The Presence of Grace (Love and Loss #2)(37)

My eyes darted between my two children. Had Ruby just given Jax the deep and meaningful “Daddy’s Going to Date Again” speech I’d been dreading all day? I knew Ruby was a little more clued in to what was happening between Grace and me, but I expected a little more of a reaction from Jax. Who was I to argue with the logic of cookies at Grandma’s house? My mom’s cookies were phenomenal.

“It’s not just cookies, Jax,” I replied softly, wanting to make sure he understood as much as an eight-year-old could. “I’m spending time with Grace because I care about her, and I want everyone to be comfortable. Does that make sense?”

Jaxy shrugged. “I know you care about her. She’s really nice.” At this point it became obvious Jaxy thought I was being ridiculous, his tone indicating that he already knew everything I was trying to tell him.

“So, you’re okay if we see more of her and she spends time with us?”

“Sure,” he answered, shrugging again. I reached out and ruffled his hair. He ducked away from me, laughing, then turned his attention back to his video game. It seemed as though I’d been worrying myself over nothing. And that was good; I was glad the kids seemed all right with Grace and me spending time together, but it didn’t mean that further down the line things might still get tricky. This was only the first hurdle, but I was glad it was over.

“What are you making for dinner?” Ruby asked.

“Huh?” Her question pulled me from the thoughts bouncing around inside my mind.

“Dinner? With Grace? What are you making?”

“I was just planning on grilling.”

Ruby rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh.

“What?” I asked, laughing at her complete and utter annoyance.

“You always grill when someone comes to dinner.”

I shrugged. “I’m good at it.” That was the truth—I was good at it. But more importantly, it was something I knew I couldn’t mess up. It was easy and simple, but tasted damn good.

“But it would be more impressive if you made an effort.”

Well, damn.

“When did you get so smart?”

Another roll of Ruby’s eyes made me laugh.

“Come on, Jax. Daddy’s got to go to the store. We’re going to make something delicious for dinner.”





Chapter Thirteen

Grace



I knocked on Devon’s door and tried to ignore the flurry of nervous butterflies swarming in my belly. When the door flew open, it was Jax’s smile that greeted me, and that went a long way to ease my anxiousness.

“Hi, Grace. Come on in. Daddy’s in the kitchen with Ruby.”

“Thank you,” I said as I stepped into the house, unable to keep the smile from my face.

“Dad,” Jax yelled, even though the kitchen wasn’t very far away. “Grace is here!”

I was still laughing as I walked around the corner and into the open dining room between the kitchen and living room.

“Hi,” Devon said, looking up at me hurriedly. “You’re early.”

“Am I?” Quickly pulling my phone from my purse and glancing at the time, I gave him a puzzled look. “It’s five till. You said five o’clock, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, his eyes not on me anymore, but on whatever he was working on in the kitchen instead. “I thought I had five more minutes.” He said the words, then glanced at me, giving me a flirty wink.

“Dad,” Ruby said, her tone admonishing, then popped up beside her father. “That’s no way to make Grace feel welcome.”

“They’ve been in there all afternoon. Dad’s making dinner and Ruby’s making dessert.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. We spent, like, an hour at the grocery store.” Jax groaned as he said the words, as if the grocery store was the worst way he could have spent sixty minutes.

Before I could respond I felt a hand at my shoulder and when I turned, Devon was there.

“Sorry,” he said, just before pressing a soft kiss to my cheek. When he pulled back he was wearing his sexy smile, making a shiver run down my spine. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Jax claims you’ve been busy.”

“Ah, yes.” His hand slid down from my shoulder to the small of my back, leading me forward. The closer I got to the kitchen, the more I could smell what they were cooking.

“Daddy was going to grill for you, but I told him that was a terrible idea for a date.” Ruby spoke while all her attention was on whatever she had pulled out of the oven moments ago. I raised my eyebrows and looked at Devon. He noticed my puzzled look and leaned in to whisper in my ear.

“I had the dating conversation with them earlier today. Everyone’s on board.”

“Oh,” I said, even more surprised by his sentence than Ruby’s mention of the word date. I wanted the kids to be comfortable with Devon and me together, but I’d thought that would come with time. I assumed we’d be easing into everything, giving them time to adjust. Apparently, the Roberts clan was more of a rip-the-Band-Aid-off kind of family. The kind of people who jumped in the pool without testing the temperature first. “Uh, grilling would have been fine,” I stammered, trying to cover for the fact that ever since I walked in the door it was one surprise after another.