Dante was watching. He was watching his son laughing next to Mindy and another little girl as they tossed blocks into a bucket. Then the little girl with tiny blonde pigtails glanced up, and sure enough, her excited scream resounded through the room.
“Daddy!” She rushed across her classroom area and bounded right into Cooper’s arms, who met her at the opened door/gate.
Noah glanced to see what was happening and then spotted Dante. A smile split across his son’s face and it warmed Dante’s heart.
“Daddy!” he yelled in a voice several decibels lower than his friend.
Thankfully.
Smiling, Dante moved toward the opening and gathered up his smiling son into his arms. “Hey, little dude. Did you have a good day?”
“Yes,” Noah replied, smiling into his face. “We did letters and story time and napped and played with blocks.”
“Yeah, Daddy, we did letters and napped and blocks,” Mindy told her grinning father.
“That’s wonderful, princess,” Cooper said as they set the kids down to put their coats on and grab their backpacks from their assigned cubicles outside their section.
The little girl’s eyes widened as she glanced behind him. “Missmanda!We did letters and napped and blocks.”
Dante’s pulse quickened even before he turned to see Mac carrying his son in an infant car seat while he walked toward them with Amanda at his side.
“You did?” She grinned at the little girl who was back in Cooper’s arms. “That’s terrific.”
He picked Noah up, compulsorily using him as a buffer.
“And we had story time, too,” his son told her.
Amanda shifted her attention to Noah. “Oh, story time is my favorite. Miss Lisa is so good at it. Did you have fun today?”
Noah nodded. “Yes. I like it here.”
Dante exhaled as relief flowed through him. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed to hear that.
“That’s good. I’m glad,” Amanda said, and when she met Dante’s gaze, the genuine warmth in her beautiful eyes triggered a wave of calm through him.
She had a gentleness about her that spoke to his soul.
“Helping out in the infant room today, I see,” Cooper said to Amanda.
Yawning, she nodded. “Oh, sorry. Yeah, just for the afternoon, but man, now I think I need a nap.”
Dante chuckled with the others and as they all began to head to the parking lot together, Amanda walked ahead of him with Mac. The light caught the blonde streaks of her swishing hair and his fingers itched to see if it was as soft as it appeared. Then his gaze drifted lower, and he couldn’t stop himself from admiring her long legs and the way her black pants hugged her fine ass.
He was heading for trouble and needed to rein it in and keep his distance. She was too nice, too beautiful, too mesmerizing. With any luck, she would teach the preschoolers and not have to help out on the daycare side of things too often.
When they exited the building, he focused on his car and breathed an inner sigh of relief when she started to walk toward the other side of the lot.
“Hey, Amanda!” Mac called out. “You’re going to be at the barbeque on Saturday, right?”
Dante willed her to say no, since he’d already told Gabe he’d be there with Noah because Hunter and Christa were bringing Dillan.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m in charge of the sangria.”
And apparently his pulse. He blew out a breath and forced it to level out.
“Sweet.” Cooper grinned, stopping at his car. “You getting it from Texas Pub?”
She smiled. “Of course. No one makes a better sangria than Kerri McCall.”
