“I can cook.” Short legs pumping, Aric ran back over, so cute she just had to pick him up and hug him.

After she settled the children side-by-side at a new patch of berries, Caz took her hand. “Did you want to get married, princesa? And have babies?”

“What?” Was he joking?

“Tell me, please.” His melting dark brown eyes were serious. Concerned.

Her heart turned into a puddle in her chest. God, she loved him. “Ah, married, yes. One of these days. So Regan can feel as if she has two people to count on.”

He put a rock-hard arm around her, firmly pulling her closer. “Is that the only reason, mamita?”

Pushy doctor. “Maybe because I love you. A little.”

His grin flashed, white in the brown face. “As it happens, I love you much more than a little.”

Honestly, he took her breath away. “Do you want more children?”

He moved his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “If you aren’t in a hurry, I’d rather you and Regan get to feel more settled. Then we can make some babies if you want. Or adopt. Or not. I’m happy with a big or small family as long as you and Regan are in it.”

Her eyes prickled with tears. If she let him continue, he’d reduce her to a sappy mess. Putting her arms around his neck, she kissed him.

“Same here,” she whispered and kissed him again.

“Aric, look,” Regan said in a low voice. “They’re always doing that stuff.”

“So does Mama.” Aric whispered back. “With Hawk.”

“Ooooh, does your mama like him?”

Caz tilted his head to hear the answer, and snoopy JJ, she was doing the same thing.

“Uh-huh. I like him too.”

Right. At four, he wouldn’t understand the sexier versions of like.

“Hawk and Kit?” JJ murmured to Caz. “I didn’t see that one coming. What should we do?”

“Get some popcorn and enjoy the show?” He laughed when she tried to kick him.

Chapter Twenty-Two

My kid is turning out just like me. Well played, karma. Well-played. ~ Unknown

Kids were damned crazy.

Hawk sat at the kitchen island in Mako’s cabin as rain pattered out on the deck. The rising wind created white-topped wavelets across the lake.

The kids had summer school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But today was Thursday, and they were home. Since tourists didn’t want to fly in the storm, he’d volunteered to watch the kids.

Which went to prove that he really was crazy as a hoot owl.

Thankfully, he remembered a game he and his brothers had played when snowbound in the sarge’s tiny cabin. Good times.

After hijacking blankets and rugs from the rest of the Hermitage, he’d moved furniture around, then strung rope in long stretches through the downstairs of Mako’s house.