Forged of Steele Bundle (Books 1-4) - Brenda Jackson [89]
He looked at her and smiled. “So did I.”
Determined to maintain control of the situation he then said, “Now let’s try to get some rest so we can be well-rested to give our kids hell when they come back home.”
“Yes, our kids.” Kylie said the words as if they suddenly had new meaning to her.
As he pulled her closer she settled against his comforting muscular form and believed that from this time forward somehow everything was going to be all right.
“Mom?”
“Dad?”
Chance slowly opened his eyes. Had he been dreaming or had he actually heard Tiffany’s and Marcus’s voices? The first thing he noticed was that he was stretched out on the sofa with Kylie lying beside him, her head resting on his chest. That would not have been so bad if his hand wasn’t possessively cupping her bottom or one of her legs wasn’t entwined with his. Even her hand was resting pretty darn close to the fly on his jeans.
He sucked in a deep breath, letting the scent of her fill his nostrils. She was still asleep, but he could remember a time that weekend when he had patiently waited for her to wake up so that he could—
“Dad?”
“Mom?”
Chance swallowed as he slowly glanced across the room and his gaze lit on two pairs of curious eyes. He blinked. No, make that three.
He quickly sat up and the movement startled Kylie out of a sound sleep. “Chance, what’s wrong?” she asked sluggishly, slowly coming awake.
He shifted his gaze from the three sets of eyes to her still-drowsy ones. “Wake up, sweetheart, the kids are back,” he whispered.
She blinked. “What?”
“The kids are home.”
She was off the sofa in a flash. He had to catch her to keep her from stumbling. “Tiffany! Marcus! We’ve been so worried about you,” she said hugging them so tight Chance wondered how they were able to breathe.
Then as if it finally hit her what they had done, she stepped back, placed her hands on her hips and gave them one hell of a fierce frown. “The two of you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Seems they aren’t the only ones,” Donovan Steele said in a low voice, after clearing his throat.
Kylie jumped and jerked her head around. She hadn’t seen Chance’s youngest brother standing at the edge of the foyer. “Where did you find them?” she asked, tossing her mussed-up braids over her shoulders.
Before Donovan could answer, Tiffany said, “He didn’t find us. We were with him the entire time. We spent the night over at his house.”
“What?” That loud exclamation came from both Kylie and Chance at the same time.
“And we had so much fun,” Marcus said, smiling. “The three of us played video games until—”
“What the hell do you mean you were with him the entire time?” Chance shouted, coming to his feet beside Kylie.
“Dad, don’t get mad at Uncle Donovan,” Marcus said, rushing in. “I can explain.”
Donovan smiled as he leaned against the wall. “Yes, Chance, let him explain. And trust me, it’s a doozy. And I think you and Kylie might want to be sitting down when you hear it.”
Chapter 16
“Let me make sure I have this right,” Chance said as he paced back and forth in front of the two teenagers, who were now the ones sitting on Kylie’s sofa. To say they were in the hot seat was an understatement. “Are the two of you saying you aren’t madly in love and that you never were?”
It had taken the kids twenty minutes to explain to their parents what it had only taken ten to confess to Donovan a few days ago. But Kylie and Chance had stopped them periodically to ask questions.
“Yes, Mr. Steele, that’s what we’re saying. Marcus and I are good friends and have been since the first day I started at Myers Park High. One day while talking we decided that neither you nor my mom had a life that didn’t center around us, so we decided to give you one,” Tiffany said, smiling.
Chance frowned. “You decided? Just like that?”
“Yes, sir, we decided just like that. Wasn’t that cool?”
Kylie came to stand next to Chance. “No, that wasn’t cool. Did it ever occur to either of you that we liked the life we had?”
“Yes,