“Dad, I’ve kissed a boy. I’m not a baby.”
“You didn’t kiss Ryan Miller, stupid. He was drowning and you tried to give him mouth-to-mouth.”
“Ryan Miller drowned?” Kara looked shocked. “When did this happen?”
“No, he wasn’t actually drowning. He was faking to trick Casey, and she fell for it.” Taylor yawned. “Is breakfast ready?”
“You kissed a boy?” Tyler handed a messy Hank off to Isaac and shook his head at his daughter. “No, no, no. No kissing boys.”
“What about Taylor? He can just kiss girls, but I can’t kiss boys?” Casey crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at her father. “That’s sexist.”
“He can’t kiss girls, either!” Tyler rubbed his head. “No one can kiss anyone. Except your mother and me. We can kiss.”
“What about Aunt Mal and Mr. Isaac?”
Isaac bounced Hank on his leg and grunted. “I think we get to kiss, too.”
“So, everyone gets to kiss except for us?” Casey let out an angry groan and stomped to the fridge and shoved her head inside. “This house can be so stupid sometimes! Where is my orange juice?”
I met Isaac’s eyes over the commotion of Kara and Tyler trying to get Casey to stop being a teenager before she was even a pre-teen. He grinned and shrugged. I couldn’t help grinning back.
Breakfast went like that. When it was finally over, I was almost giddy from all the looks I’d been sharing with Isaac, but I had a headache from listening to Casey and Taylor fight the entire time. Even Hank was starting to get fussy. His teeth were bothering him, and I’d left his teether out all night, so he didn’t have the cold to soothe him.
I held him in my arms and rocked him, even as he cried and rubbed at his teeth. I felt terrible for him. Nothing I tried to give him made a difference, and he was in full-on wailing before too long. I winced and searched through the freezer for something he could chew on. When the only thing I could find was a bag of peas, I got desperate and gave him a corner of the bag to chew on while I said goodbye to Isaac, who was probably officially regretting coming over.
Holding Hank and the peas, I found Isaac standing on the front porch, a smile on his face. He looked me over and shook his head. “You have your hands full.”
I nodded. “I’m surprised there’s not a comical trail of dust following you out of here right now.”
“Nah. This was fun. Reminds me of my house growing up.” He leaned in and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I’ve got work to do on the ranch, and you’re busy, but I’m not running. I’m coming back for another date soon.”
“Why would you want that?”
He just smiled and shrugged. “See you later, Mal.”
I watched him leave and looked down at Hank. “Maybe he’s crazy. Why else would he be interested in us? We’re kind of a mess.”
As if on cue, Hank made a straining face and graced me with a foul smell. I sighed and tried to remember how I’d ever felt sexy the night before.