Free With Me In Seattle: Bundle Two by Kristen Proby Page B

and rubs in a clockwise circle.
    “You could have brought Livie with you,” I mention as we all fill our mugs and sit at the table.
    This is our weekly coffee date. I don’t have to be to work until ten, so we usually meet for a quick cup of something hot and gossip. “Jules stuck at work?”
    “Luke loves his mornings with Liv, so they’re good.” Nat waves me off. “And, yes, Jules is in early-morning meetings.”
    “Stacy is home with two sick kids.” I grimace and take a sip of hot coffee, leaning my elbows on the table.
    “How are yours?” Meg asks and joins us.
    “Much better, thank God. They finally went back to school this morning.” It’s been a week since the girls were sick. “As much as I love them, I was about to put them up for adoption if they didn’t go back to school soon.”
    “Good morning, ladies.” Caleb saunters into the kitchen, wearing a dark blue Navy T-shirt and black shorts. He smiles at the girls and then turns that smile on me, his eyes warm and tender, as though he’s remembering every little amazingly sexy thing he did to me this morning.
    “Good morning,” we all respond in unison.
    “What are you up to?” Meg asks.
    “I’m gonna work out for a while out back.” He grins at Natalie. “Thanks for letting me install the equipment.”
    Natalie smiles and shrugs. “No problem.”
    Nat offered her Alki Beach house to the girls and me right after Jules moved out to live with Nate, and I couldn’t love her more for it. It meant that I didn’t have to put my name on a lease anywhere, and the girls and I don’t have to live with my folks.
    Caleb offers us a mock salute and leaves through the back door to the fenced yard behind the house, where he’s set up all sorts of odd equipment to work out with.
    “How are things with him?” Meg asks and gestures to the back door with her head.
    “Fine.” I shrug and take a sip of coffee.
    “Are you sleeping with him yet?” Nat asks casually, and I gape at her.
    “No,” I lie and take another sip of coffee. “He’s here to protect the girls and me.”
    “Right.” Meg rolls her eyes and pushes out of her chair to refill our mugs. “That’s why he looks at you like he wants to rip your clothes off and do you here on the kitchen table.”
    It’s fun when he does me on the kitchen table.
    But I simply shake my head and laugh.
    “Whatever.”
    “Deny it if you want to.” Meg smirks and glances out the back window. “Damn,” she whispers.
    “What is it?” Nat asks and rises from the table to see what Meg is looking at. Her eyes widen, and she glances back at me and then outside again. “Holy shit.”
    I know exactly what they’re watching.
    Or, who.
    And, yes, he is a sight to behold.
    “How do you ever get anything done around here?” Meg asks as I rise and lean against the sliding glass door, coffee cradled in my hands, and watch the sexy man in my backyard. “I’d just stand around and watch him all day.”
    “Uh, Meg.” I glance over at her and laugh. “You have one of these at home,” I remind her, referring to Caleb’s pro-football star brother, Will, who is also Meg’s live-in boyfriend.
    “And it’s a good thing he’s gone most of the day or I wouldn’t get anything done either.”
    “It’s starting to rain,” Nat observes, but it doesn’t seem to faze Caleb.
    He lifts two thick, heavy ropes in both of his hands. The ends are attached to Nat’s photo studio out back. With a firm grip on the ropes, he begins to quickly wave them up and down, the rain pounding down on him, causing his shirt to cling to every muscle as they flex and move with the motion of the exercise.
    “Hot damn,” Nat whispers, and I silently agree. He continues to pump his arms furiously, effortlessly. “What does that exercise do?” Nat asks.
    “Works his arms, back and abdomen, and it’s cardio, too,” Meg responds and takes a sip of coffee.
    Just then, Caleb drops the ropes, bends down to grab a medicine ball