Hard Break (Deadlines & Diamonds, #5) (22 page)

Twenty-Four

N
o longer exhausted, Ian rolled over in bed to glance at the clock on the dresser. He didn’t use it for an alarm. He had his phone for that, but it was easier on the eyes to simply roll over and glance at the bright red numbers.

Five-forty-nine.

He shouldn’t be surprised. He flopped back down, his arms and legs going spread eagle. He grunted a curse. He’d been awake, staring at the ceiling, since four-fourteen. His body actually let him sleep in an additional fourteen minutes. Go him.

The marathon he’d been running the last week had finally kicked his ass last night. As much as he longed to take Kayla to his bed, he’d been relieved she’d between-the-lines’d it and kicked h
im out of her house. Oh, he could’ve stayed. She’d never have said the words, but that was okay. He needed to get his internal sleep clock back to normal. He’d expected to pass out cold as soon as he hit the sheets. Instead his mind churned over the weekend ahead. Finally, when sleep swamped him, he’d dreamed of Kayla. Dreamed wasn’t exactly right. He’d relived making love to her, in his dreams.

G
eez, he couldn’t wait to do that again.

Very, very soon, if he had anything to say about it.

He rolled over onto his side and slammed a fist into his pillow. He probably should just get his lazy ass out of bed and start his day.

The doorbell rang.

He jerked upright, listening.

Another cheery
ding-dong
that didn’t belong in the early morning hours.

“What the
hell?” He hopped out of bed, stopped at the dresser for a pair of sweats, damn near breaking his neck as he tried to get them on his body while jogging down the staircase.

He whipped the door open and
a
WTF
crossed his thoughts, only narrowly missing his lips because of the little person grinning up at him.

“Penelope?
” He hopped out on the porch, glancing at Kayla’s house. “What are you doing here?”

She folded her arms over her chest, not at all pleased with her reception. “I hungy.”

“Where’s your mom?”

“S’
eeping.” She sniffed and stomped a slippered foot. “I hungy.”

“How’d you get out?”

“I c’imbeded out my crib.” Her grin glowed with pride.

“
Good girl,” he said, although he wasn’t sure it was a good thing at all. “But I want to know how you got out of your house.”

“Oh.” Her grin widened. “Out front door.”

Ian fought the need to slap himself in the face. Of course, she’d climbed out of her crib and come out the front door. Dammit.

“Come on.” He took her by the hand.

She jerked her hand away, stomping her foot again. “I. Hungy.”

He scooped her up into his arms, striding toward Kayla’s. “And I intend to feed you,
princess, as soon as I put together some pieces of the puzzle.”

“Puzzle?” She stopped struggling. “I like puzzles.”

“Good. Now, help me figure out how you got out of the house.”

“Easy,” she announced, her blond curls bobbing with his frantic steps.

As they crossed the threshold, he no longer needed her help. The chair that normally sat next to the front door had been pushed in front of it. Only a small crack, just enough for Pene to escape existed. He forced the chair away, entering Kayla’s home. He expected a loud
scraaape!
but no sound came. No warning for Kayla to know her daughter was breaking free.

Ian hugged the little girl to him, even as he wanted to
paddle her butt for scaring him shitless. Knowing exactly where she was didn’t soften the
what-could-have-happened
.

S
itting Penelope on the chair, he closed the door and knelt down in front of her. “Do you know how dangerous this was?”

“You no’ dang’rous. You Ian.”

“Not me, sweetheart.” He slapped the chair. “This.”

She opened her mouth and he
knew
she was going to say something about the chair not being dangerous either. He cut her off by saying, “Not me, not the chair, your stunt, Penelope. You leaving without telling anyone. That was dangerous. You scared me.”

She shook her head, confusion glistening in her eyes. “I knock your door. You know where I is. I want to see you. I hungy.”

Good grief, it was like talking to a post. A very sweet, precious post.

“Promise me—” H
e paused when his voice cracked. “Promise me, Penelope, you will never walk out the front door without telling someone where you’re going. Okay?”

“Okay.” She huffed and sighed. “Now I eat? I so hungy!” The last word came out as a whine.

“Yes. Come on, I’ll fix you breakfast. But first I need to go back to my house and get my phone. You wanna go with me?”

She frowned, considered her options for a moment then nodded. “Hurry. I’m so so hungy!”

“You know what, I’ll fix you a bowl of cereal first. How’s that?”

Her frown deepened. “Waffles.”

He frowned back. “Then you’re gonna have to wait until I grab my phone.”

“I wait here.” She toddled off toward the kitchen. “Hurry. Or I do it myself.”

B
y the time Kayla woke up, the house was buzzing. She could hear the television on downstairs and the unmistakable
Sponge. Bob. Square. Pants.
coming from it. She rolled and stretched. A yawn cracked her jaw. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard Penelope’s beckon yet. Maybe the bigger kids had gotten her. It was sweet of them to let her sleep in. It’d been a long time since she’d still been in bed at seven-twenty-one.

She curled her arms around her pillow and sighed. She could get very used to this.

Except then she sniffed and smelled…waffles?

Surely
, her nose was broken. There was no way she could smell waffles. She sat up and sniffed again. No, she most certainly smelled waffles, and not the toaster kind.

Grabbing her robe and wrapping it around her body, she ran down the stairs. With each step, she knew she wasn’t dreaming and prayed the kitchen wouldn’t greet her with a nightmare.

Nope, no nightmare. A dream come true.

All three kids sat at the counter. Ian, in a pair of sweats and an old wife-beater tank top,
whisked the pancake batter.

“Shouldn’t we wake Mommy?” Sadie asked.

“Nah,” Ian said, the muscles of his arms flexing with the stirring of the batter. “She’s tired, let her sleep.”

Chase turned, noticed her, and guffawed. “She’s not
that
tired.”

And then the kitchen exploded in
good morning
s. Ian took a step toward her. She saw he wanted to kiss her. She wanted to kiss him too. But when he stopped, she didn’t close the distance. The kids definitely complicated things.

She kissed the tops of their heads. “Did everyone sleep well?”

“Yep. I stunt this morning,” Penelope announced, grinning.

“
A stunt?”

“You don’t wanna know.” Chase stabbed a piece of waffle, rubbed it around in the syrup covering the bottom of his plate and popped it into his mouth.

“But you need to know.” Ian lifted the lid to the wafflemaker and used a fork to remove the waffle. “We’ll talk about it later.”

“I e’caped.” She tried to look remorseful, not at all succeeding.

“So much for talking about it later,” Ian muttered.

“What do you mean you escaped?” Kayla’s pulse took off like a shot.

“I only go to Ian’s.”

“You only—
” She looked at Ian. “What is she talking about?”

Ian wiped his hands on a dishcloth. “It’s
fine.”

“My little girl gets out and you tell me
it’s fine. It is most certainly not fine.”

He wrapped her in a hug. “Let’s talk.”

She nodded against his chest. With an arm around her, he led her into the living room. He sat down on the chair next to the front door, patted his lap and she sat too.

“Penelope can climb out of her crib now. Aren’t you proud?”

Unamused, she raised one brow.

“She decided she was
hungy
and she wanted to eat. She slid this very chair over and unhooked the child latch. My doorbell rang at a little before six. Scared the shit out of me to find her on my doorstep.” He hugged Kayla a little tighter. “I talked with her, told her how dangerous it was and made her promise not to walk out the front door without telling someone.”

Kayla had to admit she pro
bably would’ve spanked her daughter for a stunt like that. Maybe have locked her in her room until she was old enough to move away from home. Ian handled it better than she would have. And she was the one with all the years of parenting experience.

“What am I going to do?”

“Well, I have a plan. And I hope it’s okay, because the guys will be here in an hour.” He turned her so she straddled him, her robe falling open to reveal the lacy nighty underneath. His gaze dropped to her cleavage and he licked his lips. He pulled her close, but instead of kissing her as she expected, he rested his cheek against her chest. He held her tight. She couldn’t move, not that she tried, but it would’ve been nice to breathe.

“Your plan?”

He kissed her then, right on her sternum, above her beating heart. “I love you.”

She smiled, loving the twinkle in his eye. “I love you, too. What’s your plan?”

He kissed her lips. She melted into his touch. How could she not? She loved this man with everything she was.

“Mmmm,” he moaned against her lips. “Are you sure about the no-sex-thing?”

She laughed. “Your plan?”

“My buddy is in construction. He has experience with block walls. He’ll be here in about an hour to knock down and rebuild the wall between our houses. When he’s finished there will be an opening for the kids to use. That way they can go between the houses without going
...You don’t like it?”

Don’t like it?
It was the perfect solution.  “I think it’s a great idea. I’ll pay for half of it.”

“No
, you won’t. He’s doing me a favor. Not charging me a dime.”

“He’s doing it for free?
”

A single shoulder shrugged. “I didn’t say that.”

“What’s he charging you?”

Both shoulders strived for nonchalant. “
A bottle of Grey Goose and a couple tickets to the next
Rockets
game.”

“Let me pay half.”

“Okay.” He gave in a little too easily. “You can take care of the Goose.”

She sealed their deal with a kiss. She may have started the contact, but Ian took control. He crushed her to him. His tongue ran over her lips, sliding into her mouth when she gasped her approval.
Maybe she should rethink the no-sex-thing.

I
f his cell phone hadn’t rung, Ian may have taken Kayla right then, right there on the chair, right next to her front door. And that would’ve been so very wrong.

She jerked away from his kiss, her breaths p
uffing into his face. “Sorry, I guess I kind of…lost control.”

“I’m not complaining,” he assured her. He lifted her just enough to get at the phone in his pocket. He smiled after one look at the caller ID. “Hey, man, you on your way?”

“Yeah, I’m bringing a couple of my guys. We should have the whole job knocked out in a four hours. Tops.” His friend chuckled. “I still can’t believe you want me to knock down a wall so your neighbor’s kids can show up at your house. She must be some kind of neighbor.”

Kayla’s smile warmed his heart and hardened his
groin. “She’s one helluva neighbor.”

“Ha!” Manny laughed. “Don’t do it, man. Been the
re, done that, still payin’ the alimony.”

“See you in a few.”

“Don’t forget my Goose.” The line disconnected.

It was the second time in as many days he’d been warn
ed off of getting married. Yet, he had no doubt which road he’d sprint down as soon as he got the chance.

“Boy, with encouragement like that, you’ll never get married.” Kayla’s words teased, but hurt and insecurity reflected in her tone.

“Manny’s a dumbshit, who speaks out of his ass more often than not, just ask his ex-wife.” Ian winked at her. “But he can build a wall, and that’s what we need him for.” He squeezed her butt. “Now get your sexy self upstairs before he gets here and tries to steal you for himself.”

He cut her protest off with a kiss. He wanted to tear down the damned wall between their homes so he could work on what was left
of the one between their hearts.