Second Chances (7 page)

Claira let out a whimpering sigh when his hot tongue slid past her lips and caressed the tip of her tongue. A fire ignited
in her womb sending tendrils of heat snaking up to her nipples and down between her thighs as he gently deepened the kiss, twirling his tongue slowly against hers and then retreating to nip at her lips. Her body softened against him. She moaned into his mouth, surrendering to another invasion, this time meeting his demand with her own. It had been three years. Three
long
years since she’d been kissed. And never like this. The way Matt was kissing her, possessing and teasing her, it was as if she were the most cherished person on earth.

“God, Claira. You’re so beautiful.
That’s it, sweetheart. Taste him.” Mason hadn’t wanted to say anything, for fear of startling her out of the moment, but he couldn’t contain the rush of admiration and lust that accosted his senses. She was glorious; like an angel. She was so sensuous and responsive. The way she leaned into Matt’s embrace and her little moans of desire were killing him. His heart pounded helplessly in his chest in a vain attempt to circulate the blood that had vacated its chambers and flooded to his groin, creating possibly the hardest erection he’d ever had in his life. He couldn’t wait until it was his lips that tasted her. He didn’t want to scare her off by pushing her too far tonight but, God help him, he didn’t think he could wait until the next time he saw her.

Claira wasn’
t sure if it was the sound of Mason’s voice or the car door slamming in the distance that pulled her out of a near meltdown and back to the harsh reality of her life. She flinched away from Matt to meet Mason’s heated gaze and felt immediately ashamed. How could she have kissed his brother while Mason watched?

She opened her mouth to apologize but Mason cupped her face in his hands and dropped an innocent kiss to the tip of her nose. “Don’t panic, sweetheart. It’s just our parents and the boys. They’ll be glad to see you.”

Just their parents? Just the boys?
Someone, please, dig a hole and bury me
. What had she been thinking, coming here? Kissing them? Well, technically only Matt, but even that was just…wonderful. No. No. No, no, no. It was wrong. She shouldn’t be kissing anyone.

She bolted from the chair and ra
n her trembling hands nervously down the front of her skirt to smooth out the wrinkles. She frantically checked all the buttons on her blouse and then smoothed a finger over her lips. Hopefully most of her lipstick had been wiped away with her napkin during dinner. Her eyes darted to Matt’s lips. Oh, thank God it wasn’t smeared all over his face. She was a teacher. Their children’s teacher. Their parent’s grandson’s teacher. Uuuhh, this was
so
not good. Not professional in the least.

She grabbed up her purse and ran a hand over her hair, feeling as if she had been ravaged by
a horny bear. When she noticed Matt and Mason slouched comfortably in their chairs, both sporting a mischievous smirk, she felt a spark of anger flash through her. “You’re laughing at me.” She pulled her purse strap over her shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest. “You really think this is funny?” When their smirks turned to full on grins and Matt let out with a chuckle, she turned on her heals and marched toward the door.

“Darlin’, don’
t be angry!” Matt shot up from his chair and took off after her. He reached her in three strides and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her to a stop. “We couldn’t resist, darlin’. You are so damn cute when you’re all flustered.”

“Don’t
you
darlin’
me. You…you set all this up. You never intended to talk about tutoring Con, did you? You…you what? You expected me to come here and…and…” God she didn’t even know what she thought they wanted from her.

“We expected…
no, we
hoped
, you would have dinner with us and we’d get to know each other better.” Mason stepped around Matt and cradled her neck in his hands, tilting her head back to look at him, “That’s all, sweetheart. We really do want you to help Con. We’d like for you to meet our parents, but we didn’t expect what happened in there tonight. Hoped, maybe. Prayed? Yeah, a lot, but not
expected
.”

Claira looked at Mason and her whole world was reduced to just them. She wanted to believe him. She did believe him. She didn’t know why, but she hated being mad at hi
m. Matt, she could be mad at. For whatever reason Matt pushed her buttons;
all
of her buttons. Mason was such a gentle soul, gentle with her, and she didn’t want to be mad at him. She wanted to trust him.

She released a sigh and found herself snuggling into Mason’s chest once he had released her head and wrapped her into his gentle emb
race. “I believe you. It’s just…been a really bad day and I’m a little overwhelmed by all of this.”

“Awe, Claira, darlin’.
We didn’t mean to upset you.” Matt stepped up and ran his hand along her arm in such a gentle caress that she reached out for more when he pulled away. Damn, she really wanted to be mad at him. “Let us get the boys settled into bed then we’ll sit on the porch for a little bit, have some coffee. We want to hear about your bad day. Maybe we can help you forget about it, or at least feel better about it. Our folks won’t stay long. I promise.”

Claira w
ould just bet they could make her forget. All it would take is about two seconds of another one of Matt’s kisses to send her straight to Amnesiaville. She couldn’t afford to forget herself. She didn’t know if he was out there, watching her, but she
did
know the consequences for anyone she might let get that close.

Before she cou
ld tell them she was leaving, the front door swung open and two Tasmanian whirlwinds rushed inside. Claira wrenched herself out of Mason’s arms.

“Daddy
, Mason! Daddy, Matt! Papaw Jake and Papaw Nathan want to see the puppies. Can we go show em’?” Car shrilled as he ran right up to Mason, completely unfazed by their teacher standing in the hallway with their dads. “I know we’re still grounded until tomorrow, but they haven’t seen em’ yet and we want Papaw Jake to help us pick out the one we’re gonna’ keep.”

“
Whoa there, sport. Aren’t you two going to say hello to your teacher?” Matt playfully scolded as he scooped Con into his arms

Con smiled at her and Car spared only a brief glance her way.
“Hi, Miss Robbins.” Before Claira could respond he looked back up at Matt and held his hands out in a show of impatience. “Now can we go show the Papaws the puppies?”

Matt let Con slid
e to the floor. “Make it quick. You’re still grounded for tonight so that means lights out by eight.”

“Come o
n Con! I bet they pick the white one.” Car shouted as he pulled Con back through the front door, the screen door slamming behind him.

Claira was stunned on so many levels, but the two things that
struck her nearly dumb was first, the fact that the boys didn’t seem effected by her presence in the least. She had worked up such a case of nerves that she had projected her obviously unfounded fears of them negatively responding to seeing them with their fathers. They obviously couldn’t have cared less.

The second thing she was still trying to process was the
‘
Papaws’
, plural. Did that mean their dad and Sarah’s dad? Or were they saying they, too, had more than one dad like the twins. And how did that work, really? How did they know who was actually their biological father?

Her first question was answered when
the screen door opened again and a petite, silver haired woman was ushered in by probably the tallest man she’d ever seen. He held two bags in his long arms and reached for one of the trays in the woman’s hand as she wobbled awkwardly past the door frame. “Don’t just stand there, boys. Help your mom get this stuff to the kitchen.”

Matt and Mason jumped to her side and began taking the load from her
arms “Hey, ma. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble. You know we can cook for ourselves these days.” They each laid a kiss on her cheek.

Once her hands were free she reached up and patted them both on the cheek. “It’s never a
ny trouble taking care of my boys.”

Matt and Mason headed back toward the kitchen with their goodies, leaving Claira standing alone in the hallway. She
stood unnoticed and watched as their mother turned and removed her sweater. “Most of it is leftovers from the Ladies Auxiliary luncheon this afternoon,” their mother shouted down the hall as she searched through her purse for something and then hefted the designer bag to the top of the growing pile in the man’s arms “I think Mrs. Porter made an extra apple pie just so I’d take it home to you boys. I had room in the oven for an extra pan of chops when I made dinner tonight, too. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know those boys can eat you out of house and home. Never hurts to have…Oh!”

Claira felt like an intruder as the older woman froze in mid turn and looked at her with a wide eyed expression. Their mother quickly recovered though, and made her way toward Claira with her arms outstretched in greeting. “Good Lord, boys. You didn’t say you had company.” She pulled Claira into a friendly hug. “I’m Hazel McLendon and I’m completely faultless for the lack of manners my boys are showin’ tonight. But
” she shrugged, “you do the best you can while you have them and then their fathers go and mess it all up.” She turned a slanted gaze back to the man at the door. “Josiah McLendon, did you know about this?”

Josiah’
s sheepish grin said he did. Of course he hadn’t told their wife when Matt had called and told him and his brothers about Claira. Matt had asked them to take the boys, but to bring them back right after dinner. They hadn’t trusted themselves around Claira for too long and didn’t want to scare her off. So he and the other dads had made up some crock about their boys not having time to get to town for supplies and groceries. Of course, unless one of his bonehead sons couldn’t keep their traps shut, Haze would never know the difference.

“I’d extend a hand,” he lifted the bags in his arms
, which were now weighted down with all of the other things Mrs. McLendon had piled on top of them. “But I drew the short stick and got to play pack mule.”

Claira suppressed a giggle when M
rs. McLendon rolled her eyes and swatted his backside, prodding him toward the kitchen. “Nice to finally meet you, Claira,” he mumbled as he marched obediently down the hall.

“You already kno
w her name?” Mrs. McLendon shouted after him. “You did know about this!”

Well, shit.
Joe mentally noted to tell his brothers that one of them was sleepin’ on the couch tonight. It sure as hell wasn’t gonna to be him.

Hazel
shook her head and grabbed up Claira’s hand with a chuckle. “It’s not every day they get one over on me, but when they do…”

Claira liked the woman on the spot, but she still felt a little out of place. She didn’t have any real experience with a famil
y dynamic like theirs. “I’m sorry if I’m intruding. I just drove out to speak to Matt and Mason about tutoring Con. I guess dinner ran a little later than they planned.”

“Don’t you apologize, honey. It’s been a long time since my boys entertained an
yone of the female persuasion in this house. And don’t you worry, as soon as I get the food put away, and my men gathered up, we’ll be heading right out of here and you can carry on with your dinner.”

Her
men?
“Oh, that’s ok. We were pretty much finished up anyway, Mrs. McLendon.” Claira lied. They hadn’t even discussed Con at all. Of course she had no problem feeling guilty about that now.

“
Call me Hazel, dear.” the other woman insisted as she pulled Claira toward the kitchen.

She could hear voices
, almost arguing, as they approached the kitchen, but sudden silence filled the room when they entered. The men shared glances with their father and then their mother. Josiah cleared his throat and smiled at his wife. “Am I released from duty, Mrs. McLendon?”

Hazel reached up on tiptoe and kissed Josiah’s chin.
“Yes, dear. I’ll only be a minute. Go pry your brothers from the twins so our boys can get them ready for bed.”

“Yes, ma’am.”
Josiah turned and gave Claira a fatherly squeeze. “Don’t let our boys cause you any trouble, missy. If they do, you just give me a call and I’ll straighten them out for you.” Claira chuckled and nodded her agreement as another deep voice called out from the hallway.

“Mom!
Poppa Joe! Did you guys buy a go-kart? What is that thing parked next to Matt’s truck and how did that big dent….?” Grey froze in the doorway as he took in the scene in his kitchen. His brothers, who were sporting two equally potent, shit eating grins, were leaning against the sink behind their mom, who still wore the look of sympathy she’d had for him since Sarah passed away. His dad had his arm wrapped around the one and only star of his recent and unwanted wet dreams. The delectable Miss Robbins was standing in his kitchen. In
Sarah’s
kitchen. His cock sprang from half mast, where it had pretty much stayed since the last time he saw her, to a full blown hard-on right there in front of his mom.
Holy
hell
.