Once Around (40 page)
Authors: Barbara Bretton
"
Mommy bought a very pretty new dress," she said, "and she'll be happy to model it for you when we get home."
He put his arm around her shoulders and brushed her ear with his lips.
"Better be careful," he murmured low. "That's how you ended up this way." He gloried in each of her pregnancies and seemed to genuinely find her just as sexy with child as without.
Jessy and Spencer each took one of little Charlie
's hands. "Come on," Spencer said in his best lawyerly tone of voice. "There's a double pepperoni at Tony's, and it's got the Mackenzie name on it."
"
Me, too," Lizzie said, lifting her hands toward her own parents. "I want pizza."
"
I guess I want pizza, too," Molly said, taking her daughter's right hand.
"
Won't catch me arguing with a double pepperoni," Rafe said, taking his daughter's left hand.
"
Pizza!" crowed Josh, and they all laughed.
"
Happy?" Rafe asked her as they waited for the light to change at the corner.
"
Very," she said. "Are you?"
He looked at their children then met her eyes;
'I think you know the answer to that."
"
Hey!" a familiar voice called out. "Wait for me!" Sarah, Rafe's teenage daughter, popped out of the knit shop and joined them. She was tall and slender, with her mother's light brown hair and Rafe's beautiful blue eyes.
"
I thought you were meeting us at Tony's," Molly said, smiling at the girl.
"
I got sidetracked," Sarah said with a grin. "Some new Noro worsted silk came in and I had to check it out."
Rafe launched into
a rant on crazy yarn prices that had Sarah rolling her eyes, Lizzie giggling, and little Josh pulling on his hair.
"
I give up," Rafe said finally. "I know when I'm outnumbered."
"
Come on, you guys." Sarah put Josh on her shoulders and took Lizzie's hand. "I think the parental units feel like singing some Barry Manilow."
"
Barry Manilow!" Rafe bellowed. "The day you catch me—"
"
She's only kidding, sweetie." Molly winked at Sarah. "She knows you don't listen to Barry Manilow."
"
She thinks I'm an old man," Rafe muttered as Sarah and the kids moved away from them.
"
She's supposed to think you're an old man," Molly said. "You're her father.'
"
Next thing you'll tell me the rest of our kids will feel the same way."
"
If we're lucky," Molly said. "That's the way these things usually go."
"
Mothers get a free ride?"
"
No such luck. Sarah reminded me that Engelbert was playing down in Atlantic City this weekend. She thought I might like to know."
"
Looks like we're in this together," he said as they walked hand in hand toward the pizzeria. "Us against them."
She squeezed his hand.
"I like those odds."
"
Would you do it again?" he asked as they stopped to wait for the light to change. "I might never be able to give you Paris."
She thought about how it felt to fall asleep in his arms each night
, how it felt to wake up to the sweet sound of her children's voices. She thought about the laughter that filled the house and the warmth and the love.
"
I don't need Paris," she said as he drew her into his arms. "I already have everything I'll ever need right here."
A home. A family. A man who loved her the way she
'd dreamed of being loved. Paris couldn't compare to what she'd found right there in New Jersey.
"
Guys!" Sarah's voice floated toward them from across the street. "Come on! The pizza's waiting on us."
He cupped her face between his hands
, the way he had the first time he ever kissed her.
"
You heard what she said." Molly touched a finger to her husband's lips. "The pizza's waiting on us."
"
Let it wait."
He kissed her long and slow and sweetly
, right there at the corner of Main and Church streets with the late-afternoon sun warm against their backs and the delighted laughter of their children filling their hearts.
"
Daddy, stop kissing Mommy!" Lizzie's high-pitched little voice rang out from the other side of the street. "We're hungry!"
Their kiss ended in gentle laughter.
"I think she means business," Rafe said, brushing a lock of Molly's hair back from her face.
"
She always means business when there's pizza on the horizon." Molly rubbed away a smudge of lipstick from the corner of his mouth.
He took her hand in his
, and together they crossed the street to catch up with their future.
The End
More eBooks by Barbara Bretton
The Crosse Harbor Time Travel Trilogy
The PAX Romantic Adventure Series
All We Know of Heaven - coming soon
The Sugar Maple Chronicles
Charmed: A Sugar Maple Short Story
Paradise Point, New Jersey - women's fiction
Chances Are - coming soon
Other Titles
Once Around
Novellas
Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 50 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries and she has received starred reviews from both
Publishers Weekly
and
Booklist.
Barbara has been featured in articles in
The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,
among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.
Her awards include both RT Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement awards; a RITA nomination from RWA; Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of
Contemporary Authors.
Barbara cooks, knits, and writes in New Jersey with her husband,
How to contact Barbara:
Barbarabretton.com - website
Barbarabretton - Facebook, Twitter
Wickedsplitty - Ravelry
Barbarabretton AT gmail DOT com - email
