Chapter 19
Nineteen
DEAN
Three days later
Mardi Gras
Bella, in her pineapple Mardi Gras costume, has been on my shoulders since Jefferson Avenue.
Judging by the happy smacking sounds overhead, she consumed about seventy percent of her slice of king cake before declaring she needed a break.
Which leaves thirty percent unaccounted for.
If the nerve endings in my scalp are to be believed, however, most of that is currently being kneaded into the back of my head…
“Bell, please,” I say, wincing as another glob of sugar oozes over my ear. I reach up, flicking it to the ground as I add, “Cake in the hand, not on the dad. Remember?”
“It is in my hand, Daddy. I’m holding it real soft and saving it for later. Don’t be worried, it’s okay.” She kisses the top of my head with a sweetness that leaves me no choice but to sigh, smile, and submit to my fate.
A giggle pulls my gaze to my right, where Clover and Ava are whispering in a way that isn’t reassuring.
At all.
“What?” I demand. “Is she wrong? Should I be worried?”
“Very worried!” Ava, the cutest dragon wearing a taco T-shirt at the parade, bursts into a giggle fit. “Your hair looks crazy. It’s all smooshed and full of cake!”
“It is not!” Bella insists indignantly.
“Don’t worry,” Clover says, laughing as she squeezes my arm. “I’ll help you get it out once we find our parade-watching spot. I have a brush and wet wipes in my purse. I’m prepared for anything.” She clucks her tongue. “I’ve got you, friend.”
“I’m a lucky man,” I say, meaning it. I really like being her friend. And I really, really like being more than her friend. I’m about to tell her so when she pulls out her cell, grinning as she aims it at my head. “What are you doing?”
“Documenting the precious memories,” she says, snorting as Bella drops another glob of purple icing so close to my nose that I flinch as it falls.
“Bella!” I huff.
“Sorry! It slipped-ed,” she says.
“This is not a precious memory,” I grumble, cringing as what feels like Bella’s tongue drags across the top of my head. “Bella! Are you licking me? Stop licking me!”
“I’m not!” Bella shouts.
“You are, too,” Ava shouts back.
“Okay!” Bella admits, still at top volume. “But just a little bit, and a little bit is okay.”
Ava giggles so hard she nearly stumbles off the curb. “It’s not a little bit. It’s a lot. It’s so much, and it’s so gross! It’s so gross, and I can’t… Stop… Laughing.”
“I’m glad my suffering is amusing to you, Miss Dragon,” I say, unable to help laughing with her. Her happiness is infectious. “I think you should carry the pineapple costume next time.”
“I’m too little,” Ava says, clutching at the neck of her costume as she continues to giggle so hard she can barely breathe. “Because the costume has… It has Bella inside it.”
And for some reason, that makes us all lose it.
We have to shift to the side of the sidewalk, out of the stream of people surging toward the parade route, to pull our ever-loving shit together.
We laugh and laugh, then try to stop laughing, only to start up again the second Bella says, “You people are too silly right now. You need to learn to be serious, or you’re going to hurt yourselfs!”
Clover braces an arm on the brick wall beside us, gasping and giggling as she agrees, “You’re so right, Bella. You are so, so right.” She presses a hand to her stomach, exhaling in a rush. “Stop! We have to stop, or I’m definitely going to get the hiccups. And I hate the hiccups.”
I suck in a longer inhale. “You’re right. The hiccups are the worst. And if we don’t get moving, we won’t get a good spot.”
“Oh no!” Bella cries.
Clover waves a breezy hand. “Don’t worry, baby, we’re going to be fine. We’ll just walk fast. We’re all in good shape, we can walk fast.”
“You sure?” I ask, as we set off, Clover setting a brisk pace with her cane. “How’s your leg feeling today?”
“Good,” she says, glancing up at me, a wicked glint in her eye. “Great, considering how…athletic I was being last night.”
Damn, last night…
She was so ridiculously athletic last night. Reverse cowgirl may be my new favorite position of all time…
Nope, must not think about reverse cowgirl, I remind myself. Must not think about Clover naked in any position, or you’re going to grab that ass. And then the girls will wonder why the hell you’re grabbing their nanny’s ass, and you’ll have a lot of complicated explaining to do.
As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Clover shoots me a wink and reaches for the fleur-de-lis charm on the zipper of her jumpsuit, tugging it up an inch.
Holy shit, that jumpsuit…
She made it herself, it fits like a glove, and I am…undone by the way it hugs her curves. By how much I want to take care of the zipper that runs from her neck to her belly with my teeth.
“Should I zip up more?” she murmurs for my ears only.
I shake my head. “Never.”
“Unzip it a bit, then?” she asks, arching a brow. “I am a little warm from all this fast walking.”
I choke out a laugh and mutter, “Are you trying to kill me?”
She grins. “No, just torture you a bit. A teensy, tiny little bit.”
“Between you torturing me and Ava laughing at me and Bella licking me, I’m not sure I’ll make it through the day,” I tease as we near the parade route, spotting some of the girls’ friends from school.
“Oh, yes, you will,” Clover says as the girls run to greet two princesses and a baby brother dressed as a pea. Once they’re out of earshot, she adds with a wink, “And don’t worry, I’ll lick you later and make it all better.”
I slow my steps, letting her lead the way.
Partly because I’m overcome by that promise.
Partly because I want to appreciate her ass in her jumpsuit as she goes.
Partly because I’m so happy, I want to treasure it. Appreciate it. Bottle it up in my mind to save for later. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was this happy.
So happy not even the messy job of tugging icing globs from my hair with Clover’s wet wipes while we wait for the parade to start can dull the glow.
But then, that’s what happens when a man’s spent a good chunk of the past three days naked with the most beautiful woman in the world…
We’ve done an incredible job of fitting fucking in among all the childcare and parade costume prep. We really have.
“I’m proud of us,” I murmur as we wait for the first floats to reach our spot on the route.
She glances over her shoulder with a smile. “Me, too. We got here right on time, and no one would guess you had half a king cake on your head a few minutes ago.”
I laugh. “No, I meant, I’m proud of us for finding such good…work-life balance the past few days.”
Heat flashes in her eyes as she catches my drift.
“Well, it helps that you’re off work and the girls were at school half the day yesterday.
” She bites her bottom lip before adding, “But you really need to find those old baby monitors. Then you can come over to my place after the girls are in bed, and we’ll still be able to hear if they wake up, but they won’t be able to hear us, so we won’t have to be quiet. ”
“What do you take me for, woman?” I scoff. “Ordered new monitors yesterday. Rush delivery. They’ll be here tomorrow.”
She hums low in her throat. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any sexier.” She tips her lips closer to mine before apparently remembering that we’re keeping the romance on the down-low and glancing back toward the street.
But damn, I really wish she hadn’t.
I want to kiss her so badly, it’s probably ridiculous. At this rate, I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be able to hide how hot we are for each other. How happy we are together. How we both light up the second our endless “sleep time” separation is over, and we get to be together again.
Ava already asked if we were “best friends” this morning after she caught us hugging by the coffee maker.
She’s going to figure out it’s something more than “best friends” sooner or later.
My four-year-old is one of the smartest people I know, a fact she proves when she turns to shout, “Daddy, we’re not going to get candy and beads here! I can see them throwing down the street. They’re throwing too hard! It’s going to go over our heads.”
Realizing she’s accurately nailed the trajectory, I wave her closer. “Then get over here, girl. I’ll lift you up.”
“Me, too, Daddy!” my messy little pineapple shouts, tailing her sister through the press of grown-ups behind the kids’ section.
I lift them up, one in each arm, getting them into place just as the treats begin to fly. Clover is right there beside us, helping snatch beads and candy out of the air and shove them into the “taco pocket” she sewed into the front of Ava’s shirt specifically to store the Mardi Gras booty.
Soon, the girls’ arms are full of treasure, and so are mine.
With the sun in their hair and giant smiles on their faces as they cheer for the dancers wiggling down the street between the floats, my daughters are so beautiful.
So precious, so sweet, and so…everything to me.
They are the best part of my life. I can feel that so clearly again now. I feel it all the way down to the core of my being, and it’s all thanks to Clover. She brought the ease back. Then the joy. And now…the love.
I’m in love with her. There’s no doubt in my mind, in my heart. There hasn’t been since Saturday night. I’ve fallen hard and fast, but I can’t bring myself to regret it. Not when everything is so golden.
More beads come. More candy. More laughter, and it’s so perfect it hurts a little. Just like being naked with the woman currently helping my baby unwrap a cherry candy as the parade moves on.
“I loved that so much! I love Mardi Gras!” Bella announces, diving into Clover’s arms, making her laugh as she scrambles to catch her.
“Easy there, pineapple, give me some warning next time,” Clover says, laughing as Bella kisses her cheek. Her expression softens as she returns the kiss, saying, “I love Mardi Gras, too.” She sighs, her love for my baby clear on her face as she adds, “This might just be one of the best days ever.”