Enduring (Family Justice Book 8)

by Suzanne Halliday

  He stood and marched in place, clapping his hands and shaking his cute little tushy while Lacey encouraged him to dance with her.

  She heard the kitchen door open and close and then the sounds of Cameron’s booted feet crossing the tile floor. Her heart gave a happy shimmy.

  “Daddy!” Dylan yelled. “Come dance.”

  Doing a terrible moonwalk that ended with an embarrassingly awkward twirl, Cameron kissed her soundly and picked Dylan up for the sole purpose of swinging him around like one of his numchucks.

  Holding their son by his ankles as the boy laughed himself hoarse, Cameron threatened to dump him in the trash. He lowered him to the floor in an acrobatic flip and applauded.

  When her hunky man dropped onto all fours to kiss Lily and gush over how much he loved her, Dylan scrambled onto his back and wrapped his arms around Daddy’s neck. Seeing her husband with the children gave Lacey all the feels.

  “Dinner is in half an hour,” she told everyone.

  Cameron gently eased Dylan onto his feet and distracted both kids with toys. Her brows shot up. Daddy had something to say.

  His sheepish grin and ‘my bad’ posture was so damn cute. She honestly could not wait to see what foolishness her man had gotten into.

  This time, it was her turn to do the asking. “What did you do?” she teased.

  He chuckled and tried to grab her ass. “Am I that obvious?”

  She slapped his grabby hands away. “Yes, you are, Mr. Cameron. And your son does the same thing when he’s been naughty so just tell me.”

  Lacey crossed her arms but could not find the right amount of stern and ended up making him laugh. She loved being married to this man.

  Nodding toward the kids, he got quiet and asked if they were okay for a few minutes. He gestured to the kitchen. “I have something to show you.”

  Her curiosity won out. She went to Dylan and ruffled his hair. “Mommy and Daddy have to talk. Stay with Lily. We’ll be in the kitchen.”

  “Okay, Mommy.” He kissed his sister’s cheek and went back to amusing her with every toy he could lay his hands on. So much for straightening up!

  She took Cameron by the hand and pulled him into the kitchen. Before she had a chance to look around, he plastered their bodies together and kissed her.

  When he pulled away and she saw his worried frown, her instinct was to laugh. Whatever he did could not possibly be worthy of so much seriousness.

  He walked them around to the far side of the kitchen island and pointed at the floor.

  “Meet Cassé. Like Cassie only spelled different. It means, broken.”

  “Is that a dog?” She blinked a few times just in case she was dreaming. “What’s wrong with her?”

  He pulled her closer to the woebegone animal and introduced them after pulling Lacey to the floor.

  “Cassé, this is Lacey.”

  She honestly had no clue what to say or do. And then her beautiful man brought everything into focus, and she thought she might cry.

  “We have something in common. The three of us. I was lost and forgotten. You were abandoned and thrown away. Cassé was homeless. And hungry. Brody checked her out. I thought she had a broken leg but turns out like you, Ponytail, Cassé had a deep gash in her paw. She needs a family, babe. And that’s what we do, right? We family.”

  She took his handsome face in her hands and sweetly brushed his lips with her own.

  “Yes, my love. We family.”

  Cassé licked Lacey’s leg, and she gently stroked the dog’s head. “Welcome to the Cameron family, Cassé.”

  “She’s weak but in decent shape. Brody and his crew washed her up and checked her out from snout to tail tip. We have to nurse the paw a bit, but with enough love and good food, he says she’ll be fine.”

  “What is she?”

  “Doubtful she’s a purebred but Brody is fairly certain what we have is a golden retriever. Maybe a miniature. He doesn’t think she’ll get too big.”

  She knelt and gently spoke to the surprise addition to the household. “Do you like kids? We have a couple.” Stroking the dog’s body, Lacey felt how frail she was. Sliding to the floor, she sat cross-legged next to Cassé and explained how things worked.

  “I’m the mom, and you’ve already met Daddy.” The pooch wagged her tail when Cameron bent and patted her head. “Dylan and Lily don’t know they need a dog, but when they meet you, I’m sure there will be hugs.”

  Cameron walked away, and she kept on talking. “I like to cook, and I’m pretty good at it too, so we’ll find out what you like and get you back in shape.”

  She inspected the injured paw and found a carefully applied bandage. Brody knew his stuff. When the sad little mutt whined and scuttled closer for comfort, she carefully lifted the dog onto her lap.

  “Everything is going to be fine, Cassé. You’re safe. We’ll take wonderful care of you, okay?”

  Cassé wagged her tail and licked Lacey’s face. A deal had been struck. The Camerons were pet owners, and the pretty golden-haired dog had found a family where she’d be loved.

  “Oh, Mommy,” Dylan whispered with awe in his voice.

  She looked up and found him crouching at Cameron’s side with a wide-eyed smile as he got a good look at their new dog. Lily smiled from Daddy’s arms.

  “Come here,” she said with her hand out. Dylan approached cautiously. He spent time around plenty of animals and wasn’t afraid, but he knew not to be rough or loud. He took her hand and walked slowly forward.

  “Booboo,” he muttered. Frowning, he looked back and forth between her and Cameron.

  “Yes,” Daddy answered. “Uncle Brody put a Band-Aid on her paw. We have to be gentle with her. Okay, son?”

  Dylan nodded and got in Cassé’s face. “Hi, puppy.” He let her sniff his hand and then carefully patted her head.

  “Sweetie, look at Mommy.”

  He grinned and met her eyes. “Her name is Cassé. Can you say that for Mommy? Cassé.”

  Dylan smirked the same way his daddy did and made a funny sound. He said, “Cassé,” as though she had a language barrier and then went back to puppy bonding.

  She looked at Cameron and rolled her eyes. “Your son is a smarty pants.”

  “Yes, and his mama is adorable.”

  Lily jammed her fingers in her mouth and drooled all over Daddy’s shoulder. She was teething again, having gotten her first bottom tooth at barely four months.

  “Cassé hungry.” Dylan nodded his head several times for emphasis.

  Cameron sprang into action. “Hold on. Brody sent some food.” He and Lily disappeared to the patio and came back carrying a large plastic container. “These are some sort of power bar for dogs. They’re soft with a little crunch. Easy to eat and digest. She needs plenty of fresh water, and he wants her to have an oil supplement to help with her skin and coat and to jumpstart her immune system.”

  He broke off part of the soft biscuit and handed it to Dylan. “Open hand buddy, remember?”

  Their son nodded and flattened his hand with the biscuit in the center. He offered it to Cassé and beamed at them when she carefully plucked it off his hand.

  “First contact.” Daddy chuckled.

  Cassé licked Dylan’s face as he giggled. A boy and his dog love affair began right in front of them.

  Chapter 15

  Breakfast was Calder’s favorite time of day. When he was a shit ton younger and mainly concerned with wave heights and surfboard technology, he began his habit of making the first meal of the day a thing. Nothing changed in the decades that followed. His body and his brain worked better when his day started right.

  “This is a modified CBB or what your mama says is a country boy breakfast.”

  He gestured with a slotted spatula at the pan of breakfast foods on the stove.

  “Bacon—or as your Uncle Cris calls it, the food of the gods—and homemade turkey sausage. One is heart healthy and one is not.” He grinned at his son and winked. “I hope you’re
taking notes because there’s a pop quiz scheduled for Monday.”

  Wolf, who spent most of his waking time trying to eat his hands, smiled and cooed. The boy’s stats from his recent doctor’s visit ticked off in his mind.

  Almost fifteen pounds and twenty-four and a half inches long! At the top of his percentile. The nurse found the fact that the boy could roll over in both directions something worth noting on his chart. So too the fact that like all the Dane’s, Wolf liked to sleep. Though he sort of missed the every three-hour schedule, Calder admitted it was easier on him and the Duchess that their son conked out for eight to ten hours every night.

  As he rocked closer to the four-month milestone, not only could his kid sit upright and control his head, but he was also starting to eat solid foods and had already showed a preference for pureed sweet potatoes and baby cereal mixed with extra milk.

  He flipped the sausage patties and moved the two measly pieces of bacon around the cast iron pan. Stephanie would throw a hissy-fit if he did what he wanted and cooked up a whole slab.

  Adjusting the flame to its lowest setting, he moved on to the next part of this impromptu healthy breakfast lecture. Sliding a chair closer to Wolf’s high chair, Calder sat and placed a carton of eggs on the chair’s tray.

  “Here’s where a CBB gets interesting. The eggs are everything, my boy, but too many people don’t know shit about making them properly.”

  Wolf slammed his chubby hand onto the cardboard carton. The kid wasn’t shy about getting involved. “Gu-goo.” He drooled with a goofy, lopsided grin.

  “Exactly,” he drawled with a matching half grin as if they were having an intelligent conversation. “Your cousin Meghan is a terror in the kitchen so do yourself a favor and never let her fix you anything. But your Aunt Ash, lemme tell you, son, she is a wizardess with scrambled. Nobody makes ’em fluffier than she does.”

  He cracked open the carton and extracted a smooth, brown egg.

  “The trick to the best eggs is never cooking them ice cold. Let the thing come to room temperature.”

  Wolf grabbed for the delicate egg, but he kept it out of reach.

  “Now watch this. Daddy has mad skill with eggs.”

  He placed the carton aside and slapped a heavy stoneware bowl onto the highchair tray. Holding up the egg for visual effect, he drawled, “Observe,” and then cracked the shell clean in two with a one-hand flourish learned from watching endless hours of food television.

  “Goo.” Wolf giggled.

  Gathering the bowl and eggshells he moved to the stove and continued the cooking lesson.

  “This ingenious device is a whisk. Stainless steel. I don’t know why that matters, but there ya have it.”

  He gave the egg a whisk and showed his son the result.

  “After decades of research and debate, the verdict is in. Only a nonstick pan will do.”

  He held up the small pan and spun it in his hand like a tennis racket before dramatically dropping it to the stovetop.

  “And because your mom isn’t watching, Daddy adds a nice knob of unsalted butter. Let it melt—just a few seconds.”

  He slid the frothy egg mixture on top of the bubbling butter.

  “And now for the final piece of specialist equipment—a rubber spatula. Do not ever try to do scrambled eggs with a fork. First, it fucks up the pan and second, just no.”

  In no time at all, he had a fluffy pile of protein goodness on top of which he added both pieces of bacon. On the side were the turkey sausage patties. He showed the plate to Wolf and sat next to him at the breakfast table.

  “This might seem gross, but it’s a Dane favorite.”

  Cracking open a container of fresh cottage cheese, he scooped out a spoonful and topped the sausage patties with the creamy curds.

  “Your grandfather was a lover of cottage cheese. He would wash the curds and eat them like peanuts popped in his mouth.”

  The memory swamped his emotions. Calder sighed and studied his son’s face. A faint light twinkled in the depths of his dark blue eyes. With his chubby cheeks and happy smile, Wolf was a miniature version of Mark Dane. The resemblance was uncanny—in the same way that Stevie Marquez resembled Anna Dane.

  Ashleigh had a speech that she attributed to Meghan about babies and new souls—connections to the past. When he looked at Wolf and saw the family resemblance, he understood.

  He’d destroyed his breakfast and was finished cleaning when his wife—looking like she’d been awake less than a minute—appeared. Yawning, she stretched and gave him an instant hard-on. Stephanie’s summer pajamas consisted of a flimsy camisole that showed off her beautiful breasts and hard nipples plus ass molding boyshort undies.

  Stumbling on bare feet, she came to him for a good morning kiss that curled his toes. She’d been awake longer than a minute because she tasted like toothpaste and was already rocking a spritz of sexy perfume.

  “How are my boys this morning?” She asked this question with a wicked smile and an audacious crotch grope that let her know exactly how he was this fine morning.

  Just when the groping became interesting, she stopped and focused on the baby. Whirling away, she bent over to kiss Wolf. Viewing Stephanie’s ass in the boyshorts added to his growing erection.

  “Mwah, mwah, mwah!” Pressing smacking kisses on their son’s face and head, she got him giggling happily.

  He was justifiably torn between feeding her breakfast or making love to her on the kitchen island. They’d done it before and discovered it was the perfect height for a lusty bit of legs over the shoulders fun.

  Of course, there was always the chair in her kitchen nook where she kept a laptop and the rest of the stuff necessary for a housewife. The vintage school chair was sturdy and didn’t have arms. Just what they need for a penetrating lap dance.

  Breakfast won out. Taking care of her was his best job.

  “What’s on your agenda today, Mrs. Dane?”

  After a smirky and what appeared to be appreciative eyeing of his obvious bulge, she said with velvet huskiness, “I have my priorities in order, Mr. Dane. Luckily for you, this means the situation in your pants needs my attention.”

  The situation in his pants! Calder snickered. He saw the sensuous flame lurking in his wife’s smile and returned to making her something to eat. She’d need her strength for the scenario forming in his dirty mind.

  “Once I’ve dispatched your situation”—she giggled with twinkling fingers and some waving of her hands—“I’m going to meet Heather. She’s bringing Rebecca Tate by so we can meet and have a nice chat.”

  Hmph. Typical Duchess. No surprise finding out she was moving ahead with hiring an assistant but doing it her way and without any input whatsoever from him.

  He was married to one hell of a fine woman who was not at all persuaded by his masculine bullshit. Kept his damn ego in check—that was for sure.

  What could be better than a wife who didn’t demand but expect total equality? Unless they were naked. That was one time when she enjoyed ceding control.

  Calder gently flipped her over easy egg.

  Yeah. He liked being married.

  Reaching for the lone slice of bread in the toaster, he handed it off along with some silverware and hurried back to the stove before her egg turned to rubber.

  “If she is even half as smart as I hope, I’m going to drag her with me after Labor Day to Lonepoke for the rodeo.”

  This was news to him. “Uh, a rodeo?”

  He put a plate in front of her, sat, and pushed a napkin close. She was carving up an avocado for the toast while Wolf quietly regarded them.

  “Yeah, it’ll be fun.” She smiled at him. “You know how much I like a hometown rodeo.”

  Calder studied his Duchess as she mashed half the damn avocado onto the wheat toast. Scooping a tiny blob onto her pinky, she offered it to their son who greedily sucked the green fruit into his mouth. Stephanie ate so many while pregnant that they joked their kid was powered by avocado!

>   If his marriage to this woman had taught him only one thing, it was to slow the fuck down in his rush to judgment and wait for her to lay it all out before reacting.

  Was he down with her traipsing off to Lonepoke for the day with a woman he didn’t know? And most likely also dragging his son along for the adventure? Hell to the no.

  But he also knew she wouldn’t poke the bear for no reason, so he waited to see where this was leading.

  Watching her as she made everything just so before she started to eat was amusing and annoying at the same time. Men dug in and didn’t care about the specifics. Women, or rather his woman, had a whole routine.

  Once the overkill mound of avocado was sprinkled with her latest passion—Himalayan Pink Salt—and a dusting of finely ground pepper, she spread a napkin on her lap, cut the toast into four pieces, and attacked the egg. She was licking yolk off her lips and chewing a piece of the toast when she continued.

  “I’ve had my eye on this guy,” she said.

  Calder stiffened in his seat. “Um, excuse you, what?”

  Wolf gurgled and smacked a chubby hand on the highchair tray. Stephanie blew him a kiss and kept eating. And talking.

  “Relax, Thor.”

  He heard the playfulness in her voice but continued to scowl. It was not okay with him that his wife had her eye on anyone else no matter the reason.

  She grabbed his chin. “Hey.”

  Their eyes locked. She was close to giggling. He wasn’t.

  “Shugah, honey,” she purred. “I love that my man gets jealous so easily but darling”—her lips caressed his when she leaned in—“there’s not another man alive who is yummier than you.”

  Okay. He was good with that. Not happy about this other guy, whoever the hell he turned out to be, but a lot less likely to rip his nuts off.

  He eyed her with clear lascivious intent. She tried not to laugh. It was the perfect combination of ridiculousness. She jacked him up so he’d be forced to prove his possession. Of her.