Beautiful Broken Promises(29)

“I don’t think we’re going to get to go back and get all of our things from home,” he stated solemnly.

She shrugged and told him, “It’s okay, I like it here better. Daddy’s here.”

“He’s your daddy, not mine,” Braden expressed sadly.

“Maybe he can be your daddy, too.” She looked up at him with so much hope in her eyes, I almost wanted to be the kid’s dad just so that look would always stay there on her sweet face.

“No, I got mama and you got your daddy.”

“But, I want mama too,” she panicked.

“Don’t worry, Kate. I’m your big brother and brothers have to take care of their sisters.” I swore that little guy puffed out his chest with those words. Kate leaned over and kissed him loudly on the cheek, and he giggled while swiping his hands across his face. “Eww, Kate!” he protested while continuing to laugh.

I decided to take that moment and sit up. The laughter immediately died from both of their faces and I felt kind of bad for surprising them.

“Morning,” I said with a rasp.

“Braden! Mama said we couldn’t wake him up. He needs sleep,” Kate said in an accusatory tone.

“Sorry.” Braden looked up at me and spoke quietly.

“You guys are fine. It was about time I woke up anyway.” I glanced at the clock and groaned when I saw that it was close to noon. Charlie would be calling soon, wondering why the hell we hadn’t come back to the station yet. “I bet you two are starving, huh?”

They both stood up and flew into excited balls of energy, telling me how their stomachs had been growling all morning. The theatrics of it all made me chuckle. The silly noises caused each other to laugh as well, and they fell back down onto the bed in hysterics.

I made a request down to room service and practically ordered the entire menu—twice. I had no idea what they liked but what they didn’t eat, I would finish off. I had never gone that long without eating. Usually, I was stuffing my face every hour and now my stomach was cramping in pain from the lack of nourishment.

I heard Raegan moving around in the bathroom so I got up to go speak with her, away from little ears. On my way over, I leaned down and kissed Kate on the top of her head. She wrapped her arms around my neck before I could lift away and planted one right on my cheek. I still didn’t understand all of it, but hell, I would take all the love she had to give. She released my neck and let me continue toward the bathroom.

The bathroom door clicked open and I pushed my way inside before Raegan could make her way out.

“What the...” she grunted from my unexpected intrusion. “Rude!”

“Hey, I wanted to talk...” Crap... I hadn’t planned my invasion very well. Raegan stood about six inches shorter than me, so I hadn’t noticed at first because her head only came up to my chest, but... she was only wearing a towel and her heavy breasts created a magnificent swell, poking out from the top.

She hiked her towel up higher, but it didn’t help one bit. It only caused them to jiggle and made the scenario even more difficult for me. I shifted, in case I needed to hide a growing problem.

“Lane… stop!” she breathed out.

“I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “I swear I’m not usually this juvenile.” She quirked an eyebrow up at me in apparent disbelief. “Okay, I’ve got it under control,” I said. Fuck, she was hot. I so did not have it under control. I forced my eyes to her face. When I quickly looked over at the cut on her head, I immediately sobered.

“Shit, Raegan, your head.” I searched frantically for something I could use to clean up her cut, which was bleeding down the side of her face. What the hell were these stitches doing if she kept bleeding out of them? I applied a gentle pressure with a wad of tissues. She sucked in air and I jumped to apologize, “I’m sorry. I just need to get the bleeding to stop.”

She moved to grab the tissue, but then realized that she needed both of her hands on the towel so she relented and mumbled, “Thank you.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Still dizzy and tired, but I think that’s normal.”

“Can I ask what happened now?” I requested softly, as if I were approaching a wounded animal.

“Can I answer when I have my clothes on?” She looked up at me through long eyelashes and I was gutted by those green eyes.

“I prefer you like this... but I guess for the kids’ sake, it’s more appropriate.” I tried giving her my sexiest smirk.