Until You (The Redemption, #1)(21)

Jesus.

That’s my first thought.

She’s even prettier than I remember.

Today, it’s jeans and a red T-shirt with her hair pulled back in a conservative ponytail. But that smile. That smile is still the same. It lights up her face and affects me.

I rise from my seat on the bench. “Well, I was just telling the girls that their old man is in fact ho—”

“No. Please no. Our ears can’t handle hearing it again,” Paige says, and with her flair for the dramatics, she drops down on the bench I just vacated and pretends to have passed out.

“That bad, huh?” Tennyson asks.

“That bad,” Addy says with a grimace. “Dad just said that he was hot. Ew.”

“Ice cream, anyone?” I ask, cutting off Addy before she makes more of an ass out of me than she just did. “Please. Anything. Something to prevent me from having to explain why I made that comment in the first place.”

Tennyson’s throaty laugh rings out, and her head angles to the side while she studies me. “Why, Crew Madden . . . are you blushing?”

“Me. Never.” I know I don’t pull it off, and I honestly don’t care because the subject has changed and hopefully been forgotten. “Real men don’t blush.”

“Uh-huh.” Her smile widens. Fuck, she’s gorgeous.

“Ice cream?” Paige asks. “Are you serious? I thought you said we’d eaten enough crap today and no more.”

Leave it to kids to make you cringe as they repeat your own words back to you. “I did . . . but—”

“But anything to prevent you from having to explain to Tenny why you think you’re hot, right, Dad?”

“Thanks, Addy.” I give her the side-eye. “I appreciate you repeating that.”

“No problem.” She smiles cheekily before turning to Tennyson. “The ladies in the boutique thought Dad was hot.”

“Like I said, ice cream anyone?” I ask through a laugh as I start grabbing the shopping bags. “Sundaes? A new car? A trip to Hawaii?”

The girls giggle, and Tennyson does right along with them. And that sight—of my girls having fun with someone they’ve really only met once before—is a stark reminder of what they’re missing. A female influence that I can’t give them no matter how hard I try.

Fucking Brittney.

“Wow. Now I know if I want my plumbing fixed, all I have to do is tell you you’re hot because then you start promising irrational things,” Tennyson says and smirks.

“Cute. Funny. Way to kick a man when he’s down.” I ruffle Addy’s hair to which I get a huffed response. I keep forgetting they are into their hair and looks now and that I can’t do that.

Tennyson’s and my eyes meet over the girls’ heads and for a brief second, I forget what we were talking about and the promise I just made because all sorts of irrational and inappropriate thoughts flicker through my head.

How her lips taste.

What her skin smells like.

What she would feel like sliding against me.

“So, ice cream?” Paige asks, eyebrows raised, clearly confused over the brief lull in conversation.

I will the thoughts away I’m not certain I want willed away. “Ice cream. Yes. Of course. I assure you I’m not that old that I already forgot.”

“That’s debatable,” Paige says before squealing as she jumps out of range for me to push her shoulder.

“Hey. Easy now.” I chuckle.

“You’re coming with us?” Addy asks Tennyson.

Tennyson sputters over a response as she looks from Paige to Addy then to me.

“You can say no,” I offer while silently wanting her to say yes.

“I’m going to start getting my feelings hurt if you keep saying that,” she teases.

I lift my hands up. “No obligation required is all I’m saying.”

She smiles softly at me and then at the girls. “I’d love to, but I have other—”

“C’mon. Pretty please,” Paige says.

“I’m sorry, but—”

“And here I thought you were lying to avoid us,” a voice with a southern drawl says to our left so that we all shift to look at the woman standing there. She’s dressed head to toe in varying shades of pink. Her hair is big and the eyes she’s blatantly devouring me with are even bigger. “But you weren’t. Here you are keeping secrets from us. It appears that Miss Tennyson West definitely does have plans tonight.”





CHAPTER NINE


Tennyson




Secrets?

Can I die a quick death now?

Crew’s going to think I’ve been talking about him—or even worse—lying about having plans with him.

I look from an expectant Bobbi Jo to a bemused Crew. I’m caught in no man’s land—not wanting to say yes to ice cream because I’ve come to the conclusion after seeing that adorable blush on his cheeks that I like Crew more than I’d like to admit. That and now he clearly thinks I’ve been talking about him.

And at the same time, I’m unable to say no because then Bobbi Jo would catch me in a lie.

I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.

Lucky—or unlucky—for me, Crew senses something and steps forward. “She does. We do,” he says, my eyes narrowing as I try to figure out where he’s going with this and why he’d step forward. “Crew Madden.”