When Aidan called me today to let me know he was in trouble at school and needed me to come over, I didn’t even blink. I was in the middle of making a batch of scones, and I left everything. I told Emma to take over and hightailed it out of there. Four hours ago, I was still holding strong to my anger.

Two hours ago, I was about to burst into tears from Andy’s apologies.

And right now, I’m confused.

Confused because Andy’s tearing through my house. Naked. Throwing every box he can find from my basement up the stairs.

“Honey? Care to tell me why you’re redecorating while your whacker is still hanging out?”

He stops mid-throw and bursts out laughing.

“Whacker?”

“Well, what do you call it? Nope. Never mind. Just explain to me what’s happening here.” My hand doing an up and down motion as I speak.

“Explain what?” he asks, turning his head to the side and giving me that grin that could make a preacher’s wife swoon.

“Andy, you’re still naked. Not that I mind. At all. But what’s with the boxes?”

“You’re moving.”

If I thought I was confused before, it doesn’t even come close to what I feel now.

“Pardon?”

“To my house.”

“Umm. Back up. When did we decide this?”

He prowls up the steps, naked as the day he was born, and arrests my lips in a soul-crushing kiss.

“Move in with us?” It barely comes out as a question, rather much more like a statement, but that does nothing to change the fact that my stomach flutters from the declaration.

“Like… now?”

“Yes. I spent two weeks without you because I was an idiot, Christine. I’m not spending more time away from you two.” He places a hand on my stomach as he says it, but his eyes never leave mine. “And before you get all pregnancy-hormonal on me, I want you with me. Not just because you’re carrying my baby. I want there to be no question.”

“I wasn’t…” But I can’t finish the sentence, knowing it would be a lie. I can’t deny the fact that I was a little worried about that. I don’t question his love for me, but it did cross my mind that he could want me back simply because I’m carrying his baby.

“I know that’s where your head was going. And I know it’s my fault that the thought even crossed your mind. I’ll never make you question that again. That’s my promise to you.”

“It’s a good promise,” I murmur quietly.

“It is. I love you, Christine.”

It’s not the first time he’s said it; it’s not even the first time he’s said it in the last few hours. He’s definitely open with his I love yous. But it doesn’t matter. Every time I hear it, my heart flops. “I love you, too.”

“So, you will? Move in with me and the boys? If I come home without you in tow I think they’ll throw my ass out of my own house.”

“Don’t you think we should discuss this?”

He rears back. “What’s to discuss?”

“Well, the fact that we just got back together a couple hours ago for one thing.”

“But you said you forgave me.”

“And I did.” He raises his eyebrows, so I correct myself. “I do. I’m not mad, but I don’t think jumping into moving in together is the answer.”

“That’s not why I’m doing this,” he tries to explain.

“I know, but don’t you think we still have a lot to figure out?”

He pulls at the hair on his head.

And he’s still naked.

Standing right in front of me.

All I would have to do is reach out my hand a mere few inches and I’d be able to grip him.

This entire conversation is feeling more than a little awkward for that reason alone.

“Can you put on some clothes, maybe?”

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

He takes a step closer.

“Andy,” I groan, looking down with my head in my hands.

Bad idea.

Now I’m just staring right down at him.

“Christine,” he mock groans.

“I’m serious. We can’t go from fighting to moving in together! Not without talking to the boys first.”

He studies me for a few beats. “You’re right.” He marches off, walking into the front room where some of our clothes were discarded in our haste to get our hands on each other once again.

He reaches into the front pocket of his jeans, pulling out his phone.

He taps a few times then brings the phone up to his ear.

“Aidan. Get Reece on speaker.”

A few moments pass, and I nibble on my thumbnail, shifting from one foot to the other.

“You both there? Good. Hang tight.”

He pulls the phone away, taps again then walks over to me.

“You want Christine to move in with us, boys?”

“You fixed it? You got her back?” Reece says loudly, excitedly.

“I did, but she seems to be on the fence about where she’s supposed to be living.”

I gape at him, hardly believing my ears.

“With us, Dad. Make sure you tell her she’s supposed to be living with us,” Aidan says.

He gives me a look, and I do my best to glare in return.

“I’ll make sure to let her know,” he says, grinning from ear to ear.

“You are such a brat!” I whisper.

“Is that her?”

Dammit. How did they hear that?

“Do you boys have bat hearing or something?”

“Christine, please. We want you to live with us. We need a woman’s touch!”

“Aidan Simpson you did not just say that!”

“What? You know it’s true.”

Andy chuckles. “Thank you, boys, you did your job.”

“So, you’ll move in?” Reece asks, so much hope in his voice I have a hard time not just saying yes to him and giving in.

“Your dad and I need to discuss it, but…”

“Make it happen, Dad!”

“How about your dad and I figure everything out, and we’ll be over with supper in a little bit?”

“With your stuff,” Aidan says with authority.

“Let’s just take things one day at a time, shall we?”

“Fine. But, Christine, we want you to know… we’re more stubborn than you are. And, we’re willing to play dirty.”

“Reece!” I cry out his name, appalled. I tsk. “I swear. It’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”

“Yeah, you’ve told me that a time or two. It would be easier to watch out for me if you lived with us, you know.”

I gasp. Totally walked into that one.

“You do play dirty,” I say, narrowing my eyes at their father. Who is… still naked. And completely unashamed about it, too. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s… yep. He’s hard. As in, standing at attention, pointing in my direction hard.

Oh my.

My eyes seem to have lost their focus. Or gained it, depending on which way you look at it. I can’t tear them away from him.

“See you soon, guys! We’ll clear some space in Dad’s closet!” Aidan hollers before they hang up.

“Clearly, your sons get their tactics from you. That was low, Andy. How am I supposed to say no to them?”

“Kind of the point.”

“Why aren’t you putting clothes on?”

“Why? So that when I convince you to move in with me, I have to undress again before we have sex right here on the living room floor? Think about it. Once you live with us, you won’t be as loud as you want to be.”

“I thought you were trying to sell me on this whole idea?”

“I am. See, funny thing. I’ve learned a little about you. And, aside from me behaving like a complete moron in recent weeks, I get you. I also know that you care more about those boys — and hopefully me — than screaming like a banshee during sex.”

“You’re so annoying.”

He nods his head seriously. “I know. It would bother me to be around someone who’s right all the time, too.”

I growl. I can’t help it. He’s such a smart ass. So cocky and full of himself. But he somehow makes it loveable.

He steps closer, dropping his phone to the couch, and wraps his hands around my biceps.

“Christine. Is it so awful that we want you living with us? Is there really anything wrong with that? You knew it would happen eventually. Now that I pulled my head out of my ass, I’m ready to keep moving forward.”

“But you literally just pulled it out of your ass.”

“Not exactly,” he murmurs, and I narrow my eyes, about to ask him what that means, but he continues on before I get the chance. “Just because my head was up there doesn’t mean that I didn’t miss the hell out of you. Or think about you constantly.”

“I thought about you, too,” I admit.

“Of course, you did.” He smiles, spreading his arms out to his side then points to his… yeah. He’s pointing to what’s pointing at me.

I roll my eyes in return.

“You might want to get that checked out, that whole eye rolling thing. You do it a lot to me.” He jumps out of the way when I reach for him, ready to smack him on the chest. He backs away until he’s in the kitchen, out of my reach.

“You’re so annoying!” I yell.

I hear him open the fridge.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m hungry!”

“Now?”

“Why not now? I worked up an appetite earlier. Didn’t you?”

Food?

Oh yeah.

“I could eat.”

And then my tongue gets stuck in my throat, and I have to cross my legs where I stand to stop from peeing myself because there stands Andy, in a whipped cream bikini.

He’s smiling, completely unashamed, as he runs an index finger through the white foam covering his right nipple, bringing it up to his mouth so he can suck it clean.

He moans, closing his eyes and dropping his head back.

It should be weird.

It’s mesmerizing and erotic and has me peeling my clothes away in my living room like a wanton slut.

His nostrils flare as I get closer.

He grabs me roughly, bringing us chest to chest, whipped cream smearing between us.

“Now we match,” he says in a low voice.

“Hmmm. Whatever are we gonna do about it?”

The wicked gleam in his eyes proves to me that he knows exactly what he intends to do about it, and his plans match nicely with mine.

We don’t make it back to his house for a few hours. My stuff is far from packed, but I know there’s time for that. When I walk up to Andy’s house, a big handmade Welcome Home sign hangs on the entrance door greeting me.

Beneath the sign, stand the boys and a crib.

I look at Andy and scrunch my eyebrows.

He scrubs a hand along the back of his neck and shrugs.

“So, uh, a few nights ago I went for a drive. Needed to clear my head. I ended up at your place.”

“What? But you didn’t come in?”

“No. I realized that you deserved more than me showing up in the middle of the night. So, I called Barrett, told him I was heading into the shop to go through lumber. He asked why, and I told him he’d find out soon enough.” He smirks because he knows that Barrett was probably dying to find out the reason. “I brought it home and…” he gestures to the crib.

“Wait, you made this?”

“I did.”

“In… a day?” I exclaim because it’s… well, it’s beautiful. And perfect.

It’s stained a dark walnut finish and has detail carved into the head and foot of the crib. I walk closer and notice the detail isn’t just some random scrolling. It’s an S. For Simpson.

“But, how did you…” My voice trails off, and my tears don’t even have time to threaten spilling over. They just make a fast trail down my cheeks.

“I had a little help,” he says with a shrug.

I look at the boys who are both beaming with pride.

“You did this?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

“We all did. They stained and varnished it. It was a team effort.”

I don’t even know what to say.

A few days ago, I felt alone. And now? Now I have more family than I could have ever dreamed of.

“Thank you,” I tell the three men in my life, and it doesn’t feel like enough, but by the looks on their faces, it is.

Andy pulls me back outside and kisses me softly on the lips, his fingers skimming through my hair.

“I love you,” he says against my lips, and I whisper the words back to him that I know we’ll tell each other for the rest of our lives.

And when Andy picks me up to walk me over the threshold, I know that with him it would always feel like home.