Chapter 20
Today was going to be a good day. There was a high school baseball scrimmage late that afternoon that they were all going to.
Porter was going to come home a little early from work so they could get there before the game started.
Logan had been so excited that morning before leaving for school, it was hard to get him to concentrate on anything other than the upcoming game.
Riley sometimes couldn’t believe how easily she’d gotten into a routine with two kids and a very serious boyfriend.
She enjoyed making breakfast for everyone then doing her best to find all their school stuff and get the kids out the door.
Then she and Porter usually had about thirty minutes to themselves.
A couple of times he’d taken her back into his room and made fast, hard love to her.
Other times, they sat on the couch and talked about their upcoming day.
She enjoyed having the one-on-one time with Porter, but she also loved hanging out with Bria and Logan.
She literally loved everything about the Reeds.
Bree was still a little shy, but was taking her cues from Logan and her personality was becoming more and more evident.
She was very sensitive to others and always wanted to please them.
She didn’t talk back and generally did what she was told without complaint.
Riley knew when she got older that would most likely change, so she was enjoying it while it lasted.
After Porter went to work at the post each morning, she went back to her apartment to get some work done.
Her life was so much more well-rounded now than it had been before.
She was getting out more, and Riley loved having friends.
Yesterday, she’d talked on the phone for twenty minutes with Aspen, chatting about how her pregnancy was progressing and the details on her courthouse wedding ceremony.
It was safe to say Riley was very content with how life was going.
“I should be home by four,” Porter told her as they stood in front of his door.
He was getting ready to go to work. Riley loved seeing him in his uniform.
It wasn’t anything fancy, but there was just something about a man in uniform that did it for her.
No, that wasn’t true. There was just something about Porter in his uniform that did it for her.
“That sounds good. That’ll give the kids about an hour after they get off the bus to have a snack and get started on their homework. The game starts at five, right?” she asked.
“Yeah. I don’t think it’s going to be a full nine innings since it’s a scrimmage. It’s just a chance for the team to play in front of an audience and to introduce all the players,” Porter said.
Riley nodded. She knew nothing about baseball, but she had a feeling she’d be getting quite the education on the sport if Logan’s interest in it continued.
“You’re so not excited about this, are you?” Porter asked with a smile.
Riley shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if I am or if I’m not. If Logan wants to watch baseball, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“Fuck, I love you. Bree might get bored, so feel free to take her and wander around if you get bored too,” Porter said.
She would never get tired of hearing him say those three words. “I love you too. And don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.”
“Have a lot of work to get done today?” he asked.
Riley smiled. It seemed as if he was stalling, and she loved that he didn’t want to leave. “Not too much. Enough to keep me busy most of the morning though.”
“I should let you get to it.”
“You’re in meetings today, right? No training?”
“Right. I think we’re scheduled to be out in the field the rest of the week, but today we’ve got briefings all day.”
Riley wrinkled her nose.
Porter chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what I think too. But having intelligence is good. It helps us figure out how to stay safe when we go on missions.”
“I know, but still. I know you like to be active. You can hardly sit still when you’re at home. Having meetings all day isn’t your thing.”
Porter smiled down at her.
“What?” she asked.
“You know me well,” he said simply. “Now I really do need to go. The guys are gonna give me shit if I’m late…again.”
“You’re getting a bad reputation,” she told him.
“Naw, they understand. Lefty, Trigger, and Brain were the same way when they started seriously dating their women.”
Riley knew she was blushing but couldn’t help it.
“And between you and me, Lefty told me he was done fucking around—his words—and he bought tickets for him and Kinley to fly to San Francisco to get married.”
Riley smiled. “That’s awesome!”
“Yeah, I think he was kinda upset that Brain beat him to it.”
“You guys are so competitive,” she mock complained.
“Yup. When we decide to do something, we do it.”
Riley couldn’t decide if she could hear a hidden message in his words, but she smiled at him anyway.
“Have a good day,” Porter said with a small smile of his own. “And if you’re good, maybe we can try out my shower tonight. I know it’ll be a tight fit for us both, but I’ll just need to be creative.”
Riley could only nod enthusiastically. They’d had plans to shower together before now, but life kept getting in the way. It wasn’t as if she thought the sex would be better in the shower, but she’d never done it, and she wanted to experience everything with Porter.
She stood on her tiptoes and he met her halfway. Her intended brief goodbye kiss turned into something much more, and when they finally pulled apart, Porter had quite the tent in his pants and Riley could feel how wet her panties had gotten.
“Fuck, you’re gonna be the death of me,” Porter said with small shake of his head. “Have a good day.”
“You too,” she told him.
She followed him out of the apartment and headed to her own place after he’d locked the door behind him.
She waved one more time as he headed down the hall.
She went inside her apartment, locking the deadbolt, and headed for the kitchen.
She poured herself a large glass of orange juice and noticed that her refrigerator was actually quite empty.
Which wasn’t exactly a surprise, since she spent breakfasts and dinners over at Porter’s apartment.
She had just enough in her pantry and fridge for lunches.
It occurred to Riley that her apartment was essentially an office space now.
She’d moved quite a few of her clothes over to Porter’s place, and slowly but surely, with his encouragement, more of her things were migrating over there as well.
Blankets, pillows…he’d mentioned that he liked one of the pictures on her wall, and she’d brought that over too.
CDs, DVDs that were appropriate for the kids, books…
if she wasn’t careful, she’d be completely moved in before she realized what had happened.
Would that be so bad?
She didn’t think so, and she was pretty sure Porter wouldn’t think so either. He’d been very clear that he wanted children with her…and he wouldn’t say that if he wasn’t thinking long term.
Smiling, Riley picked up her OJ and carried it into the second bedroom in her apartment that she’d set up as an office.
She had no idea how big of a space Porter was thinking about, but they’d need at least four bedrooms, two for the kids, one for them, and one for her office.
Porter had no intentions of asking her to stop working, thankfully.
He understood how important it was for her to contribute to the household and for her own mental well-being.
She sat down in front of her computer and thought about how much space they’d need and recalculated in her head. If Porter wanted kids, they’d need five or six bedrooms. She could probably set up an office in the basement or something.
“You’re getting way ahead of yourself,” she said out loud as she shook her head. “You have no idea if this thing with Porter will work out.”
Of course, she hoped it did. She loved Porter, flaws and all. She could deal with his not being able to just sit and relax, or with his obsessive need to watch or read the news, or what a mess he made in the kitchen whenever he cooked. She wasn’t perfect either, not even close.
Taking a deep breath, Riley did her best to push all thoughts of having babies with Porter to the side and turned on her computer. She checked her emails and saw she’d received three jobs for the day. Two were from repeat customers and one was new.
Thankful for the work to keep her mind occupied, she picked up her noise-canceling headphones and slipped them over her head.
She propped her phone next to the computer screen so she would see the strobe if someone called or sent her a text, she pulled up the first audio file and a blank Word document and got to work.
Miles didn’t have much of a plan. He knew when the children would be getting off the school bus and wanted to time the retrieval of his disk with the bus arriving.
He was well aware of how nosey Riley’s neighbors were.
The last time he’d been there, casing the complex, someone had called the cops on their cell phone, not even bothering to hide the fact they were reporting him.
So he’d have to be extra careful today. He had to get into her apartment without making a lot of noise and alerting the damn neighbors.
He already knew Riley wouldn’t simply let him in if he knocked.
He knew she’d be in the spare bedroom of her apartment with her headphones on. She was a creature of habit, it was one of the things that drove him crazy about her. She wasn’t spontaneous at all. She was content to sit at home all fucking day. She was boring as fuck.
His plan was to get in, get his disk and whatever else he thought he could pawn for cash, then find Riley and fuck her up a little.