Vivian by Bernadette Marie Read Free Book Online

Now it was well past one o’clock and she couldn’t sleep at all.
    Her body still buzzed. Her skin was still warm. Her heart felt full.
    It had taken her a few hours to realize what it was that she really felt—she was happy.
    She’d expected that the girls would have to be pulled from his house, but it had been her. They’d sat down with the girls to finish watching the movie—because they simply couldn’t trust themselves alone.
    As soon as they’d sat down on the couch both sets of girls had climbed up and joined them. Clayton had draped his arm across the back of the couch and laid his fingertips on the back of her neck.
    Even in her bed—alone—she could still feel his touch on her skin.
    All four girls had fallen asleep piled on them. As the movie played the credits she and Clayton had simply sat there gazing at each other. The girls slept between them.
    It would have been so simple to let the girls sleep, to sneak away, and sleep in his arms. But they both knew that wasn’t going to work.
    She closed her eyes. They’d both been broken. What if it wasn’t real, these feelings they were having. What if they broke each other more?
    Vivian rolled to her side, rearranged her pillow, and tried to get comfortable.
    She couldn’t have been asleep more than a few moments when she heard the pitter-patter of little feet and a small hand reached up and touched her arm.
    “ Mommy, I sleep here?”
    She pried open her eyes to see Ava standing there looking up at her, Emma standing behind her.
    “ Girls, what’s the matter?”
    “ We miss you.”
    She weakly smiled at them and scooted over in the bed to make room for them. After a few moments of them bouncing and adjusting in the bed, she closed her eyes.
    “ Mommy.”
    Vivian opened one eye and looked at Emma.
    “ Stephanie and Charlotte’s mommy died.”
    “ Yes, baby.”
    “ Our daddy died,” Ava added.
    “ Yes he did, baby.”
    The girls looked at each other and Vivian propped herself up on her elbow. Had it finally hit home after all these months? He hadn’t been around much. The girls didn’t really know him, especially Ava.
    “ We all thought if you married their daddy we could be a family.”
    The words squeezed at her heart. “We are a family. The three of us. And we have Amelia and Sam. Penelope and Brock are our family too.”
    “ And the baby,” Ava yawned.
    “ And the baby.”
    Emma sat up in the bed. “But they need a mommy and we need a daddy. And then we’d be sisters.”
    She had quite a grasp on the situation, Vivian thought.
    “ I just met their daddy. I think we are a long way from making plans like that.”
    Emma thought for a moment. “But Brock and Penelope just met.”
    She was grasping much more than she’d ever have given her credit for.
    “ Go to sleep. We can talk about this later. I’m not getting married any time soon. But I wouldn’t mind spending more time with Clayton and his girls.”
    Emma nodded. That seemed to suffice all the curiosity from her daughter.
    Vivian closed her eyes again and smiled in the dark. They wanted a daddy. In the past six months, she’d seen that stranger things could happen—even she could get a man who was interested.
     
    Because they’d fallen asleep at Clayton’s, Vivian’s girls must have gotten much more sleep than she had. She was exhausted.
    The girls were plopped down in front of the TV watching a movie while she watched the pot of coffee brew.
    It had been decided she and the girls would move to the old house on Main and Pine. Brock and Clayton had already purchased paint and made plans for the bedroom.
    She closed her eyes and breathed in the moment. He’d had eyes for her since the moment he’d knocked on the door.
    Her heart fluttered in her chest. She opened her eyes, took down a coffee mug, and waited.
    The kiss he’d planted on her had rocked her. Every nerve in her body still sparked and when she even thought about the kiss—she grew warm.
    They didn’t have