“Geez, we just wanted to hear about your studly celebrity boyfriend. You don’t have to be so mean and bring up school when it’s the weekend,” Mason said.
Mira grinned. “I aced it.”
“Awesome. I knew you would.”
“Nerd,” Mason said.
“Maybe one day I’ll be working in a lab making that makeup you sell. Not that I want to do anything like that,” she said. “I’m going to do something more.”
“You can do anything you set your mind to,” I said.
“Makeup is a very worthy cause. And if you do, I’ll sell the shit out of it. Just let me help you name the products. That would be epic.”
They started bickering about possible names for lipstick and I turned to see Chloe looking over my shoulder, her eyes wide. “Miss Dani. Is that him? I saw him on TV when my dad was passed out the other night in his chair. He’s super tall. Ooh, and he has a dog.”
“What?” I asked, spinning around to see Gabe and Pucks walking toward us. What the hell was he doing here? He’d just gotten back maybe three hours ago. Not that I was stalking him, he’d just mentioned his flight’s arrival time when we’d texted last night. Regardless, he should have been home resting up on his day off, not here.
“Hey, Dani. I hope it’s okay that we’re here to hang out. Your director even cleared Pucks to visit as long as he promises to be on his best behavior.” His eyes left mine for a second to glance down at Pucks. “Right, buddy? Best behavior or they’re going to think I have no control over you.”
Pucks barked and then jumped up on Gabe.
“Already a bad showing.” Gabe smirked and ruffled Pucks’ soft ears.
“A dog.” “Oh my god, he looks so soft.” “Can I touch him?” “Does he bite?”
Questions were coming at us from all sides as more of the kids approached, and Gabe easily answered every single one of them.
I couldn’t help my laughter. “Okay, you guys, give them a minute to breathe.”
“She just wants a hello kiss,” Gabe said, giving me a wink.
“Yeah, from Pucks,” I teased, dropping down to greet him.
He nudged his head into my hand for a scratch and when I was close enough, he licked my cheek.
“Eeww, your breath is terrible,” I said.
“Mine is much better,” Gabe muttered and I glanced up at him, spotting a touch of heat in his humorous expression. Dammit, I’d missed him way more than I should’ve.
I stood up and gave him the same cheek Pucks had licked. He cupped my chin and planted a quick kiss on my lips before pulling away. “I missed you.”
“Me too,” I murmured back. “But seriously, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be resting?”
“What? No, I dropped my stuff at home, collected Pucks from Josie, and we decided to visit you here. A week is a long fu-freaking time.”
Heat spiraled through my body—and also something more that I wasn’t ready to think about right now.
He shows up here to hang out with me and the kids, something Roger and my father and so many other people wouldn’t do, and was that really all it took? It was honestly sad when I spelled it out.
I shoved those thoughts aside and focused on not looking too deeply into why Gabe was here and how it made me feel. The bottom line was that he came to have fun with the kids.
“Did you really get Pucks cleared, too?”
He grinned. “Of course. And Sally assured me that no one had any dog allergies. I also sent her a few videos from Pucks’s Insta to show what a sweet and gentle dog he can be.”
“You two are super adorbs,” Mason said, drawing my attention away from probably looking too smitten for my own good as I stared at Gabe.
Gabe took that lead-in to loop his arm over my shoulder and tug me against his warm, gorgeous body.
