Ride Steady (Chaos #3)(102)

I grinned and settled back, cheek to shoulder. “I won’t.”

“Good,” he muttered, giving my behind a squeeze.

“Though, if I ever see your dad, even though I have no idea what he looks like, I won’t be responsible for sending him a killing look.”

There was a smile in his voice when he returned, “That you can do.”

“And if he should later turn up with his car keyed, I’ll say now, it wasn’t me.”

His body shook, I gloried in it, though his humor had no noise.

But the smile was deep in his voice when he ordered, “Shut up and go to sleep.”

“Just to say, I’m going to do that but only because I was going to do that anyway.”

“If you were, why aren’t you shuttin’ up?”

“I was just saying it just to say.”

“You’re still not shuttin’ up.”

“Whatever,” I muttered.

“And still,” he pointed out.

I lifted my head and snapped, “Joker!”

He caught me at the back of my head, pulled me in, lifted up, and gave me a hard, sweet, short kiss.

Then he tucked my cheek back to his shoulder, my forehead in the side of his neck, and said, “Now shut up and go to sleep.”

I grinned at his throat.

Then I shut up, closed my eyes, and went to sleep.

Chapter Sixteen

End of Story

Carissa

WITH AN INSTINCT born in me the second Aaron’s swimmers fertilized my egg, that next Monday, I knew my son was on his way to the front door without me even seeing him through the window.

Thus, after a week that included me getting myself and my boy into a great new house, only one double shift since LeLane’s flu epidemic was settling down, and a whole lot of time spent with my awesome new boyfriend, I was lounging (more like fidgeting with anticipation) while Joker hung out with me on my couch.

So, with excitement at what would herald an even better week—that being having my son back—I pushed up, planted a knee, and threw myself over Joker and the back of the couch.

Unfortunately, when I did this I heard Joker grunt. This gave me the uncomfortable feeling I’d planted said knee somewhere in Joker. Therefore, when my bare feet hit the floor at the back of the couch, I stopped my mad dash and looked at him.

“Jesus, Carrie,” he muttered, pushing up while looking at me, lips quirking, one hand to his stomach.

“Sorry,” I whispered, then grinned, “Travis is home.”

I got a return grin that said more than his lips quirking that he wasn’t angry with me, so I bent in, grabbed his head on either side, gave him a quick kiss, let him go, and ran to the door.

The bell rang right when I got to it.

I unlocked it and pulled it open.

And there was Aaron, not Tory, holding Travis in his arm, his diaper bag looped on Aaron’s shoulder.

Aaron stood tall, as usual, but he’d taken off his suit and was in jeans and a nice shirt that was pink and worked well with his coloring.

I saw this but mostly I saw my baby.

Lifting up my hands, I clapped them quietly in front of me, smiling at my son.

Then I held my hands out to him. “Hey, Googly. Welcome to your new home.”

Travis smiled a wet, open-mouthed smile back to his mommy, twisted in his father’s arms, and lurched toward me.

Catching him and pulling him to me, I hoped I’d never forget moments like these. Seeing my baby’s eyes light up when he saw his mommy. Seeing him reach to me. Catching his little warm body in my arms. Little moments that could be easy to forget, but they were so precious they should always be remembered.

I cuddled him to me, kissing his neck, giving him squeezes, listening to his baby giggles as he latched on to my hair and tugged.

It felt wonderful.

I turned away from the door, muttering, “You can drop the bag by the door. Thanks, Aaron.”

“Jesus, I knew I knew you,” Aaron said, and I turned back to see him looking at Joker. “Fuck, you’re Carson Steele.”

I looked Joker’s way to see he was on his feet.

His eyes were on Aaron.

“Yep,” he answered.

Okay, I hadn’t expected that moment to come, since I hadn’t expected Aaron to return Travis. Though I knew it would eventually happen, but I didn’t know that eventuality would come so quickly.

But now it was done and it was family time, Travis, Joker, and me, so it was also time to move on.

“Thanks for bringing him,” I said to Aaron firmly and repeated, “You can drop the bag by the door.”

Aaron looked to me and his brows went up. “You’re dating Carson Steele?”

I looked to Joker then back to Aaron, answering, “Well… yeah.” When he looked at a loss for words, and considering I didn’t really care what he had to say whatever it might be, I again repeated, “Just throw the bag by the door. I’ll sort it out later.”

“You told me I didn’t know who he was,” Aaron pointed out, not taking my not-very-veiled hint that he should go.

I wasn’t going to explain my mess-up to my ex-husband.

So instead, I asked, “Did you know him back in high school?”

“You know I didn’t, not really,” Aaron returned. “But I still knew him, Carissa.”