“Garrett!” I yelled towards his room. “We’re leaving now, my friend!”
He joined us in jeans and a hoodie, frosting still on his face and in his hair. I was already questioning my choice to wear a sweatshirt in the middle of summer, but my shorts would keep me cool. The kid was gonna burn up.
There was no time to fix it. It was already noon. We were officially late.
Herding the kids out of the house, I loaded them into the car and took off for Jack’s office.
Chapter Ten
Jack
I glanced at my phone for the thousandth time. It was ten minutes past noon, which wasn’t the biggest deal because it was damn near impossible to wrangle my kids into the car. We were never on time for anything.
But I was still anxious.
Are they on their way? Should I text Amelia?
My fingers itched to pull up my messages, but if she was driving, I didn’t want to distract her. Instead, I turned my attention back to work, scheduling appointments and reviewing files. Or at least I tried to. My mind just wouldn’t focus.
A series of hurried footsteps sounded in the hall and I looked up just in time to see Charlie burst into my office, a huge smile on her face. “Daddy!” She climbed into my lap and I squeezed her tight.
The boys filed inside, with Amelia behind them and Tabitha bringing up the rear.
“Looks like there was some baking fun going on today,” she joked, her gaze bouncing between me and Amelia. Something in the set of her jaw told me she’d been reading Greta’s Facebook posts and sided with the town gossip on this one. Amelia Brown and Jack Cooper did not belong together and for some reason, baked goods made it worse.
“Baking, huh?”
Both boys had frosting on their face and crumbs in their hair. And their pants…had they sat on a cake? Charlie, still perched on my lap, had vibrant frosting under her chin and streaked across her forehead. I licked my finger and rubbed it off while my daughter squirmed and scowled.
“I take it baking isn’t one of your strengths,” I said, turning my gaze to Amelia. She wore a navy blue Wildrose High sweatshirt several sizes too big for her. Even she had frosting on her neck.
She grinned sheepishly. “It was definitely a new experience. So was the food fight.”
“Amelia was on my team!” Charlie cried happily. “We beat the boys!”
“Did not!” Garrett and Connor said at the same time.
A food fight. With cake and frosting. And Amelia had encouraged this?
What…?
How…?
I’d come home to many messes over the last couple years, but this one took the cake. I added a mental rimshot at the unintentional pun as I shook my head.
Tabitha’s downturned lips and judgement-filled eyes said she couldn’t wait to fill Greta in on this latest development. Meanwhile, I was so glad to see all three kids smiling and excited, I almost didn’t care that they’d paraded through my place of business looking like contestants on a baking show gone wrong.
As we funneled out of my office, I grabbed Amelia’s arm and pulled her back, leaning close to whisper. “How bad is it? The house?”
Fuck, she smelled good. Sweet like cupcakes and icing, with something spicy hiding underneath.
She met my eyes and grinned. “It’s all good, Jackalicious. We already cleaned it up, which is why we’re late.”
Jackalicious? The only thing I could do with that nickname was laugh.
I did a doubletake as I realized Amelia hadn’t been in Wildrose Landing long enough to earn a sweatshirt with the high school logo. “Is this mine?”
A blush flared across her cheeks. “Yeah. About that. I was rushing to get us out the door and my shirt is a disaster. I tried to wash it off, which made it a see-through disaster. It was either invade your privacy or scandalize the office with my choice of bra.” She held out her hands, as if weighing the choices. “I figured the last thing Greta needed was ammo like that. This just in,” she said in an impersonation of a newscaster’s voice, “Amelia Brown flashes an entire office to catch Jack Cooper’s attention.”
“It’s all good.” I laughed even as I half-wished she’d kept on the wet t-shirt. “Invasion of privacy forgiven.”
It helped that I liked the way she looked in my clothes.
The giant sweatshirt enveloped most of her shorts, leaving her shapely legs exposed, and she’d pushed up the sleeves because of the warm day. Add the icing-streaked ponytail and she was absolutely adorable. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I held open the office door for her to exit first and took an extra second to appreciate the view as she walked ahead.
And what a fine view it was.
The five of us crossed the street to RedBrick Pizza and picked a booth by the window. The kids slid into one side, leaving Amelia and me the other. These booths had always been small, but today they felt extra tiny. Our legs and shoulders grazed each other every time we moved and I didn’t hate the contact. In fact, I sought out ways to ‘accidentally’ create more.
The pizza came and the kids quickly devoured their slices as they filled me in on the details of the food fight, even acting out some of the highlights. Thankfully, no food was flung inside the restaurant. They knew better when I was around.
Amelia laughed and interjected here and there to correct or add to their stories. “Connor gutted me. Look, here’s proof.” She lifted my sweatshirt, her t-shirt sliding up with it to reveal a strip of bare skin just above her waistline, and proudly displayed her stained shirt. It was streaked with a mixture of dried up white, yellow, and blue frosting.
My hands burned with the desire to touch the exposed skin, to just brush my fingertips over it and watch her shiver. Or better yet, to slide both hands under her shirt, traveling upwards until I cupped those perky tits…
She pulled the sweatshirt back down, and the strip of skin disappeared, wrenching my train of thought off the rails—and right onto Greta Macmillan’s shocked face. She harrumphed as she took in first my expression, then the cake covered kids, then Amelia’s smile. Her phone came out and her thumbs hammered across the screen, no doubt calling my parenting into question for the rest of Wildrose to comment on.
“Don’t look now,” I whispered to Amelia, “but Greta is not pleased with us being out together.”
“It’s funny that she just happens to show up while we’re here. She doesn’t strike me as a pizza for lunch kind a gal.”
I snorted a laugh. “You got that right. You think she’s following us?”
A secret smile lifted Amelia’s lips. “I wonder what she’d think if I giggled like you’d just said something naughty?” Before I could respond, she did just that, putting a hand on my arm. “Oh, Jack…” she purred.
The kids gave us the strangest looks and Greta stormed off, leaving me to deal with the rush of lust that settled in my crotch as Amelia’s hand lingered on my arm. She caught her lip between her teeth and if ever there was a sexier look, I didn’t know what it was. Clearing my throat, I shifted, creating some space between us and adjusting my suddenly less-than-roomy pants.
“What did Dad say that was so funny?” asked Charlie.
Amelia glanced my way. “Oh nothing, really. We were messing with a friend.”