Games of the Heart (The 'Burg #4)(200)

She was engaged in downing a glass of chocolate milk.

And she was determined.

She accomplished this feat, dropped the glass she held in both her hands, looked up at her Dad with her big, dark brown eyes and dramatically gasped a long, “Ahhhh.”

Mike grinned and asked, “That good?”

His youngest daughter, Amanda grinned back with a chocolate milk mustache and nodded fervently.

“Right,” he muttered, “you’re topped up and good to go.”

Then he took the glass from her, set it aside and pulled the dishtowel from her front to wipe her mouth with it.

He was lifting her off the counter when Reesee, hair done, makeup perfect, wearing a shimmery short robe, raced in, took one look at him and shrieked, “I can’t find my shoes!”

Then she turned and raced out.

Mike put Mandy on her feet but dipped his chin into his neck to look way down at her and saw her head tipped way back to look up at her Daddy.

“Reesee’s nutty,” Mandy declared.

“Got that right, baby,” Mike muttered then turned and saw Austin, his dark blond headed, dark brown eyed, six year old son wearing a little boy’s tux complete with a yellow rose boutonniere pinned to his lapel wandering in.

“Reesee’s losin’ it, Dad,” he announced the obvious.

“I think I got that,” Mike told him.

“I can’t get married without shoes!” Reesee shrieked from what sounded like upstairs.

It was then Dusty walked in. She was wearing a pale yellow dress that skimmed her figure, a sheer, flowy layer of material over the same colored satin underneath. Sleeveless, v-necked and showing a minute amount of cle**age which exposed just a hint of her gunshot scar. It was v-backed as well but the back vee went lower. The skirt hugged her ass, h*ps and thighs and the satin stopped above her knees but the sheer layer fell in a flippy edge to skim them. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck, wrapped in a pale yellow, satin ribbon. She had her diamond studs in her ears, the diamond pendant Mike gave her for their second anniversary (the second most important one, the day she forgave him) at her neck and that was it.

She looked stunning.

“We have a shoe crisis,” she proclaimed. “All hands on deck and by that, I mean you, Dad.” She looked down at Austin, “You, big man, I need to look after your sister. Her dress has to stay perfect for t-minus one hour and fifteen minutes and only then can she set about destroying it. Until the shoes are located, this is your mission. My suggestion, go into the family room and recruit Uncle Jordy to help you accomplish it.”

Austin looked up at his Mom and nodded solemnly. Then he moved to his sister, took her hand and led her toward the family room.

Dusty’s eyes slid through him and then she disappeared.

Mike winked at his daughter who was gazing back at him then he moved to join the search.

He was surprised Reesee wasn’t together but then again that day of any would be the time to lose it. Usually, she was quite a bit like Dusty, except in a quieter, softer way. Confident. Laidback. No-nonsense.

He figured in one hour, fifteen minutes, she’d come back to that.

He moved through the house mostly going through the motions considering he had no f**king clue what he was looking for.

This was not a hardship.

When Dusty was pregnant with Amanda, she’d sold her ranch to the couple who’d been renting it since a month after she got shot.

Then they’d moved from the development into The ‘Burg. A big, established house on Green Street. Huge yard. A line of peony bushes that ran the long, side drive that every May burst into huge, downy blooms of colors ranging from the richest cream to the deepest pink. In the summer Dusty hung four big pots of ferns from the roof of the front porch that ran the length of the house and she put his Adirondack chairs out there. The house had big rooms, a kitchen built to make Thanksgiving dinner and lots of sash windows where, in the living room at the front of the house, they put their Christmas tree every year. Out in the vast, sweeping backyard there was a detached two car garage and an enormous, heated shed where Dusty made her pottery.

And as he wandered the rooms looking for a shoebox, like he did when he did his walkthroughs randomly at night, he took it all in and he didn’t miss what he saw.

He had it all. The full dream. His family in a big, old, graceful house in The ‘Burg, Christmas tree in the window, ferns hanging from the porch roof in the summer.

And a beautiful, smart, funny, loving woman in his bed who was his wife, the mother of two of his kids and the adoring stepmom to the other two.

He was living the dream.

All of it.

He looked into the family room hoping Rees hadn’t lost her mind and stowed her shoes there and saw Mandy on Jordy’s lap, Jordy pushed back in Mike’s recliner happily watching cartoons with Mike’s kids.

Jordy’s eyes came to his and he reported, “I already reconned the area. No shoes.”

Mike chuckled and jerked up his chin then he moved out of the door and wandered up the wood steps with their dusky blue carpet runner, rounded the middle landing and hit the top where the kids’ rooms and his office were. He’d just walked through the door to what would soon become the guest room considering Reesee wasn’t going to be in it anymore when she emerged from her closet with a scary-spiked-high-heeled, ivory satin shoe in each hand and she declared, “Found them!”