“What about her other family? The woman’s family?”
“Well, Leia has three older siblings that she’s never met. They’re a little older than I am. They’ve never shown any interest in meeting her and she has never mentioned wanting to talk to them.”
“Does she know about how she was conceived?”
“Some,” Rowdy shrugged. “I’ve explained what she could absorb at each age. When she was in kindergarten and asked why she didn’t have a mama, I told her that it was because she lived far away. A few years later when that explanation wasn’t good enough, I told her that she was in prison. Last year, she finally asked why she was in prison and I told her the truth.”
“Wow.”
“What does Lexi know about her father?”
“Everything.” I smiled, “Well, everything that I knew about him as a teenage girl. His hopes and dreams, that he hated carrots, stuff like that. She knows he was in an accident before she was born. She knows what my parents did, and of course she remembers what happened with Jackson a few years ago. Too much for a little girl to have to deal with.”
“She’s got you, so she’ll be stronger for it.”
“If we do this, you’re right. We’ve got to make it real. I don’t want the girls to know we did this just for them. I want them to believe in romance and true love. I want to show them what a real family is like.”
“From what you’ve said, you didn’t have a real family and neither did I - how are we going to swing this?”
“We’ll have to be a team.”
“I can do that. Did you think anymore about what I said? About the bedroom?” Rowdy asked as he sat down beside me on the couch.
“Well, not really, but I get what you’re saying. What if we aren’t compatible?”
“I guess we won’t know until we find out, will we?”
“What sort of weird rationale is that? We won’t know until we find out.” I scoffed at him. “What if… ”
“What if it’s great?” Rowdy asked just as he pulled me across his lap and put his mouth on mine.
I knew instantly that it was going to be great. His mouth was firm against mine, those lips of his fit perfectly, and when he moved his hand up to knot in the hair at the side of my head, I was done for.
He used his grip in my hair to tilt my head at the same time he opened his lips and ran his tongue along the seam of mine. I heard a moan and realized it was me making that noise. Our tongues touched and I couldn’t get enough of him. I put my hands in his hair, knocking his hat off the back of his head to fall on the couch behind us.
Rowdy twisted his body and slid backwards. My body followed so that it was laid out on top of his and I felt his hand slide down my back and cup my ass. I let one of my legs fall beside his and without conscious thought, I realized I was grinding my crotch against the zipper of his jeans.
“Fuck me,” Rowdy murmured as he kissed his way along my jaw down to the area behind my ear. “Better than fucking great - explosive. Yeah, we work.”
I breathed out a sigh as he nipped my earlobe gently with his teeth. “Yeah, we’re good.”
“Got to stop now,” Rowdy said, his lips moving down my neck as his hand cupped my breast. “Can’t go further today.”
“Yeah,” I whispered against his neck right before I licked the spot below his ear. “Gotta stop. Barely know each other.”
“Fuck!” Rowdy growled and slammed his head back into the couch cushion a few times, almost dislodging me from on top of him. “Okay. No problems here for sure.”
I giggled and laid my head down on his chest, trying very hard not to notice the hard bulge behind his zipper right there at the spot I needed just a little more friction.
“Are we doing this?”
“I think we are.”
“You okay with it?”
“Oddly enough, I’m kind of excited.”
“Hey,” Rowdy wiggled a little until I lifted my head and looked at his face. “What’s your last name?”
“Guthrie. Yours?”
“Lincoln,” Rowdy answered me right before he rolled and put me toward the cushions of the couch so he could sit up. He stood up and reached into his pocket, then knelt down on one knee in front of me.
“Sierra Guthrie, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
I nodded my head and Rowdy reached for my hand. Once it was in his, he slipped the spider ring I had given him at dinner onto my ring finger.
Suddenly, it was all so real. Even though it was just a plastic ring, I felt tears in my eyes.
“It didn’t start the way most relationships do, but it will be a funny story to tell our grandchildren, don’t you think?” he asked me as he reached up and wiped the tears from my cheeks. “We’ll work through it together and all be better off for it, I think.”
“I think my future husband is a pretty smart guy.”
“I’m not,” He shook his head and looked down, “But I’m working on it.”
“We’re doing this.”
“Yep. We’re doing this.”
“How are we going to tell the girls?”
“Just simple and matter of fact. You realized just how fucking cool I am and decided to snatch me up off the market before I got a better offer.” Rowdy smiled at me and then wiggled his eyebrows.
“Yeah, because Lexi will believe that.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Rowdy shrugged. “Now, rather than take you home to stew about this alone, what do you say that we sleep here in my bed tonight and then go get our kids in the morning.”
“I like the sound of that.” I watched him stand up and put his hand out to help me off the couch. “Can we do some
