First Kiss Last by Sara Miller (read e book .TXT) 📗

of their family squabble, it was almost as if they had forgotten she was there. Liam was the first to recover. He looked toward where she was still pointing.

“Yeah, what is it?” Liam wondered. “I can’t see!”

Leah picked him up and they watched as the contraption swung and something flew through the air.

“Did you SEE THAT?!” Liam hollered right in Leah’s ear. Cade dropped her hand and took Liam from her. “What is it, Dad? Can we go check it out while Sky goes on the hayride with her friends? Plee-ee-ase?”

Cade eyed Leah. She smiled as if he wasn’t busting her for orchestrating the whole thing. She continued to smile and blinked several times, feigning innocence. He laughed.

“Okay, but we’ll still do the maze together after. All of us. Deal?” He set Liam down and eyed both children. They quickly nodded their heads in agreement. Cade handed Sky some cash. “Is your phone charged? No boys. Text me as soon as you’re back, we’ll meet right here.”

Sky nodded, took the cash and turned to meet her friends. She threw a “thank you” over her shoulder as she ran into her friend’s arms. Together they squealed.

“Girls,” Liam said with disgust. Cade and Leah both laughed.

“Come on,” Leah said, “I want to see that trebuchet up close!”

“Treb-you-what?” they both said, matching looks of confusion on their almost- identical faces. Leah laughed.

“Trebuchet,” she repeated. “It’s a machine used back in medieval times. For throwing really big rocks.”

“I thought you didn’t know what it was?” Cade accused, amusement in his tone.

“Just because I know the name of it, doesn’t mean I know what it’s doing here or why.” She turned to Liam, “Let’s go find out!” Liam took her hand and eagerly pulled her toward the contraption.

She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Cade was following. He shook his head, smiling. He gave her backside a good once over before moving to join them. Leah turned forward and put an extra sway in her hips for his viewing pleasure. She heard him chuckle.

Cade caught up to them quickly. His hand on her back, he leaned in and whispered, “Well-played, hun. Well-played.”

Chapter 14

“You should have seen it, Sky!” Liam’s voice was loud with excitement. “We picked the biggest, grossest pumpkin there was. It was like THIS big!” he stretched his arms as wide as he could. “Only it was kinda flat on one side ’cause part of it was rotten. And they put it in the treb-treb . . .” he struggled with the word before giving up and rushing on, “the catapult thing! And I got to pull the lever! And it went WHOOSH through the air!” he flung his arms up and leapt in the air. “And then it came down and splattered EVERYWHERE! Aw, it was so gross and so awesome and you missed it!”

Leah enjoyed listening to Liam tell the story. Better yet, she enjoyed watching Sky hear it. The girl was not as uncaring as she presented herself. She’d gotten down to Liam’s level and her blue eyes danced with merriment at her brother’s animation. Leah saw Cade gaze at his children with pride. This was their real family dynamic.

“Can we go again, Dad? I want Sky to see!”

“Aren’t you ready for the maze?”

“Yeah, but Da-ad . . .” Liam’s tone turned to a whine.

“I can see it next year,” Sky jumped in. “Okay?”

Liam opened his mouth to protest, so Sky tried again, “It was fun doing something new, wasn’t it?” Liam nodded, warily, and Sky rushed on. “I had a lot of fun spending time with my friends too. But now I’m ready to do the maze, like we usually do. Just us.”

“And Miss Leah too, right?”

“Yup, Leah too.” Sky didn’t meet anyone’s eyes as she spoke.

Hearing Sky willingly include her gave Leah a glimmer of hope.

Cade squeezed her hand.

“And we can do the catapult again next year?” Liam confirmed.

“Next year for sure, bud,” Cade said.

Liam whooped, fist in the air and raced off toward the maze entrance.

“Hey, wait for me!” Sky called, running after her brother. Liam giggled as he bobbed and weaved trying to escape his sister. Sky laughed as she caught him up and spun him around.

It was a charming scene. Cade was grinning just as broadly as his kids were. Leah wished she was truly part of this family. Determined to enjoy this time with them for what it was, Leah smiled as Cade pulled her into the maze.

Forty-five minutes later, Leah was hot, sore, and thirsty. Even though there was a steady breeze, the sun baked them. Her back and wrist both ached from her fall but she did not want to ruin the fun. They were still missing several stops on the map and the children were excitedly dragging them from turn to turn.

Cade had let the children lead the way. It resulted in many wrong turns and backtracks. While it was fun, she was more than ready to sit down and have the promised snack.

“Hey kids, run ahead and see if you can find the next marker.” Cade waved them off and took Leah over to a small bench. The tall corn stalks created a bit of shade and Leah sighed with relief.

“Sorry, I should have warned you. They don’t like to follow the map.”

“I like seeing them so happy though. Sky would—” she caught herself and stopped before she said something offensive.

“Yeah, she’s been a bit much lately. I guess being a teenage girl is hard.”

“It is. I remember.”

“I remember you as a teenage girl too,” he smiled. “I remember I wanted to kiss you every time you smiled.” He kissed her lightly. “I remember I wanted to kiss you when you didn’t smile too.” He kissed her again. “You were so sad sometimes and I . . . I didn’t know what to do.”

“Cade . . .” she smiled up at his sad face, put her hand to his cheek and kissed him. It started lightly but it