“You can buy that stuff at the park,” Mitch called to me because I was running down the hall.

“Bud, did you get a hat?” I yelled from the bathroom, ignoring Mitch and grabbing the kids’ sun block from their medicine cabinet.

“Yeah, Auntie Mara,” Billy yelled back.

“Billie, honey, did you –?”

“I have a hat!” Billie screamed. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

I shoved the sun block in my big purse while rushing down the hall.

I got to the door.

Then I took them all in and muttered, “Right, let’s go.”

“Yippee!” Billie screeched, Mitch opened the door, she raced out of it, Billy raced after her and I tipped my eyes up to his smiling ones.

“Yippee,” I said softly, smiling huge.

Mitch’s eyes dropped to my mouth then his arm hooked me at the waist, he pulled me to him, his mouth came down on mine and he gave me a short, hot, wet kiss.

Finally he let my mouth go but not my waist, guided me out the door and held me close as we stood outside together while he checked to make sure it was locked.

And there I was doing what I never thought in a million years two months ago I would be doing ever in my life. I was standing in the breezeway pressed close to Ten Point Five Detective Mitch Lawson waiting for him to check to see if my door was locked.

Then, at thirty-one years old, my man took me on my first family visit to an amusement park.

I was wrong.

I didn’t like the real world.

I loved it.

Because it felt like a dream.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Our Kids

I jumped down from Mitch’s SUV, slammed the door and watched with a small, tired smile as a Zombie Billy jumped down from the backseat.

The park was a hit. The kids had a freaking blast and I had one too.

But, best of all, all day Mitch’s eyes were lit with a light that was new to me but it was a light that I liked. It was not his normal sense of humor which was usually easy to trip for Billy, Billie and me. And it was not because it was a sunny day, we had the day off and we were at an amusement park.

It was something else.

I loved him, this I knew. He was my dream man. He thought we were made for each other and I loved that he thought that. As the days and weeks went by and we clicked naturally into each other’s lives, the kids clicking with us, I was even coming to believe he was right.

But that day he gave us all something more.

Yes, in all that he’d given us, he’d given us something more.

We had a blast; the kids were tuckered out because they’d been on the go all day filled with excitement, wonder, adrenalin and a lot of crappy food. Billy, Billie and me, we loved it. Every second of it.

But that light that shown in Mitch’s eyes told me he loved it more. Not because he liked roller coasters and crappy food.

No, because he liked to see us happy, he liked to make us that way and he didn’t mind us knowing it.

From the beginning, he’d demonstrated generosity, selflessness and protectiveness but there was something beautiful about sensing his contentment grow as the hours passed and he got more out of giving something to us than we got out of having it.

I knew before that Mitch would make a great Dad.

But I knew right then that he’d build a beautiful family.

I knew this because he was already doing it.

And knowing that, I loved him more.

Billy slammed his door, taking my mind off my happy thoughts. Then, surprisingly, he drifted to me, his body careening into mine. He slid an arm around my waist, leaning heavily into me and I took his weight, thinking that was beautiful too.

I slid an arm around his shoulders and looked through the SUV windows to see Mitch bent into the backseat. He’d unbuckled a dead to the world Billie and was pulling her out of her booster seat. I watched as he secured her, her little legs around his waist, her head on his shoulder, her arms dangling heavily, Mitch’s arm under her booty. He slammed the door and his other arm wrapped around her back to hold her close to his torso.

Incidentally, that was beautiful too.

I moved Billy toward the sidewalk as Billie and Mitch moved that way and he bleeped the locks.

“The stuff,” I called quietly to Mitch, referring to the variety of souvenirs and spoils of victories Mitch and Billy had won playing games at the park that were in the back of Mitch’s truck.

“Put her down,” Mitch replied just as quietly. “Then I’ll come back and get it.”

I nodded and Billy and I met Mitch and Billie on the sidewalk. I watched Mitch take me and Billy in, again his face registering contentment, that light in his eyes I could see in the evening dark, his lips tipping up. Mine tipped up back at him and my soul sighed.

Maybe that was what he was feeling. His soul sighing.

And, I had to admit, mine sighed again just thinking we gave him that especially with all he was giving us.

We walked up the steps side-by-side and I gave Billy’s shoulders a squeeze.

“Did you have a good day, Bud?” I asked softly.

“Best ever,” he muttered.

Best ever.

He was right. It was the best ever. For all of us. Maybe even Mitch.

I looked back at Mitch to see his still curved lips brushing the top of Billie’s hair.

Yes. It was the best ever. Even for Mitch.

Yeah, oh yeah, I loved Detective Mitchell James Lawson. I loved the family we were building. And I loved that he loved it too.

I looked down to my feet, concentrating on executing the last few steps. My body was pleasantly exhausted and I didn’t want to do a face plant in the stairs to end a great day. Billy’s body remained heavy against mine as we climbed and I kept my gaze at my feet as we made it to the breezeway, my mind winding down, my thoughts happy.

Therefore when I heard Mitch whisper a clipped, “No,” which was shortly followed by a soft, intensely angry, “Hell no,” it so surprised me in the mood I sensed we were all in I lifted my head and twisted my neck to look at him.

His face was carved in stone.

What on earth?

He stopped and I automatically stopped with him, Billy stopping with me. Then I looked where Mitch was looking and I felt my body turn to stone just like Mitch’s face and I knew when Billy saw them because his body did the same against mine.

Mom and Aunt Lulamae were standing outside my door. Their eyes were on us. Their hair was amped out to maximum volume. Their makeup was a tribute to raccoons. Their cle**age was bared. Their arms were crossed on their chests pushing it up and bearing more.

And their faces were smirking.