Single All the Way (Single Dads of Dragonfly Lake #2)

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Emerson

T he only thing more blissful than an unexpected day off from work was a twenty-four-hour break from the kids.

We loved them to pieces. Of course we did.

“But they come with a nonstop, underlying frenetic energy,” Ben had said a few hours ago.

The entire town of Dragonfly Lake had shut down. No school, businesses were closed, nothing was happening until our one city plow could make the rounds. Ben had had Colby reschedule all his patients for the day, and between Edith and me, we’d contacted everyone with a hair appointment to do the same.

After breakfast, Ben had plowed the long driveway and the clinic’s parking lot so it was ready in case of a pet emergency, but so far our day had been uneventful and, frankly, indulgent in a neither-one-of-us-had-had-sex-in-years way.

Point in case, we’d just taken a midafternoon shower together, pleasuring each other until the water ran cold, then moving to Ben’s bed to warm up. It wasn’t just the blankets that had done the warming either.

I’d lost track of how many orgasms this man had given me in the past twenty-four hours. I was sore, my inner thighs tender, yet I was practically humming with an overflowing contentment as we lit a fire and curled up together under a large, super-soft blanket on the sofa. Pixie and Jett were lying under the tree as if it was their God-given right. Sprocket and Milo had settled close to the fire. Nugget was MIA, most likely napping in Skyler’s bed upstairs, still pushed up against Evelyn’s. The girls’ joined beds had become our dog’s favorite sleeping spot in the Holloway house, both during the day and at night.

The Christmas tree was lit, all the other lights off, curtains drawn to shut out the gloomy day as we settled in with a lineup of holiday movies. The Polar Express was first, one of Ben’s favorites.

We were stretched out on the couch, and he was spooning me, warming my back as the fire brought up the temperature of the room. My hair was still wet from the shower, mainly because I’d spent the half hour afterward in Ben’s bed instead of wielding a hair dryer, so the blanket, fire, and warm-blooded male were appreciated.

We were no more than ten minutes into the movie when Ben’s body stiffened behind me, and I don’t mean in the good way. His head went up, and he muted the television.

“What’s wrong?”

Before he could answer, I heard the back door open, a cacophony of kid voices blowing inside with a cold draft.

I jumped off the sofa as if it were a sinking ship, yanking the blanket with me, my heart racing as Ben bolted upright. We shared a panicked look.

He stood. “Curl up with the blanket. I’ll meet them in the kitchen.” Without waiting, he turned the sound back on and headed that way. “Who’s that sneaking in the door?” he called out.

I laughed quietly to myself in a half-hysterical way as I planted my ass in the corner of the sofa and tucked the blanket around me. With my heart still racing, I fought to look nonchalant as it hit me how close that had been. How lucky we were the front door was rarely used and they’d come in the mudroom. For that matter, it was a damn good thing the living room wasn’t visible from the mudroom.

All of that paled in comparison to how fortunate it was we’d pulled clothes on after our latest round. If I hadn’t been so cold…

“Mommy!” Skyler ran into the living room, so overjoyed to see me that I felt momentarily guilty for celebrating our day-long break.

“Hey, sweetie,” I said, shoving the blanket aside and leaning forward to catch her in a hug. “What are you doing home already? How did you get here?”

“Gramma Berty drived us,” she said, holding on to me a few extra seconds. I breathed in her little-girl smell, noting Berty had managed to clean the kids in addition to everything else.

I hoisted my daughter into my arms as I stood, then walked through the dining room toward the others in the kitchen.

“Did you hire a sleigh to get you here?” I asked Berty.

“The plow’s been through most places,” she said with a wave of her hand.

I suspected the drive wasn’t quite as easy as she made it seem. I also couldn’t help but wonder if she’d reached her admittedly generous limit with four children under ten. “Did they do okay?” I asked.

“They did real good. Little troopers.”

Ruby had discovered the movie still playing in the living room and called out, “ The Polar Express is on!” The other three kids rushed in to join her.

“Sky was starting to get a little antsy without her mama,” Berty said quietly. “I didn’t want to push her too long. She did so well last night.”

“I’m relieved to hear that,” I said.

At the mention of last night, I met Ben’s gaze for the quickest instant before I glanced back at his grandmother.

“What did you bring there?” Ben asked, pointing at the grocery bags in her hands.

“The perfect activity for a snow day,” she said. “Gingerbread houses.”

He took the bags from her.

“You baked with the kids?” I asked.

Berty squawked a laugh. “Not gingerbread. I know my limits. That stuff never works out right, but the Country Market sells kits. I stocked up a few days ago.”

“You’re too good to us,” Ben said, setting the bags on the counter and unpacking them.

“Benny, you know gingerbread decorating’s my favorite,” Berty said. “I got a house for each of us and enough candy that we can rot our teeth and still have plenty to deck our halls.”

A few minutes later, all seven of us sat around the dining table with frosting tubes, bowls of every type of colorful candy ever invented, and prebaked, precut gingerbread walls.

I’d helped Skyler construct her house with the frosting along the seams, then gathered the M&M’s and kisses as she requested, knowing full well she’d eat at least as many as she used for the house. I couldn’t fault her for that.

Xavier chose red and green gumdrops to start and was building a fence around a white-frosting snow-covered yard. One of Ruby’s walls collapsed, so Ben was rescuing it, while Evelyn used a squeeze tube of blue icing on her roof. All three dogs were at our feet, keeping a vigil for any bits that hit the floor.

“Shoo, you guys,” I said to the canines, snapping my fingers, urging them out of the room. I didn’t want any of them to get chocolate.

“Bed,” Ben said in his stern, dog-master voice. Sprocket and Milo headed to the living room. Nugget circled my chair, then headed into Ben’s room behind me. It wasn’t quite what she was supposed to do, but as long as Ben didn’t mind, I was just glad she’d left the room.

I sat down to start my own construction, eyeing the candy canes and peppermint hard candies for my design. There was no sense in wasting good chocolate on a house.

“Oh, Nugget,” Ruby said, laughing. “What did you find, silly dog?”

I was so focused on getting my walls to stick together that I didn’t immediately register what was going on behind me—not until Xavier said, “That’s Mom’s pajama pants, Nugget! How did you find those?”

I whipped my head around. Sure as shinola, that cretin dog had my flannel pajama shorts in her mouth, as if she’d found a pirate’s booty.

“Nugget!” I called out. “Get those out of your mouth!”

“Which one of you three carried those in there?” Ben scolded. I realized the other two dogs had trotted out to see what their coconspirator had discovered. Then it hit me that he was a genius to come up with that white lie, because I knew just as well as I knew my own name, I’d left those shorts on Ben’s bedroom floor last night after he’d peeled them off me.

The kids thought the theft was hilarious as Nugget took off up the stairs with her treasure. Ruby and Xavier sprinted after her, along with the other two dogs. With my head spinning, I glanced at Ben, then darted my gaze away, afraid I’d reveal our secret if we made eye contact.

I was fully aware of Berty’s attention going from me to Ben and back, but I made a point of avoiding her gaze too. “I guess I’ll go rescue my shorts and make sure I didn’t leave anything else out for the canine thieves,” I said as I stood.

“Dr. Ben, can you help me get these unwrapped?” Skyler asked.

Knowing Ben was on it, I didn’t bother to see what she needed help with. I rushed to the stairs, mainly to get out of Berty’s line of sight and breathe.

One day in and we’d nearly been busted? By the dogs?

The good news was that the kids seemed to believe Ben’s story. They had no reason to wonder why my shorts would be in his bedroom.

Berty, on the other hand…

Nugget had taken her treasure to Skyler and Evelyn’s room and was hiding under the bed with it. When I walked in, three kids were on their bellies on the floor, peering under the bed, trying to reach the dog. I laughed in spite of myself because they were so darn cute with their three little bums in a row.

“You kids go back down and work on your houses. I’ll get the little thief out.”

That was all it took for them to sprint away for more candy.

By the time I made it back to the dining room, the kids and Berty were singing carols as they decorated their houses, laughing when they messed up the words. The moment had been forgotten.

“This calls for cocoa,” I said at the end of “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.” “Who wants some?”

A chorus of me ’s and I do ’s rang out, so I headed to the kitchen to make hot chocolate for everyone.

The kids were belting out the chorus of “Up on the Housetop” as I poured the milk into the mixture on the stove. I sensed someone behind me and turned to find Berty.

“Almost done,” I said, stirring the pan constantly with one hand as I took seven mugs out with the other.

“I’ll get the marshmallows,” she said. She stood next to me, facing the cabinets. “It’s none of my business what goes on between you and my grandson, but Emerson, please be careful with him.”

I frowned, stunned she’d brought the subject up so bluntly, though I shouldn’t have been. The kids’ silliness and singing had me letting my guard down, I guess.

“There’s not anything?—”

“Honey, don’t insult me with a denial. I’m not blind, nor am I stupid just yet, though I might be slower than I used to be. I’m in this house with you two nearly every day of the week. I can sense things.” She took the first mug from me after I filled it and poured a heap of marshmallows in. “And I know that dog of yours did not drag your pajamas from your room to Ben’s.”

“I’m sorry,” I said contritely. “I didn’t mean any offense. It’s embarrassing to be outed.”

“I’ve been on this earth for darn close to eight decades, my dear. I’ve seen some things.”

I laughed. “I’m sure you have.”

I filled the next two mugs, and she added marshmallows, the two of us working together amiably, as if she wasn’t in the process of busting my chops.

“Emerson, I mean it. Do not hurt that man. If you do?—”

“It’s not like that,” I said, keeping my voice down as the revelry continued in the next room. “It’s not serious, Grandma Berty.”

She turned her head toward me and gave me a weighted look, one I was sure had functioned as her don’t mess with me expression while she was raising her children.

I raised a hand as if surrendering. “Really. We’re having fun. That’s all. Nothing long-term.”

“Does he know this?”

“Of course. We’ve agreed.”

She went quiet as she filled the last mugs with marshmallows, and I sensed she was going to say more, but then she didn’t.

“The kids won’t know,” I said in case she was worried about them getting hurt. I was worried enough myself. It was already going to be difficult for Skyler and Xavier to transition to yet another living situation when I found a house.

“Kids are resilient, but I think that’s wise. Just remember you’re dealing with a man who feels things deeply and prioritizes the whole world’s needs before his own.”

“He does,” I agreed. That was part of what made him so easy to like. “He’s a wonderful man, and he’s also smart. He and I are on the exact same page.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said.

Ben understood my needs as well as my limits. He’d been through similar losses.

We were being smart, communicating. Acting like adults, albeit sex-starved ones.

I had to believe everything would work out fine. I could explore this little treat for myself, and no one would get hurt.