“I hope canceling your date tonight wasn’t a problem.”
She shook her head. “I’ll see him tomorrow.”
That revelation surprised him. “You guys must be pretty serious if you’re introducing Rafe to your family,” he commented.
“He’s already met my family,” she said, then she frowned. “Wait a minute—I never told you his name.”
“Your sister mentioned it.”
“What else did she mention?”
He shrugged. “She didn’t tell me how long you’ve been dating him...or if you’re sleeping with him.”
Tristyn rolled her eyes. “You really don’t understand the concept of boundaries, do you?”
“I’m guessing that’s a ‘no,’” Josh continued. “If your relationship was at that stage, you wouldn’t have bailed on him tonight.”
She frowned. “What kind of logic is that?”
“The undisputable kind. Because if you were sleeping with him—and he was able to satisfy you in the bedroom—you wouldn’t have let anything interfere with your plans to be with him,” he said.
“Of course, the other possibility is that you are sleeping with him but he’s lousy in bed.” Then he shook his head. “But no, I can’t imagine you would still be with a man who wasn’t able to meet your needs.”
“You do realize this whole conversation could be categorized as sexual harassment,” she noted.
“Are you feeling harassed?”
No, she was feeling...aroused, she realized uneasily.
Which, she was certain, had absolutely nothing to do with Josh but was simply a result of the topic of their conversation—and the fact that she hadn’t had sex in almost two years. A sexual hiatus that she’d considered ending tonight.
She wondered what it said about her relationship with Rafe that she hadn’t hesitated to break their plans—that she had, perhaps, even been a little relieved to have an excuse not to take that next step right now. She liked Rafe—she really did. He was handsome and sweet and kind, and she always had a good time with him. But for some inexplicable reason, she wasn’t eager to get naked with him.
Or maybe the reason wasn’t inexplicable at all.
Maybe the reason was standing right in front of her.
She pushed that unwarranted and unwelcome thought to the back of her mind. “I’m going home now,” she told Josh.
“And if you were sleeping with him,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, “you’d probably be stopping by his place on your way home to—”
“Good night, Josh.” And with those final words, she opened the door and made her escape.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy to escape her own thoughts and feelings. Because the truth was, simply being in the same room with Josh stirred her up far more than being in Rafe’s arms ever did.
The Independence Parade was always the opening event of Charisma’s Fourth of July celebration. Although Josh enjoyed the festivities at Arbor Park, where the processional ended, he didn’t usually seek out a spot on the parade route to watch the various groups and floats go by. Of course, he didn’t usually have three little girls with him, but as soon as Jordyn had mentioned the parade and fireworks at the restaurant the night before, his nieces had been clamoring to attend. On the plus side, because they were in a hurry to get out of the house, they didn’t grumble too much about having sandwiches for lunch.
Shortly before one o’clock, Josh was piling the girls into his truck again because he knew that all the best viewing spots would be gone at least an hour before the parade started. It was a beautiful, clear day, which meant that the sun was in full force. Thankfully, Charlotte had reminded him about the bottle of sunscreen that her mom had packed, and he’d rubbed them all down before they left his condo and brought the bottle along to reapply as necessary. They were all wearing hats, too, but he still worried that they were likely to bake in the North Carolina sunshine.
There were some trees along the parade route, but those coveted spots were all occupied by the time he’d parked and herded the girls toward the end of the route, where they would be closer to the park for the other festivities when the processional ended. He hadn’t gone too far before he found Tristyn’s other sister, Lauryn, with her husband, Ryder, and their kids, Kylie and Zachary. Lauryn and Ryder rearranged their grouping to make room for Josh and his nieces to join them. Charlotte and Emily sat on the curb with Kylie, while Zach and Hanna perched on top of the chest cooler behind them.
He saw the speculation in Lauryn’s gaze as she looked at the three girls, so before she could ask, he turned to Ryder and questioned him about the restoration he’d recently completed in Watkinsville, Georgia. That topic kept the conversation going for a while, then Ryder said, “But we’ve got an even bigger project under construction right now.”
“What’s that?” he asked, at the same time Lauryn rolled her eyes at her husband.
“We were going to wait awhile before we told the whole world,” she reminded him.
“Josh isn’t the whole world—he’s practically a Garrett,” Ryder argued. “And since we’ve told the rest of the family—” he turned back to Josh “—he should know that we’re going to have another baby.”
“Congratulations,” Josh said, offering his hand to the handyman.
Though technically the baby that Lauryn was expecting would be her first with Ryder, her new husband had formally adopted the children from her previous marriage on the same day he’d married her, so that they officially became a family.
Josh couldn’t resist teasing Lauryn, asking, “One baby or two?”
“One,” she said quickly, firmly. “I have them one at a time. Jordyn’s the overachiever—and the twin gene came from Marco’s family.”
“One at a time works for me,” Ryder said. “Because making them is half the fun.”
“Yeah, we’ll see how much fun you think it is when you don’t get to sleep through the night for the first three months,” his wife quipped.
He snaked an arm around her waist and drew her close to his side. “You won’t be doing it on your own this time,” he told her.
She looked up at him, her expression filled with love and gratitude. “I know,” she admitted. “But I still think your plan to fill our house with six kids is a little over the top.”
“Six?” Josh echoed, stunned. Because six was twice as many as he was responsible for now, and after three days, he was beginning to doubt whether he would make it through the summer with his sanity intact.
“I think he just wants an excuse to build a really big house,” Lauryn confided.
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about an extension—” Ryder stopped abruptly when his wife held up a hand.
“I think I hear something,” she said.
“Is it starting?” Kylie asked.
“I think it might be,” her mom said.
Josh could hear it now, too—the drums and pipes that indicated the approach of a band from somewhere in the distance.
“I can’t see,” Hanna said.
“There’s nothing to see right now,” he told her.
But as the parade drew nearer, so did the crowd, edging ever closer to the curb. As a result, the