Ana started blinking and yawning, and then she laid her head on Zach’s big shoulder. He carried her over and smiled down at Kayla. “I think she likes me.”
I like you. No, I love you.
“Why wouldn’t she? You’re pretty terrific, Zach.”
Zach bent to kiss her. “You’re terrific too, Kayla. Both of you.” He straightened. “Do you think she’s ready to go down for the night?”
“I think we’re about there,” Kayla said. “I need to bathe her and change her, and then put her in her crib. Oh—”
“What, honey?” he asked when she didn’t continue.
“I left the baby monitor at Bailey’s.”
“We can leave the doors open. Will you be able to hear her then?”
She looked across the hall to the master. It wasn’t a huge house and the rooms were close enough. “I should be able to. It’s not that far.”
“Okay. We’ll get the monitor tomorrow—or we can buy a new one and you can leave that one with Bailey for the times they watch Ana overnight.”
She loved that he thought about Ana staying with Bailey and Alexei. It wasn’t something she envisioned often, but it was nice to know the option was there.
He carried Ana into the bathroom and handed her over. Kayla stripped her down while Zach set up the baby bath tub. He took Ana from her like they’d been doing it together for months so she could fill the tub with warm water. He stayed to help, and when Ana splashed them both, they laughed.
When Ana was bathed and changed into her pajamas, they took her into the bedroom to put her into her new crib. Her eyes were wide open but they soon drooped as Kayla sung to her. Zach stayed with them the whole time, and Kayla looked up every once in a while. Warm green eyes stared back at her. He smiled, and her heart flipped every single time.
He was so handsome, so strong. She loved him so much, and she didn’t know how to tell him. Didn’t think she should, really. He’d had a lot of changes in his life this week. He didn’t need another one, especially one as big as telling him how she felt.
He crept out of the room before Ana was asleep. When her eyes were closed and she didn’t stir, Kayla followed. Zach waited with a glass of wine and a beer. It was still early, only eight o’clock, and she wasn’t sleepy. She took the glass gratefully and they clinked her glass and his bottle.
“How did you know I wanted wine?” she asked.
“I assumed.”
She took a sip and sighed. “I don’t drink every night, I swear. But when I’m feeling uptight, it relaxes me. I know that’s probably not a great thing.”
“It’s okay so long as you don’t overdo it.”
“I have the genetics to overdo it.” She twirled the glass in her fingers, thinking. Remembering. “My parents didn’t do anything unless it was to excess. Drinking, drugs, fighting. I like white wine, but I don’t think it’ll turn me into an addict.”
“You don’t have to explain. It’s okay if you like wine.”
“It worries me sometimes, but I try to be careful. That night when we did shots downstairs….” She shook her head. “That wasn’t typical for me. I don’t usually drink hard liquor.”
“It wasn’t typical for me either.”
She cocked her head. “So why did you do it?”
He shot her a grin. “Why did you?”
“Nerves. Frustration with life. But mostly nerves.”
“Nerves about what? Me?”
She rolled her eyes, but it was a mock gesture. “Duh. Of course you. I was so attracted to you, Zach. But you’d only ever been like a friend to me and I thought that’s what you were still being. I wanted more, but I didn’t think you did.”
“Kayla, baby, believe me when I tell you this. I wanted to fuck you from the first moment I saw you. You were standing in Camel’s house, lost and alone and worried for your sister, and all I could think about was getting my cock inside you.”
Her insides melted with those words. Not only because he’d wanted her from the beginning, but because the carnal image of his cock inside her made her wet just thinking about it. “Really? I always thought you were being nice.”
He snorted. “Nice? I wanted to get down and dirty with you from the start. And that wasn’t a nice thing just then when you’d been through so much.”
“I guess I wasn’t in a place for that at the beginning, but it didn’t take long before I wanted more from you. Which is why I did what I did that night. I hated that I needed shots to do it though.”
“I don’t hate what happened, beautiful. I only hate how we didn’t talk for two months.”
“I hate that too,” she said, her heart aching with regret. “I shouldn’t have run away like I did.”
He put his arm up. She understood the message and scooted over beside him, pressing into his side. His arm settled around her. “It happened,” he said, his breath warm and scented with beer. “But here we are anyway.”
She sighed as she cuddled into him. “Here we are. It’s only been a week. We’re married and Ana has her own sweet room. I feel like I have whiplash.”
He laughed. “So do I, Kayla. But that’s okay. My job gives me whiplash on a regular basis. This is a good kind of different, not a bad kind.”
She hoped it stayed that way. “I love what we did to her room. I’m going to hate to move out.”
He kissed the top of her head again. “Yeah, I know. But we can do it again in the next place. Look at this like practice.”
She would, but she still hated it. She hated that she never really got to settle down. Something always came along and she
