The Perfect Mistake✓ (Perfect #1)

Chapter Nine✓

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.

"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 is Mom okay look.

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.