Thank you so much for reading Here and Now! I hope you enjoyed Miles, Penelope & Kai! I loved this book so much. There was something so fun about the way this story unfolded. I really hope you enjoyed the ride. I wanted to write something else, something to make it even more complete!
I hope you enjoy!
Penelope
“No one warned me that being a girl-dad meant putting together dollhouses at one in the morning,” my husband complains as I enter the living room.
I grin and hand him a cup of cold-brew. He looks at the cup and then back to me. I wait, because … I know he doesn’t drink it or like it, but he continues this charade. “I’m sorry, honey, but Isabelle asked for this and … well, you don’t deny that girl anything.”
Miles takes the cup and I sit next to him, wanting to see what his next move is.
As if he knows my plan, he smiles and takes a sip. “Thanks, I needed caffeine.”
I fight back my laugh and just nod. “I always try to give you what you need.”
Miles’s eyes deepen. “And you do, my love.”
“All right, Romeo, get the dollhouse built before she wakes up and I’ll let you unwrap your present early.”
He grins. “I like this incentive.”
“I thought you might,” I joke back.
Miles hands me the directions. “Can you make sense of this?”
This has to be one of the worst sets of directions I’ve ever seen. There are no numbers or letters to tell you what the parts are, but just photos that you have to guess are correct. Also, there are a ton of parts.
“Where did you buy this?”
“Online.”
“Yes, well, where?”
Miles clears his throat and mumbles something under his breath that I can’t catch.
“Miles?” I ask again.
“Right. Umm, it was some site that Doug told me about.”
I roll my eyes. “So, you were being cheap?”
“Frugal,” he corrects.
I sigh heavily. “Okay, well, Mr. Frugality, I am going to bed since my gifts are assembled and wrapped.” I kiss his cheek.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Miles asks incredulously.
“No, you said”—I drop my voice to mimic his—“I am not paying that much for a dollhouse. I’ll buy it and put it together myself for half that price.”
His eyes narrow. “I don’t sound like that.”
“I think you do.” I shrug.
“You’re really not going to help? It’s for Isa.”
I groan, already knowing I wasn’t going to leave him. “Fine. I’ll help. Drink your coffee because you need to stay awake.”
Miles eyes the cup and then takes another sip, turning his head to no doubt hide his reaction.
“Does it taste okay?” I ask, egging him on because this is clearly the only fun we’ll have tonight.
“It’s great. The best you’ve ever made. Truly,” he lies.
That’s it. I can’t hold back. I burst out laughing and slide down on the floor beside him. He puts the cup on the table and I crawl into his lap, my arms going around his neck. “You are ridiculous and I love you.”
“Me? Why?”
I shake my head. “I know you don’t like coffee. You haven’t since the first time you forced yourself to drink it.”
“That’s not entirely true.”
I raise one brow. “Oh?”
“I didn’t like it then.”
I laugh and kiss him. “So you keep drinking it?”
“You keep making it.”
I love this man so fucking much it hurts. “You drink it because I make it?”
“Of course. I’d drink sludge if you made it, which, to be fair, is pretty much what I’m drinking when you make that. My point though, is that I saw how much you loved when you made that for me the first time. I remember how you looked at me, the smile on your lips, the twinkle in your eyes. More than that, I remember the times after it, when I came in everyday just to get a cup from you and you alone.”
I brush his hair back. “I liked you then.”
“I was falling in love with you. I wanted to see you and the coffee was what made it possible. So, I drink it because even though the taste is fucking terrible, the memories around it aren’t.”
“Oh, Miles,” I say bringing my lips to his. “For years you’ve been doing this. Why? You got the girl.”
He shrugs and rubs his thumb against my lower back. “I know it makes you happy, Penny.”
“You make me happy, not the coffee.”
Although a small part of me did like doing it. At least back then. I would smile and feel that flutter in my belly when he walked in, ready to order and I knew that he would only drink it if I made it.
There was a thrill to it and he’s right, there are memories around it.
“How long have you known?” he asks, his eyes narrowed.
“The truth?”
“Do we lie to each other regularly?” he asks.
I tilt my head. “I’d say your coffee subterfuge answers that one. I’m not in the habit of lying but you, my husband, do it daily when you take this cup to work.”
Each morning we wake up, get the kids ready for school and Isabelle goes to stay with Gran while I work from home. Miles usually makes breakfast while I get the lunches ready and bags packed. Then, I make us each a coffee and Miles drives Kai to school and I bring Isa to Grans.
The way I found out about the coffee was twofold.
“Subterfuge is a bit harsh, more like an innocent omission,” Miles says before he pulls me tighter. “Now, spill it.”
“Fine, you tossed the cup out early one day and Kai saw it, he told Ethan I was going to be so upset and he told Eloise who couldn’t wait to tell me.”
He rolls his eyes. “She’s dead to me.”
That’s a threat said regularly. “Anyway, then I went up to your office to bring you a cup a few days after that and Mrs. Hendrix rolled her eyes and said we really needed to talk about this ridiculousness.”
“That traitor,” he says in mock outrage.
“I told her I knew and this was a test. She then mentioned the hundreds of cups filling up the landfill and asked me to at least start using a reusable cup.”
He laughs, pulling us both down so we’re lying on the floor. “That’s why you bought that cup?”
“It is.”
Miles brushes my hair back. “I feel like I should get points for this. It’s surely a sign of my love and devotion.”
I grin. “Points, huh?”
“At least ten.”
“And what do you plan to do with these points?”
“I think they should be used at the owner’s discretion,” Miles says as his hand moves down my front. “Like, four points are for the shirt.”
“Oh? You want them to be clothing worthy?”
His wolfish smile sends a flutter to my belly. “We can divvy them up in other ways, like a kiss is half a point.”
“Only a half? I didn’t realize you were going to use fractions here.”
“Kiss me for free then.”
He doesn’t have to beg for that. I lean in and kiss him, loving the familiar warmth and texture of his lips. I have kissed him many times and it never gets old. I’m really grateful we have the rest of our lives to continue like this.
“That was good, but I know you can do better.”
I chuckle softly. “Maybe it was you that wasn’t putting your full effort into it.”
“Could be, let me try again.”
Miles rolls us so I’m beneath him. His mouth falls on mine, his tongue sliding into my mouth and our kiss deepens.
After a few seconds, he pulls back. “How was that?”
“Much better.” My hand rests on his chest. “However, you have a dollhouse to build before your daughter wakes up and wants to know why the elves left a half put together thing that she can’t use.”
Miles groans and rolls off me. “The things men do for the women in their lives.”
I snort at that. There is nothing he won’t do for our kids or me. Miles is selfless to the absolute core. If Kai or Isa asks for something, he’ll find a way to make it happen.
“The women in his house appreciate it,” I tell him. “At least you should know that I do.”
Our life has been filled with more love and laughter than I could’ve imagined. He has shown me what true love is in every way.
“I’m glad, love. Truly.” Miles huffs and then gets to his feet. “Now it’s time to finish this.”
We both spend the next hour trying to decipher the directions and putting the dollhouse together. It’s been a long night and while I would love nothing more than to climb into bed, wrapped in his arms, and wake up when they come running in, there’s a gift I want to give him before the morning.
After he flops into bed, I pull the envelope from under my pillow and sit up on my knees. “So. It’s past midnight.”
Miles pulls his arm from over his eyes and looks at me. “What are you up to?”
I smile. “It’s Christmas. Merry Christmas, my love.”
“Merry Christmas, Penny.”
He sits up and cups my face before his lips touch mine. Before I lose my nerve, I pull back and bring the envelope between us. “A gift came a little early,” I say, as I place it on his leg.
“Are you pregnant?”
I shake my head. “No! Not like that.” The look in his eyes tells me he was maybe hoping for that. Although, I guess, it’s kind of a pregnancy in a weird way. “Open it.”
His finger slides under the seal and he pulls the paper out. As he reads, I already have tears streaming down my face.
Miles’s eyes meet mine. “It’s final?”
I nod. “It’s final.”
“He’s mine? Truly.”
“In every way Kai is now your son.”
He reads it again and swipes at his face. “Penelope … I don’t … it’s legal.”
I lean forward, resting my hand on his cheek. “Kai has been your son since the beginning. You’ve loved him like a father and he’s never viewed you as anything else. When you asked to adopt him, I … God, I thought I loved you before, but that moment was everything to us.”
“Kai has been my son in my heart and soul before this paper,” he says softly.
It’s the truth. Miles has never loved Kai differently than he does Isabelle. We’re a family of four and when Miles asked Kai if he could adopt him legally, my son couldn’t contain himself.
“The past is truly behind us now.”
He smiles, one that is full of joy and my heart feels as though it grows ten times in size with the amount of love I have for this man.
“All we have now is forever—as a family.”
Next is Everett & Violet in Against All Odds!
You already know I have thing for the 3rd hero in my series, so … yeah, I love him and I know you will too!
