Chapter 37 Daisy #2
“Uh, do you have something you need to tell us?” Otto demanded with a cock of his head.
“Nothin’ specific yet.” River turned the weight of his attention to Charleigh, his words dropping into seduction as he whispered toward her. “But I’m working on it.”
“Work harder,” Theo razzed from off to the side.
“Don’t mind if I do.” He buried his face in Charleigh’s neck.
“All right, there are children present,” Kane said with a laugh. “Think we’d better divert course and do this thing!” He swung his arms out wide and smacked his hands together.
“We’re gonna do it, Daddy!” Maci hopped toward him.
“All right then. This round’s rules.” Kane cracked his knuckles and gave a grin that promised he was up to no good. “Girls hide first. Their men find them and tag them before they make it back to base on those stairs…” He pointed to the back porch steps. “Then we get one favor.”
It smacked of innuendo.
Emery knocked his hip with hers. “You’re bound to get one of those anyway. What’s in it for me?”
“That favor.” He wagged his brows.
Playfully, she shoved him in the shoulder. “You think that’s what I’m living for, huh?”
He hooked an arm around her waist. “All I know, Little Warrior, is that what I’m livin’ for is you.”
How were these men so sweet? I should be terrified. Packing my things and weighing different options. Not peeking over at Cash and watching his reaction to them.
“What do I get if I win, Daddy?” Maci asked, tugging at Kane’s hand.
“Hmm…” Kane drew it out. “I’m thinking an ice cream party. But only if you run really fast.”
“Ice cream party?” Colin looked like he might pass out from joy. “That sounds like the best thing I ever heard.”
Maci swept the sole of one shoe on the ground and then the other, like she was a bull getting ready to charge. “You better have bought my favorite strawberry ice cream, Daddy, because I’m really fast. I’ve been taking my ballet and tumbling classes with my Nolan, and I’ve got really good moves.”
Chuckling, he ran his hand down the back of her head. “Can’t wait to see those moves.”
“In my recital?” Excitement widened her eyes.
Another chuckle. “Oh yeah, can’t wait to see that, too, but I’m counting on some extra fancy ones right now.”
“Then you better start counting ’cause I’m gonna win!”
“All right, all the men cover your eyes for the first round. Remember, kids, you have to stay with your assigned teammate. No running off alone.”
Kane gave a quick glance around to make sure every child was with a parent.
Taking Emery’s hand, Maci swayed at her side. “Don’t worry, Daddy, we already know the rules and we always gotta follow ’em because they’re for our safety.”
“I am really safe with our Big Grumpy Giant.” Colin gripped onto Cash’s hand.
Those hazel eyes found mine.
A tumultuous storm, though with it, that promise blustered out.
A promise that it was true.
Colin was safe with him.
We all were.
And I was having a hard time imagining not being surrounded by that hedge of protection forever. Wishing it wasn’t just his loyalty involved, but that it was his heart, too.
The sun had begun to set, and a silvery sheen glittered in the air. That grayed pink that kissed every surface as twilight took hold. Giggles rolled from all over the yard as everyone ran to search for a hiding spot.
Exhilaration thudded my heart as I held tight to Addy and Eva’s hands as we sneaked along the forest line.
I shouldn’t feel so much joy. So much peace in the game as we rushed and ran through the meadow. But I couldn’t remember the last time I had so much fun.
The last time I felt so surrounded by comfort and wasn’t constantly looking over my shoulder, worrying that someone was going to come for us.
Running and running.
But this running was entirely different.
It was elation and glee and a thousand smiles from my children.
“Right here, Mom,” Addy urged under her breath.
The three of us ducked down behind a large bush that grew beneath an ancient tree. Its trunk cloaked us from behind and the lush leaves of the bush kept us completely concealed.
A giggle rolled from about fifty feet away, one that was unquestionably coming from Maci.
Eva let go of a tiny giggle too as we sat huddled in our secret place.
“Shh. You gotta be really quiet or Cash and Colin are gonna find us, and we have to make sure we get an ice cream party,” Addy scolded under her breath.
I was pretty sure that ice cream party was happening one way or the other, but I didn’t correct her.
A countdown rode on the swooping breeze, Kane and Otto’s voices booming across the lawn. “Ten, nine, eight, seven…”
Addy shook where she knelt beside me, biting her lip to subdue her laughter.
I curled my arms around my daughters’ backs as the countdown continued. “Six, five, four, three, two, one! Ready or not, here we come.”
“Day comin’.” Eva tipped her precious face up at me, her blue eyes wide.
I pressed my finger to my lips and gave a hushed, “Shh.”
She mimicked me.
Footsteps pounded across the meadow, and I peeked out to watch as the guys dispersed across the rambling lawn.
Kane, Otto, Theo, and River headed in different directions in search of their kids.
On the far side, I spied Cash and Colin. The man towered over my son, who trotted along at his side. Colin skipping and chattering nonstop. Pointing at all the different places where he thought we could be hiding.
Cupping his mouth with both hands, Kane hollered, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
A wild giggle lifted from Maci’s hiding spot.
He acted like he hadn’t heard and went the opposite direction, grumbling under his breath but just loud enough that she could hear, “Where in the world did that Maci and her mommy hide? I can’t find them anywhere.”
Another giggle.
River was hunting along the big trees that grew along the stream. Nolan and Charleigh suddenly popped out of their hiding spot.
They went sprinting across the field, peals of laughter erupting from Nolan as he and Charleigh rushed for base.
River whirled at the sound. “Oh, no, you’re not getting away from me.”
A smirk took to his face as he bolted after them, the man flying across the field faster than I could even imagine. With each pounding step, he enclosed on them.
Charleigh and Nolan had just made it to the stairs when he caught up.
Nolan jumped on them as if he were the king of the castle. “We beat you, Daddy-O. You are fast, but not fast enough. My mommy and I are like jets.” He zoomed his hand through the air.
River scooped him up and wrapped an arm around Charleigh’s waist from behind. “Looks like you two are the stealthy ones.”
“Well, I had to learn it from you.” Nolan grinned.
“Found you!” Otto suddenly shouted from the farthest side of the field, acting like it’d taken him a whole lot of effort since Raven casually swayed on a swing that hung from a big tree. Using her feet to softly propel her with Baby Luna tucked safely to her chest.
“Oh, dang,” Raven drew out.
I could only imagine she was batting her eyes and imagining all the ways Otto was going to make good on his favor.
Piper and Finn suddenly burst out from the brush. They were only a few feet away from us. I hadn’t even known they were there.
She laughed as she ran with Finn in her arms. Theo jumped into action, running behind them.
Maci and Emery followed suit, the two of them racing for the stairs as Kane slowly turned around and started to lumber toward them, his arms swooping out and just missing them as he let Maci scamper onto the steps.
“I did it! I did it! I get an ice cream party! Woohoo, Daddy, you are too slow.”
We were the last left, and Cash and Colin were looping around, following the stream and getting close to coming up this side.
My pulse increased, a fluttering anticipation as I gulped at the sight of him talking quietly with Colin. That brash, hard body so gentle as he played along.
I glanced at the girls and whispered, “Are you ready?”
They both gave me big nods, and I quietly rushed, “One, two, three, go!”
We jumped out of our hiding spot and beelined across the field. Their little feet went at full blast beside me, though Eva was about half the speed of Addy, who pulled out ahead.
“There they are!” Colin shouted. “We gotta get ’em.”
Blood sloshed through my veins as they started behind us.
This quick elation that I shouldn’t feel. But it was there, rushing and ripping.
“Hurry! We have to go faster!” Addy shouted, tugging and pulling at my hand.
“Go, go, go!” I shouted, releasing her so she could go flying across the lawn. I swooped Eva into my arms.
Eva squealed and hung onto my neck. “Run fast!”
With each pound of my feet, I could feel heavier ones advancing from behind.
A thunder that rolled.
“Get ’em, Mr. Cash! Get ’em!” Colin urged.
“Hurry, Daisy, hurry!” Emery and Piper were shouting from the stairs, the whole babble of kids jumping up and down. “Hurry it up, Ms. Daisy!”
That energy grew denser. So fierce and unrelenting and perfectly unbearable that I couldn’t breathe. I was five steps away when I set Eva onto her feet so she could make it the rest of the way by herself.
My tiny girl scuttling along with wild laughter rolling out of her as she hurried to the base.
Colin suddenly flew around me, hightailing it toward Eva who dove into Charleigh’s outstretched arms.
“You did it!” Charleigh praised and twirled with my little girl in her arms.
I was one step away from making it when a giant arm looped around my waist from behind. Tugging me back against the hard, rigid planes of his big, big body.
A gasp left me at the crash of severity that ripped through me.
His aura surrounding.
His heart thundering as deliriously as mine.
He pressed his mouth to my ear. “Not quite, fiancée. Looks like you owe me one favor.”
A shiver raced down my spine, my belly flipping and flopping while he held me there for a long moment.
I could barely stand when he released me, my breaths shallow and my chest heaving as he strode around me like nothing had happened, going for the kids who were chanting, “Ice cream party! Ice cream party!”
The man only glanced back at me once.
Wearing that old smirk that I’d loved so much.