Tequila And Tingles: Turtle Pine, Book 2 (15 page)

Beth started Kent’s water. “So you wanted a bubble bath, little man?”

He laughed and wiped his hands over his soap-slick belly. Then he laughed all over again. She set the temperature and let the water fill. The baby soap wouldn’t last long as bubbles, and Kent spent more time playing with his toys in the water than he did scooping at what little foam floated across the top.

The bath lasted all of maybe ten minutes before he was done. As usual. A lot of work for little playtime, but she couldn’t resist giving it to him.

Beth just barely got the towel wrapped around Kent before he took off running out of the bathroom. “Kent!”

It was no use. By the time she got off her knees and into the hallway, Kent’s naked bottom disappeared around the corner. That boy. If she thought Katie was a handful, Kent was going to put her through the wringer. She chased after him, but a burst of color from Katie’s room stopped her.

She slowed, backed up a few steps and looked in Katie’s bedroom. Jason sat in the middle of the room in crisscross applesauce position. Katie placed a crown of flowers on his head. Ribbons twirled down his back. He held a wand with more ribbons and more flowers decorating the end. Katie turned and lifted a pair of wings from her toy box. “And then you have to wear these.”

“Have to, huh?” Jason touched the crown of flowers on the top of his head. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. Aunt Jane says you can’t be fairy without your wings, and she knows everything about fairies.”

Beth backed up a few more steps so that she could lean on the doorway and watch. She crossed her arms over her chest. “You make a handsome flower fairy, Jason.”

He smiled. “I hope you’re right. I told Katie I didn’t think this was a good idea, but she assured me it was.”

Katie worked to fasten the wings to his back, but she wasn’t having much luck. “Momma, I can’t get these on.”

“Let’s see what I can do.”

He looked at her, his brow lifted and he smiled. “Oh, yes, please, help her get these wings on my back so I can be a proper fairy.”

Beth laughed and did her best to pin the fairy wings to his back. They weren’t made to clip to the top of a T-shirt, but to the back of the flower-girl dress Katie had worn last fall at her Aunt Jane’s wedding. A princess with a pretty crown? No, Katie wouldn’t do that. But a magical fairy, she’d gone right for the wand and announced it had powers.

Beth got the wings on Jason about the time Katie turned around with her flower tutu.

“Last piece.” She wiggled the tutu in her hands and a girlie giggle escaped her. “You gotta stand up.”

Beth laughed. “Honey, I don’t think you’re going to get that around Jason’s waist.”

She tugged the ribbon holding the tutu together and went around his waist with it. The tutu only covered the front half of him, and she stretched the ribbon around to his back and Jason tied it for her.

He waved the wand. “Am I dressed properly for a movie now?”

Katie laughed, covering her mouth with her fingers, and nodded. “You should wear that Sunday.”

He looked at her. “What’s Sunday?”

“Lunch at Nana’s. Everybody comes. You have to come.”

“If you say so, I guess I’ll have to be there.”

Fifteen minutes later, they were on the couch. Jason was still in his fairy outfit—minus the wings so not to crush them. There was popcorn between them and kids piled in their laps, and Katie pressed Play on the remote for a Ninja Turtles marathon.

Kent was passed out across her lap by the second episode. Katie was gone in the fourth. At the start of the fifth, she eased forward and cradled Kent to her chest. “I’ll be right back for her.”

She moved down the hall with the toddler, careful not to bang his feet on the walls or doorway as she entered his bedroom. She put him in his bed and tucked him in, leaving a kiss on his forehead before backing out and pulling his door closed.

She started for the next one but stopped short as Jason winked at her and walked in Katie’s bedroom with her in his arms. He followed a similar routine of placing her in her bed and tucking her in. He left all the fairy gear on the toy box to the side and quietly slipped out, catching Beth under his arm as he left the dimly lit hall.

They flopped on the couch as the Ninja Turtle episode continued. She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Thanks for taking her.”

“Didn’t see any need for you to carry her to her bed when I was right here.”

Their dad had always been right there, though, and he never had. She couldn’t recall her own dad taking her either. Then again, he hadn’t usually been home at bedtime since work had often kept him out late.

She rubbed her arms. “How do you always know what to do with them?”

He put his arm around her. “I don’t know. I guess I just remember what my parents used to do.”

“Yeah, but you were on the floor with Katie.”

He pushed his fingers through her hair. “Your parents didn’t play with you on the floor?”

“Mom did.”

“Dad used to wrestle with me. Even with Meredith.”

She plucked at the hem of her shirt. “Dad worked a lot.”

“Oh.”

“I mean.” What did she mean? “He’s the county sheriff, so he works a lot.”

“Sometimes parents have to do that. When I started training, my dad worked two jobs for a few months to pay for my lessons. We didn’t get to see him much and it was hard.”

“Yeah.” Her dad worked. People needed him for things, and she and her brothers had always understood that. He was there when he could be. She hadn’t loved it, but that had been life. She’d grown up wishing he didn’t have so many responsibilities and could be there every day and be at every program like Mom could. What she couldn’t figure out was why she’d married someone who stayed equally as busy.

Chapter Seventeen

Jason double-knotted his shoes and pushed off his thighs to stand. “You ready for this?”

Sean laughed and bounced the ball. “I was born ready for this. You’re Mr. Olympic swimmer guy who couldn’t make a layup last week. I’m the one who should be asking if you’re ready for this.”

Jason laughed. “I can handle it.”

Sean shook his head. “We’ll see. Maybe if you’d showed up last week, I’d think you could take me, but you dropped me for your girl.”

Jason dribbled the ball around him. “It wasn’t quite like that. Her daughter wanted to see me.”

“Right. The daughter you made cry in class last week.”

Jason got close the goal. “I guess everybody heard about that.”

Sean swiped a hand out and took the ball. “Just about the whole town, I think. I guess she’s better now?”

Jason shrugged. She was better than better, from what he could tell. Seeing as she’d gone from running from him, crying big, fat tears, to grabbing him by the hand and taking him to her room to play dress up, yeah, he’d say she was pretty good now. “I think she’s okay.”

Headlights brightened the court and Cade parked his Jeep next to Jason’s truck. Sean took that moment to sweep around behind him and use the distraction to get another basket on him. Sean laughed and pointed at him. “I have a feeling you’ll be losing again tonight.”

Jason shook his head. “I wasn’t ready.”

Sean tossed the ball. “You need to get ready. I wasn’t the only one who heard you made Katie cry.”

“I was afraid of that.” And the man he was afraid of walked right for them.

Cade stepped on the court with his own ball tucked under his arm. “You ready to play?”

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Sean said as he dribbled the ball.

Peter caught up to his brother, lowered to squat and double-checked the ties on his shoes. “Who’s ready for another ass wiping tonight?”

Jason smiled at them both. “I think that would be me.”

Cade bounced the ball. “Just friends?”

Jason could only give a little bit of a shrug. “Things changed.”

“That fast?”

Ever since meeting Beth, everything had gone fast. The time they’d spent together seemed to just fly by. His feelings for her and the kids seemed to increase daily. The only thing that didn’t seem to be flying was the time he had to spend away from them. Moments like those dragged by. “Yeah, that fast.”

Cade’s gaze went over him. “I didn’t like the last guy she married.”

Jason nodded. “I don’t like the guy either.”

“I didn’t like the guy when she was dating him. Long before she married him. Long before he showed what sort of jackass he really was.”

Peter straightened and stood shoulder to shoulder with his brother. “The only reason Beth was able to marry him was because I convinced Cade to keep his opinion about Bill to himself.” Peter shook his head. “Biggest mistake of my life.”

Jason prepared to sing to their music. “Lay your questions on me. Ask what you want. I think she’s earned some overprotective brothers.”

Cade lifted his brow at that. “I just want to know what your plans are.”

Good question. Jason wished he knew the answer to that one. Or at least an answer he could say out loud. “I’m not sure.”

“I was hoping for a better answer than that.”

Jason could only shrug. “When I moved to town, I wasn’t planning on staying forever. I was thinking just a couple months.”

Cade narrowed his eyes.

“Then I met Beth and the kids and settled into town a little.” He rubbed the top of his head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going to hurt her or the kids. She doesn’t want to be rushed.”

All afternoon, he’d spent time in his inbox, looking at offers coming his way from people wanting to hire him as a personal trainer for their kids. Every offer looked the same as the next, with varying amounts of salary and benefits. Lots of options for negotiations since he had multiple offers he could pit against each other. He could pretty much have his pick. Most of them could be considered opportunities of a lifetime. None of them were appealing.

Taking one of those offers would mean leaving Turtle Pine, and he wasn’t ready for that yet. He had ten little tadpoles waiting on him three times a week. He had old ladies who hung around in the evening, waiting to wink at him instead of going home. He had a sister here who had never been more proud of him because he was watching his phone to hear from Beth. He had come to town not expecting much, but he’d somehow gained a lot. He was needed here.

The itching desire that had once stirred in his bones to get out of here had shifted into an uncomfortable ache at the thought of putting his things in his car to leave. So that meant what? That he was supposed to stay? Settle in the small town, return to his roots, so to speak? Stay with Beth forever?

None of that really sounded like the end of the world anymore. In fact, it all sounded kind of nice.

“Dude.” Sean snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Anybody in there?”

Jason blinked off his thoughts. “Yeah. Y’all ready to play?”

It bounced between the three other men. Peter caught it, but they didn’t start playing. They appeared no more ready to get started than he was. He rubbed his hands together, trying to get them back in the game. One by one, they stretched their arms overhead and took position on the court.

His friends might be focused and ready to play, but his thoughts about his future didn’t help his game. He missed shots, was a terrible guard and repeatedly fouled. He shot another huge air ball. Being distracted by Beth didn’t help his already sorry game.

Peter came up behind him and slapped him on the back. “Man, my sister has put your tail in a knot.”

Jason shook his head. “There’s just a lot to consider.”

Peter grinned at him. “What’s to consider? It’s obvious.”

“What’s obvious?”

All three men turned and looked at him, searched him up and down, their mouths slowly parting. They all seem to be aware of some big secret that he didn’t have any clue about. They laughed at him. Well, Sean and Peter did.

Cade rubbed his chin and let out a long sigh. “It’s obvious that you love her.”

Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. He wouldn’t say no, but he wouldn’t commit to it either. One thing he could confirm was the idea of it wasn’t terrifying. “She’s different from any other woman I’ve ever met. Very independent, focused and caring.”

“And you’ve been standing around for most of this game trying to figure out how you’re supposed to move away from this town and leave her and the kids.”

It wasn’t a question, rather a statement of fact he couldn’t disagree with. Because that’s exactly what he’d been doing the last couple of days, ever since he left Beth’s house that evening he’d spent dressed up in fairy wings and a crown. “She doesn’t want this. Us. She doesn’t want anything serious.”

Cade’s head tipped to the side. “No woman can resist a man who lets a little girl tie a tutu around his waist.”

At Sean and Peter’s laughter, Jason swore. “Beth ratted me out.”

Cade laughed. “Katie did. I saw her yesterday and she told me all about it. Let me tell you one thing. I haven’t heard that girl talk about anybody like that since she moved back home. All I heard was Coach Jason this and Coach Jason that.”

Bits of heat landed in his cheeks. Not embarrassment. Something else. “She’s a sweet girl.”

“Yes, she is.” Cade studied him. “Katie approves of you. She doesn’t approve of anybody, but she approves of you. If that’s good enough for Katie, it’s good enough for me. But if you break any of their hearts—” Cade leveled him with a look, “—I will start with breaking your legs.”

Jason nodded. “Understood.”

They wrapped up the last of their game, with Cade and Peter once again giving him and Sean a good beat down. He drove on autopilot to his sister’s house and sat at the kitchen table with a bottle of water.

Meredith pushed him a peanut butter sandwich. “Got any plans with Beth and the kids tonight?”

“We’re meeting up at the pool later, to catch up on the lesson Katie missed. I promised her I would get in the water with her.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“You’re welcome to come with us.”

Meredith just smiled at him. “And intrude on the family thing you’ve got going on? I’ll wait until you’re married first.”

“We’re just friends.”

Meredith looked like she knew something along with the rest of the town. “Yeah, okay. Let’s play a little game of fact and fiction. Friends don’t spend quality time acting like they’re family.”

“We don’t go around acting like a family.”

“So you don’t go over to her house in the evening and stay up late watching movies with her? Then go again to watch movies with her and the kids? You don’t go to the park together and play for a few hours and then eat a picnic lunch? You don’t worry yourself to death about her kids when something’s wrong with them? Have I gotten anything wrong yet?”

Jason sank in his chair because he knew it was all true. “No, you have the gist of it all. You’re missing a couple of details, like where I put one of her kids to bed one night.”

“When are you going to go ahead and admit that you are completely head over heels for this girl and her two kids?”

“If it was that simple, I would.”

“It is that simple.”

“No, it’s not. It changes everything I ever thought I wanted in life. It’s the extreme opposite of what I’d planned on.”

Meredith tipped her head to the side and studied him. “It’s not hard. You pick the one you can’t imagine not having.”

That was his cue to get out of there and get to the pool. Because he was pretty sure he knew the answer. He just hadn’t quite accepted it yet, because what if Beth didn’t? What if he told her he’d spent the afternoon shopping for homes in areas Sean claimed were prime for schoolkids? What if he told her he was specifically looking for a house with a big backyard for a playset? A fenced yard for a dog? Something her smaller house didn’t have. Somewhere close to the school but also close to her work.

What would she say to all of that? He had a pretty good idea he wouldn’t like it.

Those thoughts were rooted deep when he stepped in the pool and found the kids in the water and Beth sitting on the edge. Just seeing her with those thoughts so fresh made him ache all over. Clocks timing his strokes in his dreams were being replaced by giggles and splashing and ideas for more movie nights.

He shook the thoughts loose. He took turns throwing the kids in the air and managed to work on a few of Katie’s strokes between all of it. Beth laughed and eased from the water. “I think I’ve had enough.”

He tossed the kids one more time each and it was time for a break. “How about some life jackets and letting you two swim?”

Moans started, but Beth cut them off quickly and clipped them both in. The pair hopped in the water and splashed.

Beth threw Jason a towel and he sat on the bench next to her.

Between the lifeguards on duty for open swim and the jackets on the kids, Jason relaxed and leaned back, unable to look away from Beth. Her gaze was steadfast, never looking away from her kids, taking in every moment of them walking across the board, jumping off and swimming to the ladder to get out. Chalk it up to another moment that he wanted to live again and again.

He put his arm around her and stroked the side of her neck with his thumb. The sidelong glance she gave was as heated as he was feeling. “This is fun.”

“They’re going to be worn out by the time we get home.” She lifted an eyebrow in his direction. Potentially an invitation? If things had been different and there weren’t any problems being at her house overnight with the kids there, he knew exactly how this day would end.

“I know I will be.”

She sighed. “I bet they crash once they hit their beds and fall into a sound sleep. We could haul a set of drums into the living room and they wouldn’t wake up.”

He liked the idea of the
we
she used in regards to plans for that evening. “I can think of something a lot more fun and not near as loud as playing the drums.”

She gave him that mischievous smile. It was dark, sexy and something he couldn’t hardly resist. “I think we might be on the same page.”

He sat forward, took the towel from around his back and draped it across his waist, where he now needed it to do more hiding than drying. “If you’re thinking about the two of us getting naked later tonight, I can assure you we are.”

She licked her lips. “You are reading my mind.”

Christ. He closed his eyes to get all the bendable ideas out of his head. There was a long way to go until the kids were in bed. Plus, he still had to walk out of there. But he liked the sound of things. Living here together, grabbing a bite to eat, going back to her house, where they’d stay for the evening. The only downside of this plan included him getting up and going before the kids woke up in the morning. He’d done that twice so far and it had sucked hard both times.

He couldn’t exactly stay late at her house all the time. Her neighbors would start talking, and he certainly didn’t want some nosy old person saying something to her kids about it. He let out a long sigh. Maybe one day things would work out a little bit better.

She glanced at him. “Something the matter?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Just thinking a lot.”

“You can’t say something like that without following it up and saying what you were thinking about. Otherwise you’re just a mean tease.”

“There’s been a lot on my mind. I’ve been doing some thinking and trying to figure out what I want.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “Oh?” The sound was little breathless. Certainly more high-pitched than she normally spoke.

“I’ve been getting a lot of offers for private training.”

She focused on the pool and didn’t look at him anymore. “Have you?” She swallowed and tucked hair behind her ear. “Did you find one you liked?”

“They’re all nice. I could pretty well have my pick of where I wanted to work and what I wanted to be paid.”

“Sounds good for you.”

“That’s the thing. I have all these amazing life-changing opportunities. Some of them are even better than what I had before I came here. People will call me a fool for passing up some of these. But as I look at the opportunities that keep coming in, none of them are really interesting.”