Having Lynn and Carrie together under my roof settled me in a way I’d never felt, but it made Monday morning harder than it’d ever been before too. “C’mon, baby girl. I need you to sit still if I’m going to be able to do this braid for you.”

“No,” Lynn grumbled. “I want Carrie to do it.”

The girls had bonded all weekend long. Between making build-your-own pizzas, cake, brownies, French toast, and an egg and bacon breakfast casserole, the girls had baked up a storm. I wasn’t much of a cook, and neither was my ex. But Lynn blossomed in the kitchen with Carrie patiently talking her through every step along the way. Seeing how well they got along was the best part of it all—and that was saying a lot because I hadn’t eaten so well since I lived at home with my parents.

“Carrie’s not up yet, so you’re stuck with me.”

“Actually,” a throaty, feminine voice interrupted us. “I’m awake and happy to help.”

My eyes jerked away from Lynn’s hair and up to Carrie’s reflection in the mirror. She was still dressed in the pajama pants and shirt she’d insisted on wearing while Lynn was in the house, instead of one of my T-shirts like she’d done during the week. They were pink with yellow hearts, and my baby girl had been quick to tell me she wanted a pair to match when she saw Carrie in them on Saturday morning.

“Hurry up, Daddy! Let Carrie do my hair while you get ready for work,” Lynn urged.

I moved away and trailed my fingers along Carrie’s neck as I passed her in the doorway, getting a thrill out of the goosebumps that popped up on her soft skin. “I guess I’ll leave the braiding to the experts.”

“I’m not really an expert,” Carrie laughed as she stepped behind Lynn and gathered her hair up, quickly separating it into three chunks. “That’s my step-mom. She taught me everything I know about hair.”

“Your step-mom?”

There was something about Lynn’s tone when she asked Carrie about her step-mom that made me want to hear the rest of their conversation. Since I was only a few steps down the hallway, I paused to shamelessly eavesdrop.

“Yeah, she’s amazing.”

“Amazing like you?”

“I think she’s one of the most amazing people I know.”

“But she’s your step-mom. Isn’t she mean?”

“Step-moms in real life aren’t like the one in Cinderella.” Carrie paused, most likely trying to figure out how to explain it to a five-year-old. “I’m sure there are some step-moms who are mean, but I’m willing to bet there are even more who are awesome like mine. She taught my dad how to do my hair when I was your age.”

“Like you taught my daddy?”

“Yup, and then she taught me how to do my hair all by myself when I got a little older. Without her, I never would have been able to offer the daddy daughter hair class where I met you guys. And I wouldn’t have landed the job that brought me to Nashville in the first place.”

“What kinda job do you have?” my nosy daughter wanted to know.

“You know all those pretty bows and hair elastics I brought with me to the class?”

“Like that one?” I was willing to bet my daughter was pointing at the purple bow on the bathroom counter. Carrie had given it to her the night we met, and it was her new favorite.

“Yes, exactly like that one. And this one too.” There was another pause before she continued. “I work for the company who makes them. I help them convince stores and hair salons to carry all the pretty things they make.”

“That’s so cool!”

“I definitely thought it was cool when they offered me the job. There. All done. If you turn around I can show you how it looks using this mirror.”

“It’s perfect!” Lynn squealed. “The bestest braid I ever had. I’m glad your step-mom taught you how to do them.”

“You know what else she taught me?”

“No, what?”

“How to bake.”

“Like you’re teaching me?”

“Yup.”

“Wow! I guess you’re right. Step-moms can be awesome.”

As I hurried down the hall before they left the bathroom and caught me eavesdropping, I made a mental note to talk to Lynn about step-moms when she was with me next weekend. Carrie had handled it perfectly, but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t an underlying reason behind my daughter’s worry about step-moms. She’d never said anything along those lines before, but it was also the first time I’d ever brought a woman around her. With as excited as she’d been to hang out with Carrie, something about her comments just wasn’t adding up for me. But now wasn’t the time to bring it up because we needed to be out the door in less than five minutes and her mom was going to have her until I picked her up from school on Friday.

“Don’t forget to put your lunch box in your backpack,” I called out to Lynn after I finished getting dressed and sat down to lace up my shoes.

“Already done, Daddy!” she hollered back.

“You guys are too cute.” I looked up and found Carrie leaning in the doorway to my bedroom, her arms crossed underneath her tits. The position shoved the rounded swells up until they were almost spilling out of the rounded collar of her shirt. Even though I’d feasted on them the night before while she kept a pillow shoved over her face to quiet her cries, my cock still hardened at the sight. I had a feeling it always would, no matter how long we were together or how often I had her beneath me.

“Not sure I want you thinking of me as cute. Makes me sound like a wimp.”

Her brown eyes lit up with humor and her lips lifted up in a grin as she walked towards me. “The last thing you need to worry about is being a wimp. My nickname for you before I found out your name was hot cop. Nothing I’ve seen since then has changed my mind, and my guess is there’s a rule against hot cops being wimps.”

I stood up and pulled her close. “You think I’m hot, huh?”

“As if you didn’t already know that.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Well aware my daughter was in the house and had big ears, I lowered my voice. “I kinda assumed with the way your pus—”

Carrie slapped her hand over my mouth. “No talk about the P in the V until tonight when we’re alone.”

If anyone was cute in this relationship, it was her. But her kind of cute was damn sexy. “You gonna stop after work and pack up some more stuff to bring over, or do you want to have a quiet night in and we can do laundry?”

“Are you sure you want me to bring more of my stuff over?”

I kissed her forehead, right in the middle where it was wrinkled with concern. She had no reason to be worried about me not wanting her around. If anything, it was the opposite. If I had my way, we’d load up my truck with all her shit and move her in here permanently. But even though she seemed to have some doubts about what I wanted, I didn’t think she was ready to hear the entire truth from me yet. “Definitely. I’ve got more than enough room around here for anything you want to have with you while you’re here.”

She beamed a smile up at me. “Then I guess I’ll be a little late tonight because I’ll stop by my place and then I’ll do a quick run to the grocery store.”

“Can you get more popsicles? We ate the last of ‘em yesterday since there were only two left,” Lynn reminded her as she walked into the room, dressed and ready to go with her backpack on.

Carrie’s face heated up, and I knew she was remembering why Lynn’s stash of popsicles was mostly gone. I’d jokingly told her I’d grab her one from the freezer when I went to get us some waters on Monday night after our second round in bed, and she’d surprised me by taking me up on the offer. Then she shocked the fuck outta me and made me wish I’d given her one sooner. She slurped away at it, making a big show of it and getting her mouth ice cold before she wrapped those icy lips of hers around my cock and swallowed me down. It was an experience I was looking forward to repeating again. Soon. “Maybe grab a couple boxes of popsicles. We wouldn’t want to run out any time soon.”