But before his daughter could answer—or from the look on her face lose it—Josie moved, stating, “I’ll help you look, Amber.”

She disappeared on the heels of his daughter.

Ethan jumped off his chair to take his empty plate to the sink, declaring, “Josie’s eggs are the freakin’ bomb.”

Jake took a sip of coffee and didn’t reply because he didn’t need to. His son spoke truth.

Ethan put his plate in the sink and turned to his old man. “So, instead of Josie bein’ around our place more, we should come here more. She doesn’t have as big a TV but her couch is all squishy.”

“You’d give up our TV for a squishy couch?” Jake asked.

“It’s like it hugs you,” Ethan answered and Jake grinned at his son.

“Got it!” Amber cried, waving around her geometry book as she ran back into the kitchen, Josie following her when she did.

Amber shoved it into her bag, dashed to her dad and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She then dashed to Josie and did the same.

As she did this, Jake again gave Josie credit for his daughter’s return to sweet.

But it was all Amber when she said to Ethan, “Later, runt.’

“Ugh!” Ethan grunted. “You suck!”

Amber halted in her dash out the door, gave her little brother a cute smile and teased, “But you still love me.”

“Hardly,” Ethan shot back.

“You totally do,” she returned.

“I can’t love someone who sucks,” he told her.

She grinned at him, unperturbed by this, and took off.

“Eath,” Jake called and his son turned annoyed eyes to his dad. “Teeth brushed. Get your shit together, bag by the door. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he grunted and stalked out.

“Babe?” he called to Josie who was wetting a cloth at the sink.

She turned eyes to him, looked to the door Ethan just used, looked back to Jake and said one word.

“Ellie?”

He grinned and replied, “Babe.”

She tossed the cloth into the sink and put her hands to her hips. Hips she’d put jeans on that morning and it sucked he didn’t have her in a nightie but it was the right way for her to walk downstairs to his kids.

“Is Con all right?” she asked.

“He said he was,” he answered.

“Is Con all right?” she repeated.

He lowered his voice and replied, “Babe, if he says he’s fine, he’s fine.”

This was clearly not enough for her and he knew it when she asked, “What did Ellie say?”

“She wants him back.”

“And he said no and that’s it?”

“Pretty much.”

“He was gutted two weeks ago,” she reminded him.

“Two weeks in high school is two years in real life,” he returned and watched his woman snap her mouth shut because it had been a long time for both of them but they both knew that to be true.

“Gettin’ it all out there, more happened last night while your shit started to go down here,” he shared even though he didn’t want to.

But he had to.

Donna lived in that town and Donna had a mouth. Josie could see her or it could get to her.

So his woman had to know.

“What?” she asked

“Donna came around.”

Her eyes got wide.

Quick, before Ethan got back, he gave it to her, ending with, “She’s whacked but I’m pretty sure this time she got my point.”

“She isn’t whacked, Jake,” she replied. “When you’re young you can have everything you want and not realize you have it.”

He shook his head. “I was thirty when Con was born, Donna twenty-nine. She wasn’t young. She’s just whacked.”

She also shook her head. “At any age, you can still not realize you have your heart’s desire, lose it, and spend years in denial, searching for its replacement at the same time hoping it comes back.”

Jake froze.

Your heart’s desire.

Those words pounded in his brain so hard he didn’t have it in him to reply, to move, to do dick. All he could do was stare at his woman.

Your heart’s desire, she’d said and she was fucking talking about him.

Fuck, she was gone for him too.

Deep.

He had her heart, he knew it in that instant and he also knew one other thing.

He sure as fuck was never giving it back.

“Jake?” she called when he said nothing.

“Right here,” he pushed out.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Fuck yeah, he was.

“Yep,” he answered.

Her head tipped to the side and she opened her mouth but Ethan took that moment to walk in.

“So, who’s takin’ me to school?” he asked but didn’t wait for an answer, he kept jabbering. “I cannot freakin’ wait to tell everyone I met Lavon freaking Burkett! They’re gonna spaz!”

Jake pushed away from his spot at the counter, putting down his mug, saying, “I’m takin’ you, bud. You’re ready, grab your bag and out to the truck.”

“Right,” Ethan muttered and looked to Josie. “Later, Josie.”

“Have a good day at school, honey,” she replied.

He took off.

Jake went to her, got close and put both hands to either side of her neck.

“Come nine o’clock, babe, you call the firm and find out what gives with Terry and who they got to represent you.”

She put her hands to his waist and nodded.

He kept at her.

“You get a call to arrange a meeting, don’t agree to anything until you ask me. I’m coming with.”

She nodded again.

“Now, kiss me,” he ordered.

Without delay, she rolled up on her toes and gave him her mouth.

He took it and drank deep, but not long before he broke their connection, shifted to give her nose a kiss and he did this giving her neck a squeeze.

When he caught her eyes, he said, “Tonight we’re here again. Until I get a lock on what your uncle is up to, we’re staking claim to Lavender House.”

She pressed closer and said, “Agreed.”

“Kids dealt with last night no problems and we didn’t have a meeting but I got the chance to talk to each of them and they’re good with all of us having more of you.”

At that, she melted into him and whispered, “Good.”

“I get the good parts,” he told her.

And at that, she smiled at him.

Getting that from her, knowing he was leaving her good, Jake bent again and brushed his mouth against hers.

“Later, Slick,” he said when he lifted his head.

“Later, darling,” she replied.

He gave her neck another squeeze, let her go and walked out so he could take his son to school.

* * * * *

Jake was up on a stepladder at the side of the front door to Lavender House that afternoon when Josie drove up in her Cayenne, Ethan in the passenger seat.

Ethan got out, dashed into the house and did this saying, “Yo, Dad!”

He didn’t miss a step or slow. He had a fridge to raid.

Josie got out and walked slowly up to the front door on her high heels, her hips in her jeans swaying in a way he liked a fuckuva lot.

She stopped, looked at the lamp he was installing then down to the boxes of lamps piled on the ground.

“Motion sensors. Every outside light. You got about a million of them,” he explained and regained her eyes.

Soft eyes. Sweet eyes. Eyes that said a fuckuva lot.

Then she smiled a soft smile. A sweet smile. A smile that said a fuckuva lot.

After that, she said quietly, “Be careful, darling,” and walked into the house.

That was when Jake smiled.

* * * * *

Josie slid in bed beside him after going to the bathroom and cleaning up.

When she did, Jake curled an arm around her, rolled to his back taking her with him and stretched out an arm to turn out the light.

When he settled them in, her mostly on him, partly on his side but still pressed deep, their legs tangled, she said into the dark, “I like ungloved.”

He’d had his checkup and the results were in. They were good to give up the condoms, thank Christ.

“I like it too, baby,” he replied, knowing he liked it a whole lot more than she did.

She was silent as she cuddled closer and he thought she was sorting herself to go to sleep when she called hesitantly, “Jake?”

“Right here,” he said on a squeeze of his arm around her.

“I, well…have something to tell you.”

Shit, the way she said that didn’t sound good.

Even so, he encouraged, “Tell me.”

“Um…well, you know, Amond is coming tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

“And you know he’s a friend of mine,” she went on.

“Yeah, Slick.”

She took in a deep breath and gave it to him.

“What you don’t know is that we had a night together some time ago.”

Shit.

Jake said nothing.

She lifted her head and he felt her eyes through the dark.

“You said not to keep anything from you,” she reminded him, her voice soft and cautious.

He did say that, fuck him.

“I said that, Josie,” he confirmed.

She didn’t go on nor did she move and he felt her vibe, her body beginning to get stiff. No longer cautious, she was getting scared. So he lifted his hand and wrapped it around her jaw, using his thumb to stroke her cheek.

“He’s gonna be here with you, I gotta know this. I can tell you know I don’t like having that history but I gotta have it. You gave it to me. I appreciate that. But more, baby, I know you didn’t live in a nunnery the last twenty years and you know I was no monk. It’s gonna come out because it has to, like me havin’ to share about Terry. So don’t be afraid of letting it out. It’s life and we share our lives, yeah?”

“Yes, Jake.”

“Now settle in and sleep.”

“Okay, darling,” she said right before she settled back in.

He gave her another squeeze when she did.

“Thanks for the honesty,” he whispered.

“You’re welcome,” she whispered back and he felt her relax against him.

She fell asleep before him.

But in her bed, in her house with his kids close and Josie tucked tight, he wasn’t far behind.

* * * * *

“Ohmigod, holy crap, ohmigod, this is gonna be epic,” boy Taylor breathed and he did this because Ethan just ran into the room and announced loudly that, “About fifty thousand Escalades are pulling up the drive!”

This meant rap star Dee-Amond had arrived.

It was the next afternoon and not surprisingly, after hearing the news he was coming, Amber showed up after school with both Taylors in tow and Conner had switched his shift with a bud so he could be there.

As for Jake, no way in fuck he wasn’t going to be around when Josie’s friend who also was her ex-lover showed. Mostly because he was male, rich, famous, good-looking and an ex-lover.

Actually, totally because of that.

At Ethan’s shout, Josie shot from her chair at the kitchen table and walked quickly on her heels out of the room.

The kids followed her, Jake coming up the rear.

When he got outside, he saw his son was exaggerating but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a cavalcade of flash Escalades in the drive.

Five of them.

The middle one closest to the house had its back door opening and Josie was rushing to it.

Jake stopped, crossed his arms on his chest and watched as Dee-Amond hefted his bulk out of the SUV, flashed a smile at Jake’s woman and folded her in his arms when she threw hers around him.

Shit.

“So…totally…epic,” boy Taylor declared.

“I can’t believe this,” girl Taylor whispered.

“I thought I was freaking out with Lavon Burkett but now I’m really freaking out,” his daughter announced in a breathy voice. “I mean, he’s right here, in Magdalene at Josie’s house.”

“Come.” Jake heard Josie order and his eyes went from his girl to his woman to see she was thankfully no longer in Amond’s arms but had her hand in his and was guiding him their way.

His eyes were lifted to take in Lavender House and his mouth was moving, “Jesus, beautiful, I’m gettin’ it now why you’d wanna stay. This crib is tight.”

She grinned at him before she stopped him in front of his audience and threw out her hand.

“This is my posse,” she stated, words that, if anything else was happening at that moment, would make Jake smile.

He didn’t smile.

“Conner, Jake’s oldest.” She pointed to him and Conner stuck a hand out that Amond took and shook. “Amber, Jake’s daughter.” She motioned to Amber and his daughter clapped once before she stuck her hand out and Amond grinned at her and took it. “The Taylors, Amber’s personal posse, boy Taylor and girl Taylor,” Josie went on and Amond was obviously holding back laughter as he shook their hands in turn. “Ethan, Jake’s youngest,” she continued.