“Nope.” Laughter bubbled up my chest as I shook my head and stepped to the side, pointing into the house. “You ruined more than your fair share of my shirts by the time you were two. I’m not in the mood to change every few hours like I did back then. If you’re old enough to drive, then you can clean yourself up without getting me all dirty.”
Grady brushed a kiss against my cheek, being extra careful not to touch me, before walking past to head up to his bathroom. When I turned back toward Dax, he’d already made his way over to the bottom of the steps. Seeing the determined gleam in his green eyes, I backed up and shook my head. “Dax, no.”
“Yes, baby,” he countered as he strode up the steps and reached out to tug me against his chest. Unlike his son, he didn’t hesitate to put his grease-stained hands on me. “If anyone’s going to dirty you up, it’s gonna be me.”
He did such a thorough job of it that I was thankful for the extra water heater he’d put in because we ended up needing a shower by the time he was done, too.
Extra Epilogue
Arya
“My answer is no.” Leah’s lips parted, but before she could get a word out, Dax growled, “And that’s final.”
Our middle child was as stubborn as her father, so neither of us were surprised when she didn’t let the matter drop. Planting her fists on her hips, she jutted her chin out and cried, “You’re not being fair, Daddy.”
I knew the accusation hurt Dax. He’d always been a soft touch for our girls and hated to disappoint them. They’d both had him wrapped around their little finger as soon as they were born. Refusing to give in to our daughter’s request had to be killing him, but he still didn’t budge. Did I mention that she got her stubbornness from him?
“You know the rule—no dating until you’re sixteen.”
Leah pointed her finger at her brother. “But he got to go to prom when he was a sophomore.”
“Don’t pull me into this fight.” Grady shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s not my fault your birthday is later in the year than mine.”
Only about fifteen months separated them, with our youngest lagging behind Leah by another three years. Clara didn’t have a dog in this fight, so she was curled up on the couch watching the fireworks with a twinkle in her eyes. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d popped some popcorn to enjoy with the show her dad and sister were putting on, but she was probably afraid she’d miss the drama while she was in the kitchen, even though it would only take a few minutes to toss a bag in the microwave.
Dax jerked his thumb toward our son. “Grady turned sixteen before he went to prom.”
I pressed my lips together, resisting the urge to point out that the only reason he hadn’t been allowed to go the year before was because I’d put my foot down. He’d only been a freshman, but that hadn’t stopped a girl in the senior class from asking him to be her date. If that had happened with one of our daughters, Dax would’ve been out there hunting down the teenage boy who’d dared to look at her. But with Grady, he’d just slapped him on the back with a big grin.
I was the one who had insisted that the rule also applied to our son. It had been put in place for the girls when Leah turned thirteen and started to moon over boys. Dax had pretty much lost his mind when he saw her doodling her first name with her crush’s last name in a notebook. He hadn’t been ready to be smacked in the face with the proof that his baby girl was growing up faster than he liked.
If Dax had his way, the girls wouldn’t have been able to date until they were out of high school, but Leah had begged and pleaded with him. When that hadn’t worked, she’d plotted until she came up with the perfect argument to get him to cave. And I had a feeling that’s what she was aiming to do again today.
Leah narrowed her eyes. “Is this going to be a repeat of the argument we had about when Clara and I are old enough to date?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Dax gritted out, a muscle jumping in his jaw.
“You know,” she drawled with a smug grin, “the one where I made you see reason by using logic.”
“Telling me that my prez’s daughters get to date when they’re sixteen wasn’t using logic. It was blackmail, pure and simple,” he shot back.
Leah didn’t look even the tiniest bit offended by the accusation. Probably because it was a fair one since Dax would have had a heck of a time explaining to Mac why he’d been wrong to let Molly, Dahlia, and Callie date when they were sixteen instead of waiting another two years. “It worked, didn’t it?”