, and Heath’s face was frozen solid with belligerence. I was making a huge mess of this. My news wasn’t going over well at all. I looked to Easton for help.
“Hailey, Heath, I’m sorry I wasn’t in your life earlier. Don’t blame your mother. She simply didn’t know. And you had a great dad. Now I’m here not to fill his shoes but to be a different kind of dad, the kind only I know how to be.”
Hailey shook her head so hard her blonde curls slapped against her face. “No. No. No! You’re not my daddy. My daddy is gone. I want him back. I want everything back the way it was. I hate this place. I hate you both. I want Nana and Grandpa. I want to go home.” Hailey wailed with the pure emotions of a child, the pain so obvious I felt it in my heart and deep to my soul. Tears flowed down her face and huge sobs racked her small body. Heath threw his arms around her and glared accusingly at us over his shoulder. Hailey jerked away from him and ran down the hall to her bedroom.
Heath started after her and stopped. His eyes narrowed. “I want to go home too. Let us go home and live with Nana and Grandpa. We don’t want to be here.” He sprinted down the hallway and slammed his bedroom door.
For a long moment, Easton and I were silent, then our eyes met.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.