I held up a set of house keys and jangled them in front of their eyes. “You guys wanna see your new home?”

“We have a new place to live? Can Rusty go with us? Do we have to change schools? Do we—”

I was ready for Hailey this time and held a finger to my lips. “Slow down, sweetheart. One question at a time. My brain doesn’t work as fast as yours, so we have to limit it to one question at a time. Let me see if I can remember them all.”

Hailey stood on tiptoes and watched me with sparkling eyes. I rubbed my chin, as if deep in thought.

“You want to bring your pet turtle with you?”

Hailey giggled. “No, silly. Our cat, Rusty.”

“You can do that.” I grinned, and she lit up like the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. “And you won’t have to change schools. It’s only a few miles from here.”

“Is it near my hockey rink?” Heath asked, surprising all of us with his question.

“It’s not far. It’s big and has a lot of room to play. There’s a park nearby.”

“When can we see it? When? When?” Hailey was jumping up and down with the kind of excitement only Hailey could show.

“Right now. I have the SUV parked outside. We’ll all fit in it.”

“Easton, can I have a word with you?”

Oh, God, not again. Caro’s tone was short and clipped. Oh, yeah, I was in deep shit and wading deeper with every step.

“Sure, then we can see the apartment.”

Caro stalked down the hall, and I followed in what was beginning to be a familiar routine for us and not a pleasant one either.

She turned on me like a wounded beast the second the door clicked shut. “What part of calling first do you not understand?”

“Obviously, all of it.” I smirked at my clever response, despite knowing it’d send her into orbit.

She leaned into me, her sexy body vibrating with barely controlled fury. I seemed to bring the worst out in her, but her anger was hot as hell. Imagine all that extreme emotion directed into something more positive.

“You’re being very ungrateful.”

“You can’t dictate my life.”

“I’m not. I’m dictating my children’s lives. You happen to be in the way.”

Her nostrils flared with her temper. Stupid choice of words on my part, but I loved poking the lioness.

I moved closer to her, and she skittered backward a few steps, some of her anger turning to nervousness. “You’re fucking sexy when you’re mad at me. Remember when you thought I was flirting with that other girl, and you were so furious with me? Best fucking sex ever.”

Her face softened a little, and I guessed she was remembering, too. We’d done it that night hot, hard, rough, totally down and dirty. When I said it’d been the best sex ever, I wasn’t kidding. But then every time I’d fucked Caro, I’d thought it was the best sex ever.