Cage almost kissed me.

I can't believe he almost kissed me. Well, I mean we've kissed before, but I was barely a high school graduate then! This is different. We're older and have two kids together. That he only just found out about recently, may I add! I can't let us get that close to kissing again. It just isn't worth it, no matter how much he makes my heart pound and fills my stomach with butterflies.

What am I saying?

Gosh, I sound like some lovesick fool!

Cage and I can't happen. If we were to date and break up, it will make it awkward with the kids and they'll probably wonder why we are not together. Right now they don't do that and that's how I want it to stay.

I slam my coffee cup down on the counter in frustration. A lot harder than I meant to because it ends up breaking.

"Mom, what was that?" Knox asks as he comes walking into the kitchen.

"Nothing honey, I just dropped my cup," I lie.

"You okay?" He walks closer to me and examines me, probably making sure I didn't get cut.

"Knox, stay back. You're barefoot. I don't need you to get cut." He does as he's told and takes a step back.

I pick up the big pieces of glass, throwing them away before grabbing a paper towel and the trash can. I lift the trash and use the paper towel to push the smaller glass pieces into the trash. Once I have all the glass shards in the trash, I place it back in the pantry. Making sure I close the pantry door all the way. I made the mistake of not doing that earlier this morning, and the puppies knocked it over. It made a huge mess all over the floor. That I just cleaned yesterday, might I add?

So my morning is going terribly so far.

"Are you doing okay, Mom? You seem upset about something. It's not something Kohl and I did, right?" Knox ducks his head down, thinking I'm mad at them.

Sighing, I walk over to him, crouching down to his level and placing my hand on his cheek. I wait patiently until he slowly lifts his head up and looks into my eyes.

"You both did nothing wrong at all. I'm not mad, annoyed, or frustrated with anything you two did." He continues to stare into my eyes to make sure, seeing that I am, he hugs me tightly.

I wrap my arms around his back and rock us both from side to side. I glance over Knox's shoulder and see Kohl standing there. He's not moving to come any closer, seeming unsure if he should interrupt the moment. I unwrap one of my arms from Knox and hold it out. Eventually, Kohl comes running over and into my arms. I hug both my boys tightly to me and whisper, I love them.

"You know what I want right now?" I ask, pulling back so I can see their faces.

"What?" they both ask at the same time.

"Ice cream."

"It's not even noon yet, Mom," Kohl says, giving his brother a look, silently asking if I'm okay.

Knox just shrugs his shoulders in response to the unvoiced question.

"So? If I remember right, you don't have school today or tomorrow. I think a giant ice cream sundae sounds good right about now."

I go and start pulling different stuff out of the cupboards and the fridge, not waiting for what they have to say. Once I have all sorts of different junk food out and the ice cream, I grab an ice cream scoop and one of my big mixing bowls.

I open the rocky road first, then scoop some of it out and into the bowl.

The boys, seeing that I'm serious about this, go and grab an ice cream scoop for themselves.

We scoop five different flavors of ice cream into the bowl. Rocky road, cookie dough, strawberry, vanilla, and my favorite mint chocolate chip.

Surprisingly, the boys like that ice cream too.

After we have all the ice cream in a bowl, we start grabbing different toppings.

"Hey boys?" They look up at me, then I squirt them with chocolate syrup.

They're surprised at first before they start squirting me back with whip cream and caramel syrup.

"You're going down Mom!" Knox says.

"Yeah, it's two against one! You don't stand a chance!" Kohl says.

They both run towards me and squirt me. I run around the counter grabbing the other bottle of whip cream. I quickly spray them with that and run as I chase them around the kitchen. Soon I'm out of whip cream and I chuck the can in some direction. I grab some gummy bears and start chucking them at Knox and Kohl, they burst into laughter as they both try to dodge them. Eventually, we all run out of stuff and are trying to catch our breath from all the running and laughing. Seeing that they're not paying attention to me, I grab two handfuls from one of the ice cream containers, smearing it all over their faces when they look up. They both just stand there in shock before doing the same to me.

"Okay! Okay, you boys win!" I say, laughing while wiping the ice cream off my eyes.

"Is there any ice cream left?" Kohl asks.

I stand up and grab the huge mixing bowl that still has ice cream in it. I grab three spoons from the silverware drawer and hand two of them to the boys. We all sit down on the floor, still covered in ice cream, syrups, and gummies but not minding at all.

"We should do this again sometime," Knox speaks before spooning another bite of ice cream into his mouth.

"Maybe next time we can actually get more toppings onto our sundae," I say.

I pull a gummy bear out of my hair and that causes some chocolate syrup to plop onto my leg. That sets us off again and we're laughing so hard that the mixing bowl gets knocked off my lap. All the ice cream that was in the bowl is now all over the floor.

CAGE'S POV

I knocked on Rory's door again after nobody answered the first time. I'm not even sure if they are home right now or not. I didn't call or text her to see. I just thought since the boys don't have school today, I could possibly come and spend some time with them.

Is it okay that I came over without asking? I mean, can I do that or do I need permission?

Honestly, I don't know what's right or wrong in this situation.

I mostly wanted to stop by to make sure Rory and I are okay. I shouldn't have tried to kiss her, despite how much I wanted to. She just seemed kinda upset, so I hugged her. She felt amazing in my arms and smelled like vanilla and chocolate. I just wanted to bury my face in her neck and inhale her.

Oh gosh, that makes me sound like a weirdo.

I groan, frustrated with myself. Is it bad that I want her? I mean, we have two boys together and Rory is still as beautiful and kind as I remembered. She's an amazing mother and I'm glad Knox and Kohl were raised by her.

I go to knock again when there's a crash sound inside the house. getting worried that something is wrong, I open the door.

Rory can get mad at me later for entering without her permission.

Once I'm inside, I'm stopped by a sound that makes my heart stop beating. A sound that fills me with so much adoration, love, and joy.

The sound of my boys and their mother's laughter.

I follow the amazing sound towards the kitchen and see them all on the floor. Covered in ice cream and some other stuff.

"I think you are supposed to eat it," I say, looking down at them with a smile on my face.

Their laughter stops and at once they all look up at me.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" Kohl asks and makes my heart feel like it completely stopped beating.

Rory has a look on her face that I can only assume is on my face as well.

Complete shock.

One of my sons just called me Dad for the first time.

Not even caring that Knox and Kohl are covered in ice cream, I scoop them both up in my arms and spin them around.

"You just called me Dad!" I say, my voice full of excitement and proudness.

"Yeah, he did, Dad. Now, can you put us down? I think I'm going to be sick if you keep spinning us," Knox tells me.

I set them both down and my smile gets even bigger, if that's possible.

I look over at Rory and see her giving me a soft smile.

It's the same smile she gave me before we slept together a few years ago at that fourth of July party. With that smile I feel all those old feelings I felt for her in high school, that nobody but me, Xavier, and Catch knew about, coming back taking up residence again in my heart.

Oh shit.

I'm falling for Rory.

Again.

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