Liam

 

Another week down.

Another week closer to the good life.

That’s what I kept telling myself—every time I help with the girls, every time Kensley and the girls hang out at my place, every time we have a Saturday date at the park.

I could get used to this life.

I was used to it.

Today marks eight days since mine and Kensley’s first kiss, and I have every intention of stealing another tonight.

My girls are spending the full Saturday with me. I watched them last night for Kensley, and when she got home, we made out on the couch a little before making plans for today. They were at my place by ten, with London and Guinness making a mess of one another in the backyard in no more than five minutes, and Sawyer coloring with Color Wonder markers at the table.

I’m going to get the girl real markers.

How the hell can she see where she’s coloring, practicing her inside the lines, if the ink doesn’t show up right away? I personally need instant satisfaction when it comes to my coloring, and the waiting two seconds thing isn’t good enough for me.

“I don’t want her to ruin your furniture,” Kensley says with a wince, her eyes firmly locked on Sawyer coloring away at the kitchen table.

“It’s furniture. And Crayola is washable.”

“But what about the walls?”

I chuckle and pull Kensley away from the table and into the kitchen, where we can keep an eye on both Sawyer and London. “Loosen up, mama.”

Kensley’s face is stern—but I can see in her blue eyes that she wants to smile. She wants to fold. “Hey. It’s your stuff.”

I stand against the counter and pull her close—not nearly as close as last week, though. Her baby belly is noticeably growing. “I wanted to talk to you about that.”

“About…?” Her hands are resting on my forearms; I love her touch.

“Your stuff. My stuff.”

She stares at me blankly, and I move my hands to link at her back. Losing their resting place, she puts her hands on my chest then.

“I have this big place,” I start, but Kensley catches on quickly.

I almost expect her to physically push back against me, but she doesn’t. “It’s way too soon,” she says.

“We’re together more often than not, Kens. We do dinner together every night. I watch the girls on Friday nights, because Sharon can’t. And, please don’t get mad, but there’s really no room in your apartment for another person.”

I can see her struggling with her pride—because that’s exactly where her struggle lies. “It’s not like the baby will come out a toddler. I have a good few months where we would be just fine in our apartment.”

“But it could be better here. The girls could have their own rooms, the baby too.” Then, I try for comical and give her a half grin. “That is, unless you wanted your own room. I could deal with a roommate situation, I suppose.” Unfortunately, the joke doesn’t go to ease her, as I’d hoped.

Kensley lowers her voice, her eyes darting to the side to land on her nearest daughter. “We haven’t even slept together, and you’re talking about sharing rooms and houses.” She moves her eyes back to mine, but then, surprising me, she turns the tables. “What if, Liam… What if I decide you’re not good in bed? Huh? Why do I want to break my lease for a potentially stagnant sexual relationship?”

I can’t believe she said that.

I’m grinning wide, ear to fucking ear, and shaking my head. “I’m good, thank you very much.”

“I don’t know…”

Her smile is nearly my undoing.

God, I have loved watching Kensley come out of her shell.

“I think maybe you ladies should have a sleepover tonight,” I say, meaning every word. “Then, in the morning, you can decide if I’m a good bet.”

Her eyes don’t lose their light, but her smile does falter. Just a little. She’s looking to Sawyer again, and while I let her for a moment, I bring my hand to her face and turn her face back toward mine after a bit. “I’m nervous too,” I admit quietly. “This…you, us…them…it’s all too important to just take half-assed measures with. But I want you in my life Kensley, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make life easier for you.”

“Alright.” She nods once, her eyes not leaving mine. Then, with a smile and a shrug, announces, “We’re having a sleepover.”

 

*   *   *

 

In the end, neither of us were super comfortable with Sawyer being in a regular-sized bed, not when she wasn’t used to it over the night. So, after going to dinner, we stopped at a Target to grab toddler rails.

The girls were excited to have a sleepover and Sawyer even more so to be sleeping in a “big girl bed.”

While Kensley did baths, I frantically changed the sheets on my bed.

They weren’t dirty, exactly, but I also didn’t want her sleeping in a bed that hadn’t been made in…over a week.

After, the four of us—with Guinness—hung out in the upstairs bonus room and watched Moana on Netflix, on the eighty-inch television. The guys and I had splurged on a giant LoveSac “sactional”, and when we bought it, we also bought a BigOne Sac.

Because I was the house that did the game nights, everyone was cool with me keeping the furniture.

And at this moment, I was more than thankful for it.

I had my girls snuggled in close on the giant beanbag chair, an oversized blanket over us.

This was what I’d been waiting for, my entire life.

If this was what was meant for me, I was absolutely okay with having had to wait longer than the rest of my family to find my forever, because this?

With Kensley resting against my side, my arm under her neck, London against Kensley’s other side, and Sawyer wedged between us?

This was heaven.

“They’re sleeping,” Kensley whispers, the movie hardly to the halfway point.

I maybe was a little disappointed. I couldn’t very well say, “Hey, let’s watch the last half of the movie,” especially as it was likely one Kensley had watched on repeat many, many times before.

How do I figure?

London was quoting the entire first twenty minutes.

When her voice stopped, I should have guessed she was nearly asleep.

“I suppose we should get them in bed,” I whisper back, and Kensley taps my chest once.

“Probably. You can finish the movie if you’d like,” she teases. “I heard the disappointment in your voice.”

“Smartass,” I mumble, but I turn my face and press a kiss to her cheek. “Let’s get the rugrats in bed, then.”

We carefully untangle ourselves from the girls, and I turn off the media center before dropping the remote back down to the Sac.

“Let me get London,” I say when Kensley bends. “You probably shouldn’t be lifting her so much anymore.”

Kensley dares to lift her brows at me, and I shrug. “You’re like, six months pregnant, Kensley.”

“I’d argue with you, but it’s not worth the energy.” She’s not looking at me, but down at her daughters, but I know she’s smiling. A smartassed comment is on the tip of my tongue, but I let it slide.

This once.

When Kensley moves past me so she can scoop up Sawyer, I brush my hand over her belly before leaning in to kiss her lips once. “Thank you,” I tell her.

“For?”

I rub my thumb between her eyes, and she relaxes the frown that popped up. “For being here.”

She just shakes her head, but then is smiling again. “Just wait until they’re waking you up at five in the morning. Then, you may reconsider everything.”

Not happening. I keep that to myself. Instead, I kiss her again before lifting London off the sac. Immediately, she wraps her legs and arms around me, still sleeping, and I wait until Kensley has Sawyer situated.

“Guinness. Downstairs,” I quietly command. The lazy dog was still laying down but gets up at my words. After stretching, he leads us to the main level.

Rather than head to the bedrooms, Guinness goes to the living room, where he has a dog bed near the door. As he normally sleeps in my room, I’m a little confused, but part of me wonders if he’s guarding the house.

It makes me smile.

He’s just in love with these girls as I am.

Kensley brings Sawyer into the room that’s across from mine, and I bring London into the one that Sawyer napped in the other day. When figuring out rooms, Kensley stated she’d rather have Sawyer closer, so the room closest to mine, it was.

The moment London is placed on the bed, she rolls to her side.

Still out.

These girls really do sleep heavily.

I bring the covers up over her and run my hand through her hair. The more time I spend with these girls, the more I hate Mark.

What an asshole.

Not once in the weeks I’d known these girls, has he tried to see them.

There was the video chat fiasco, sure, and yeah, when Sharon has them, she makes sure Mark isn’t over, but he still hasn’t tried to get in contact with Kensley and arrange something.

What kind of man turns his back on his daughters? Especially daughters as sweet as these girls?

I just don’t get it.

Shaking my head, I step away from the bed and, before leaving, bend down to flip on the nightlight Kensley and I placed in the outlet. Like the girls’ Frozen one at their apartment, this one illuminates an image to the ceiling too, but rather than Anna and Elsa, this one was a Super Why one—Owlet, I was told.

Leaving the door jarred open, I look to my left; Kensley isn’t in the hall, so I go back into the living room, making sure the doors are locked, house armed, and lights off. Guinness hardly looks up at me from his bed, where he is indeed guarding the door. He sighs heavily when I double check the locks there, and I bend down to a kneel, petting his square head. “You’re a good guy, Guinness.” He looks up at me, just his eyes, and I feel like he’s trying to tell me he takes his job seriously.

I pat the side of his jaw twice before standing. “Good boy.”

This time when I reach the end of the hall, Kensley is stepping out of Sawyer’s room.

“She woke up a little,” she explains in a whisper. I look past her and, in the darkened room with a Minnie Mouse image transferring light, can see Sawyer’s shadowed form in the middle of the bed. “She’s sleeping again. Just needed some cuddles.”

“You or her?” I tease. “Because I can give you cuddles.”

Kensley reaches for my hand. “I’m looking forward to those cuddles.”