Chapter 23
Pancakes
Family Time
Arcade Games
Sleeping in Liam’s Room with Liam
Learning *new* things with Liam
Being in Love
“Remember if you slide your spatula under the batter just like this and flip…” I watched as Maddy did exactly as I said and smiled. We were standing next to the stove, our heads hovering over the flat pan, while the smell of butter and doughy goodness filled the air.
“Exactly like that!” I hugged her to my side and then told Seraphina to come up next. She moved her hair out of her face and pressed her knees into the chair, sitting tall so she could see the pan.
I poured a small circle of batter, and we watched together as it began bubbling. I waited to see if she’d remember when to flip it.
She was watching the bubbles form, and not moving. I waited.
I couldn’t take it any longer.
“See, once they pop like that?” I pointed, watching as her blue eyes narrowed on the circle, “That’s how you know the bottom is ready.”
“Can I try and flip it?” She held her hand out for the spatula, and I guided her to show her how to turn it over.
We both smiled when the golden brown surface showed.
Seraph hugged me at the waist and then ran to the table to take a seat. Liam had Mila in his lap as they worked on sounding out certain words that popped up on his phone. She had a Micky Mouse pancake in front of her, as did Liam.
“What are you guys doing?”
Liam’s eyes bounced up Mila’s remained on the screen.
“It’s this learning app… it’s supposed to make education fun. I let her practice whenever we have free time like this.”
Mila’s little fingers kept poking at his cell phone screen.
“Wouldn’t that be easier on the tablet?”
Liam’s gaze went back to his phone, where he gently corrected Mila on something.
“We had one, but it broke. It’s fine, this works.”
Uh-oh. Did he not realize I had bought each of the girls one?
Maddy looked up at me, and I read her expression. She was about to grab Mila’s tablet for them, but I shook my head. Liam was being sweet, and I didn’t want to ruin that.
We relaxed a little longer, while Mila showed us the new words.
Then I excused myself to shower and get ready for the day.
It felt weird, almost like I was living with Liam and the girls.
He’d told me to just use his bathroom, but I felt like that would be a strange thing to do now that Liam was back.
The other two might dismiss it, but Maddy was old enough to understand that using her dad’s shower would be weird unless he and I were involved.
So, I used the kids’ bathroom, and then quickly dressed and got ready.
I had looked up a few places to go on Google and had an idea of what to do with the kids today, but I wasn’t sure I could convince Liam.
This was so different, having to worry about his permission since they were his kids and not mine.
He was working in his office while the girls were upstairs, so I sauntered in and perched on his lap.
“Hi.” His hands came around me, securing me in place.
My arm went up around his neck, my fingers digging into his hair.
“Could I convince you to let me take the kids to that big pizza place that’s outside of Portland?”
I read up on it. The whole place was massive, including a kids play area that went up five stories, with multicolored tunnels and slides. There was laser tag, bumper cars, bowling…it looked so fun.
“Pizza Palace?” Liam tipped his head back, which made the office chair lean.
I listened to ensure no one was coming down the stairs as I traced the space near his eyebrow with my finger.
“Yeah, that’s the one. I want to go.”
Liam’s grip tightened around me, and beneath me I could feel him growing harder.
He stared thoughtfully as I continued to trace his face. His lips, his nose, his forehead.
“I suppose this is like the snow boots and everything else you’ve paid for on your own?” The brow my finger was on raised.
I nodded and I appreciated him not making me say the words, knowing he certainly didn’t want to give voice to that scenario either.
He was a prideful man, and it wasn’t like I hadn’t noticed his overdue notices for the gym or the bills coming in from his lawyers.
Liam was struggling financially, and while I assumed his earnings from the overseas fighting would help some, I had no idea how much debt he was in to begin with.
“If you don’t want me to then I understand and I won’t push it, but I was never invited to any parties held at places like that, so I’ve never been before. I think it would be fun.”
My face suddenly flushed, realizing how young that sentence just made me sound.
Liam pulled my chin down and pressed a kiss to my lips.
“Fine, but if we go, I get to hold your hand in front of the girls, and if one of them asks then I’m telling them.”
“Liam.” I pressed my forehead to his. “We just agreed last night that we would make sure we did it at the right time.”
His hand came up, gripping my neck.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know what it would be like to have you in my kitchen and my bed, and then not getting to touch you.”
He’d pulled my chin up again and stared into my eyes when he delivered that last part, and a piece of my tattered heart seemed to knit together. Old wounds of being discarded, healing over, leaving a feeling of hope hanging there in my chest instead of an ache.
Releasing a shuddery breath, I whispered, “Deal.”
The girls were beyond thrilled when they realized where we were headed.
We took my car because I didn’t want to argue with Liam over gas, but I let him drive.
I also cut a path to the food line before Liam could say anything, and I ordered two massive pizzas, something called potato skins—which ended up being the best thing I ever tasted—and soda.
Stuff the kids never had. They loved it.
After being the one alone with the girls everywhere I went, it was a world of difference having him with us.
I felt less worried all the time, and less stressed out.
First, they played in the massive play place, then did two rounds on the bumper cars, and finally were playing arcade games while Liam and I walked behind them.
His hand was laced with mine, our fingers hanging together, and every time I thought Maddy or Seraph would notice, my heart squeezed tight, but somehow, they never seemed to look down where we were joined.
I felt like we owed the girl’s a conversation, but what did I know?
I wasn’t a mom, nor had I had any kind of decent parenting to use as an example.
I had no idea what the proper way was to do this, I just knew it felt good to be touched by Liam.
It felt good to have him and to have him hold me in a possessive way.
He would stand between me and the crowd if there was a guy dominating the space.
Or he’d move me behind him if he caught someone staring at me too long.
I’d never been super confident in my looks.
As I got older, it became easier, but seeing the way Liam acted when another man looked at me was doing something to me…
undoing all my broken pieces I’d been trying to hold together all these years.
His large hands had come over, taken them, and showed me I didn’t have to carry them anymore.
His feelings for me shone through every place on my body that he touched, and every single hidden kiss he snuck.
During laser tag, he’d managed to steal several.
“Daddy, I won!” Seraph yelled excitedly, looking over at us.
She didn’t act like she’d noticed our hand holding, and we didn’t think on it too long as Liam knelt down to help her with all the tickets shooting out from the machine. I held on to Mila and Maddy so the crowds moving around didn’t take them away.
“We’re the biggest winners in the whole universe,” Mila squealed excitedly, tugging on my hand. I dipped to pick her up, and while my hand was free, Maddy took it.
Liam’s gaze swung over, noticing us then his eyes homed in on Maddy’s hand in mine.
He had missed the first time Maddy reached for me on her own, and how that made me feel like my heart had flipped off the edge of a tall canyon.
He had missed when I read the girls bedtime stories and held them during storms.
This new dynamic was going to be so different when he really registered how implanted in their lives I was.
By the time Liam walked over with a massive bear that Seraphina had used her tickets on, we were ready to leave.
It was an all-day event, and since it took over an hour to get there, the girls were all fast asleep in the car when we pulled into the garage.
He leaned over and kissed me, chaste and quick, but it was like he wasn’t really paying attention and it was just something he did automatically.
My heart burst in my chest with so much love and affection that I nearly cried. I was in love with him, desperately so, and I had no idea what to do with that.
I swallowed the thick lump in my throat and exited the car, pushing all my love down.
Liam carried Seraph in his arms, I carried Mila, and then he went back for Maddy last. Once the girls were tucked into their beds, Liam pulled me into ours.
“On my face. Now,” he ordered roughly.
I stripped, as desperate for him as he seemed to be for me.
Crawling naked on the bed, I hesitated at his chest, realizing I maybe hadn’t heard him correctly due to the butterflies that had shot off in my chest like they’d been locked inside bottle rockets.
“What do you mean on your face?”
Liam lifted up on his elbow, stroking his erect cock, while staring at me.
In the low cadence of light, he looked like an exhausted god, all lazy and perfect.
“You see the headboard?” He gestured to the blue fabric behind him.
I nodded.
“Grip the top, straddle my face.”
Oh.
“So like…” My face flushed, inexperience clearly showing.
His lips twisted into a smirk. “You’ve never sat on anyone’s face before?”
No.
I faltered, my face getting redder by the second. “Not exactly.”