Two hours after we loaded up the pickup, we arrive at the cabin. I gasp when it comes into view. The simplistic beauty of the landscape that surrounds it is already relaxing me. If this place is in any way similar to where Barrett and Tess had their getaway last fall, I can see why they fell in love all over again.

“This is incredible.”

I look behind me when no one responds and see the boys both staring out their windows, sullen expressions on their faces.

Andy reaches over and squeezes my thigh. He inhales deeply before letting it out with a loud puff.

“You guys ready to show me around?”

The sound of my voice brings the boys’ eyes to me, and a faint smile appears on both their faces.

“Sure,” Reece says sadly.

When Andy parks the pickup, the four of us open the doors and get out, the gravel under our feet crunching as we move. I stretch my arms above my head, bend over, and hear a sharp intake of breath. I stand straight and turn around to see Andy standing behind me, eyes wide and nostrils flaring.

His eyes make a lazy trail from my legs, slowing up to get their fill of my chest, covered by a fitted dark gray graphic tee shirt that says Bless This Mess.

“Damn.”

I blush and raise my eyebrows at him, but he doesn’t look apologetic in the least.

“Dad! Come onnnnn!” Reece yells from the door.

Andy digs the keys out of his front pocket and grabs my hand, threading his fingers through mine, as he walks us to the cabin.

As soon as we’re inside, he releases my hand — because the boys take his place, tugging me through the open space to show me everything.

The square wooden beam that Aidan ran into the corner of, cracking open his forehead and needing stiches.

The slight slope in the hardwood floor that they dramatically slide down with their sock-covered feet, even though it’s barely noticeable.

The giant washtub basin in the utility room that they once had to sit in to get a tomato juice bath when they were toddlers after they’d been sprayed by a skunk.

My heart sinks as they go through memory after memory in every room of the house. The three bedrooms both of them have stayed in on numerous occasions, never committing to preferring one room over another.

“This is your room this weekend, that work?” Andy says, sidling up next to me.

None of the rooms are fancy or decorated much. The room we’re standing by is bright and decorated in a blue and yellow that reminds me of summertime.

“Yup. That works for me.”

“And that’s my room,” he whispers, his hot breath tickling my neck as he points to the door right next to mine.

It doesn’t escape my notice that there’s a Jack-and-Jill bathroom that joins the two rooms.

I shiver when I feel his lips hit my temple and his hands squeeze my shoulders.

“Good to know,” I whisper, my body falling back into his just slightly.

“Mm hmm. Come on, the boys want to show you their favorite part of this whole place.”

He takes my hand, and we walk to the back yard, the pond a few hundred feet away from the porch on the backside of the cabin.

The four of us stand, side by side, as we stare at the small body of water that I’m sure held so many family moments. It’s surrounded by trees and tall grasses, a long wooden — very old looking — dock that extends into the pond along with a bright blue windy slide that ends over the water, and two wooden benches.

The sun glistening off the water sparkles and shines.

The only sounds we hear are birds chirping and frogs croaking, leaves rustling in the light breeze.

Peaceful.

Serene.

“It’s beautiful. I can see why this is your favorite.”

“It’s even better in the summer when you can swim and catch frogs. But one time Aidan caught a snapping turtle when we were fishing, and that was kind of freaky.”

We all laugh. Them at the memory of it, and me at the image. “I bet.” I smile, looking at Aidan. “It didn’t snap you, did it?”

“No. Fortunately.”

“You would have died laughing,” Reece says, through his own laughter. “Grandma’s little white fluff ball of a dog just couldn’t wait to dive into the water, but there was all this black gunk on the bank, and he just ran right through it after a frog. He came back, and you couldn’t see a single bit of white on him. Then he jumped right into Grandma’s lap. She screamed. And then she smelled him.”

I giggle and wrinkle my nose. “That bad?” I ask.

“Worse,” Andy chuckles, shifting to stand behind me, his hand resting on my hip. “It’ll be too cold to swim this weekend, but we can fish, if you want.”

“Really?”

“Of course! Christine, you have to. Dad fries fish the best.”

I twist around to look at him. This close, he almost takes my breath away. Between his gorgeous eyes and radiant smile and smell, the mixture of cinnamon and man, ugh. He’s just so much everything. “You do?”

“Well, to be fair, what we catch up here we fry right away, so it’s fresh.”

“Okay. I definitely can’t wait for that.”

“Let’s go get our poles,” Aidan suggests.

“Nope. You know the rules. Everyone unpacks first. Then you can go do what you want.”

The boys groan but get to work without complaining.

We all make our way to the pickup, and I cringe when I see all the bags in the back.

“Are we staying longer than through the weekend?” Reece asks, a bit innocently, but the twinkle in his eye tells me he’s teasing.

I roll my eyes.

“I’m a girl?” Like that explains everything.

“So, you pack enough for a month?”

“Yes.”

“Girls are so weird.”

“No. Girls aren’t weird. We just prefer to change clothes every day.”

Reece’s face breaks out in a cheesy grin. “But, I’m on vacation and don’t want to think. This way, I don’t have to put any thought into what I’m going to wear every day. As long as it doesn’t smell, I’m good.”

“The boy has a point,” Andy chuckles.

“I have no words,” I joke.

Not only did I pack a lot of clothes, I felt like I was bringing enough food to last us a month rather than just a long weekend. Of course, no one complained about those extra bags. I’ve been around the boys (and Andy) long enough to know that you can’t have enough food around, but Reece may be right. Not that I would admit it, but I know I over-packed just a bit for clothing. I’ll just text Bri that if she decides to head up when she’s done working, she doesn’t need to pack clothes.

After unloading and getting everything put away, we make sandwiches, which they inhale quickly (see above about never having enough food) and decide to go for a walk so they can keep showing me around.

I use the bathroom off my room to freshen up a little bit.

“Come on, Christine!” Aidan hollers from downstairs.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” I giggle and slide my arms into my jacket.

I walk into the kitchen just as the boys shove a grocery bag into a cupboard, Aidan whispering, “Hurry up before she comes!”

“I know, Aidan. I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t say you were, but Dad wants it to be a surprise.”

“Duh. You don’t think I know that? He only told us that like a million times.”

“Then close the cupboard before she comes in!”

I hear a door slam and then, “I can’t believe she didn’t see the bag when we were unpacking.”

Reece snickers, “That’s because she was weighed down with all those bags of clothes.”

I step back behind the wall, not having a clue on what they’re hiding, but that’s okay. I press my lips together to stop the giggle that’s wanting out.

It’s obviously something important to them, and so it’s important to me.

So, I’ll wait.

* * *

"I’m starving,” both boys whine at the same time.

I giggle, feeling grateful that I packed as much food as I did.

Yesterday we hiked through the woods until we got to an open field where we plopped down on the ground on a blanket that Andy carried with him and ate sandwiches, laid back, and watched the clouds make shapes.

The last two days were glorious and relaxing, and last night ended with us munching on tortilla chips and Rotel cheese dip in front of the TV, watching a movie at the end of the night.

The boys both curled up in oversized chairs while Andy and I took the couch.

Andy had showered and changed into a pair of lounge pants but forgot his shirt.

Which under any other circumstances I would have enjoyed.

Immensely.

The fact that the shirt was forgotten when his sons were present and we were still officially-unofficially in the friend zone meant that I couldn’t explore the shirtless chest the way I wanted to.

All it did was cause a distraction, and I’m pretty sure he knew it.

The smirk that didn’t leave his face was one indication.

And the low chuckle when he heard me suck in a deep breath after he stretched his arm across the back of the couch was another.

“Payback could be brutal,” I murmured to him.

“Oh, I’m counting on it,” he whispered back.

So, this morning when I woke up, I decided Operation: What Goes Around Comes Around will commence after Bri and Grady arrive. I figure I’ve been wearing far too many clothes on this trip and my skin could use a little kiss from the sun. When we go outside a little later, I think I need to lie out by the pond. In my swimsuit.

It might not be the most unique of paybacks, but I’m using what’s in my arsenal.

But until then, I have a couple of hungry boys on my hands.

“Help me make the marinara sauce for the lasagna tonight? Bri and Grady are coming up early, and I’m sure they’ll be hungry. Then you guys can have a snack or something to tide you over until lunch. You know, since we ate breakfast a whole hour ago,” I ask them both, noticing they smirked at my use of the word snack. So childish, I’m sure.

“Sure.”

Shrug.

Smile.

Fourteen-year-old boys. Talking my ear off.

But nevertheless, we all get to work.

I give them each a job, and minutes later the three of us are working so well in the kitchen one would think we’d done it a million times. I show them how to chop the onions and garlic, and they laugh at the tears streaming down their faces before sautéing the vegetables.

They help me brown the hamburger and sausage, open the cans of tomatoes, measure out spices. They work hard and ask questions where necessary.

So often, when I’m with the boys, Andy is with us. For obvious reasons. This time alone with them is just what I needed. Especially with everything that’s been happening lately. Between Bri getting closer to graduation and Heather being, well… Heather.

“Thank you for showing us this, Christine,” Aidan says quietly.

“Yeah. It’s actually kind of fun,” Reece adds.

“Did you not expect it to be?”

“Not really. I mean, it’s cooking.”

“It’s not just cooking, though. It’s creating and providing and learning a skill you’ll need for the rest of your lives. Trust me, one day you’ll be thanking me that you have these recipes to fall back on. The girls love a guy who cooks.”

“Is that right?” Andy’s deep voice cuts in. I look toward the sound and see him leaning a shoulder against the wall, watching us.

I nod my head and narrow my eyes.

“You got back early.”

He pushes off the wall and saunters across the tile floor in my direction.

“Doesn’t take much time to grab bait. I see you guys found something to keep you busy?” he asks, his eyes blazing.

“Yeah,” I croak out. “Boys helped me with the sauce for the lasagna tonight.”

“I see.”

“Lots of cooking,” I say nervously when his eyes seem to be reading everything.

“So it seems,” he murmurs.

“Wanna try the sauce, Dad?” Aidan asks, snapping the moment that was becoming electric between us.

“Do I wanna try the sauce?” he asks like it’s the craziest question ever. “Of course, I wanna try it!”

He moves over to the pan on the stove and grabs a spoon from the drawer before dipping it into the pan.

He blows on the sauce a few times and I watch, mesmerized by the shape his lips make when they pucker a bit to cool off the sauce, by his tongue that snakes out to test the temperature.

I blow out a breath of my own, trying to calm the hormones raging inside me.

The spoon slips into his mouth, and I have an immediately irrational flare of jealousy over a piece of metal. It’s ridiculous.

I assumed the more time I spent around Andy, the desire to basically lick him would start to go away. Or at the very least, lessen. But that’s far from what’s happening. The more I get to know him, the quicker, and harder, I’m falling.

I shift my gaze from his mouth to his eyes and find him watching me, his eyes practically dancing.

“Dad? How is it?”

I startle at the sound of Aidan’s voice.

“It’s incredible. I can’t wait to have more,” Andy says, never taking his eyes off me, the implication of his words weighing heavy in the air.

I clear my throat.

“All right, boys, we have to let the sauce simmer for a while then we’ll make the lasagna later.”

“Awesome,” Reece mumbles around a spoonful of cereal, a little bit of milk dribbling out of his mouth as he speaks. Chews. Swallows. Shoves another bite in. “Can we go fishing now?”

I grin. I didn’t even notice him getting something to eat. “Absolutely.”

And that’s what we do. We spend the rest of the day fishing and relaxing by the water. We even get out the paddle boat and play around while trying to stay dry.

The boys even prove their claim that Andy makes some excellent fried fish when he makes us a shore lunch after the boys teach me how to properly catch a fish.

After we finish, the boys start tossing a football back and forth to each other while I try to execute my payback plan.

“So, you really love it when a guy cooks, huh?” he says in my ear.

“Mmm,” I hum, hopefully letting him know that to me, a man who cooks is sexy as hell. But really, he could be slinging manure, and I’d somehow find it sexy.

“Good to know,” he whispers.

My legs are stretched out in front of me, body resting on my hands stretched out behind me. His arm behind mine as we relax, hip to hip, my bare thigh resting against his swim trunks. I don’t even fight the urge to make a cat-like stretch into him when he speaks so close to my ear.

I’ve lost all desire to fight this losing battle of resistance against him.

I may not be in a bikini, but I’m showing the least amount of skin he’s ever seen on me. Add to the fact that the top pushes up my breasts, showing cleavage that I notice his eyes drifting to.

I thought I’d gain some sort of upper hand when I got into my swimsuit and lay out by the pond, but I was so, so wrong.

He takes one look at me, a slow perusal of my body. Then reaches behind his head, grips the collar of his shirt, and pulls it off.

When he notices me ogling him, his nostrils flare and he leans in close, his calloused fingers sliding across the minimal skin showing between my tankini top and my bottoms, causing me to shiver.

“You trying to kill me?” he murmurs in my ear, his voice husky. His lips brush against the shell of my ear, and I tremble, causing my breath to come out in stutters.

“What?” I ask, not even remembering what my plan was in the first place.

“You’re even more gorgeous than I imagined. And I have a big imagination.”

And just like that, he is once again on top.

He chuckles, then kisses my cheek and runs off to play with his boys.