Cal blinked. “I do?”
“Of course you do, Caelan,” Henry announced. “I saw him give it to you last week when I was here eating pumpkin pie. Right, Ash?”
“Huh?” Ash looked back and forth from Henry to Parker, a tiny pucker between his brows, then his expression cleared. “Oh! Um. Of course. Last week. When you were here. And there was pie. And the… the phone number. Remember, babe?”
Cal stared at Ash like he didn’t recognize him. “But, Ash, youknowlast week we didn’t… Oh.” Cal looked from Parker to Henry to Gideon. His lips twitched. “Oh! Right, right. I remember now! The pie. And the new cell number. Which I have. So, I’ll just go…” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the back room. “And, um… call it. And talk to Paul.”
“Sweet baby Jesus, I feel myselfagingover here. Couldsomeonecall him? Or just give me the number so I can call him myself?” Gideon demanded, and I kinda didn’t blame him for losing his patience because the people of O’Leary seemed fuckingweird. I mean,nice. Definitely nice. But… weird.
Cal smiled, grabbed the Santa hat off Ash’s head and jammed it on his own. He gave Parker a jaunty salute. “I’m on it.”
“Great.” Gideon rolled his eyes. “Thank you.”
Parker picked up an enormous black sack from the floor. “M’kay. Well. Clearly Caelan has that under control, and I have deliveries to make. Really,reallynice to meet you, Liam. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around. My boyfriend Jamie and I run the O’Leary Bar and Grille. About two blocks that way.” He pointed right. “Come on by and we’ll hook you up.”
I frowned. “Nice of you to offer, but we’ll be leaving just as soon as the papers are signed. Thanks anyway.”
Parker smiled. “Remember the offer’s open. Later!” He pushed out the door with a jangle of bells.
“You know,” I told Gideon, “If the Paul person is close by, we could just walk—”
“Daddy?” Hazel called. “I seem to have a bit of a… situation.”
I looked over Gideon’s shoulder and found her staring at her two hands, both of which were tinted green. Her face, from her nose to her chin, was one long smear of frosting, and her unbitten cookie sat completely naked on the plate in front of her.
She shrugged sheepishly.
I groaned. Sometimes it felt like my daughter might hit old age before I did. Other times, it felt like she was still a toddler. “Come on. Let’s find you a place to wash up.”
She got up from the table gingerly and tiptoed toward me. Gideon rubbed a hand over his forehead, and when his brown-gold eyes met mine, it was clear he was trying very hard not to laugh, which was kind of endearing and hot and made my knees weak.
Wow. I really needed to get out of here.
Out of this bakery, out of thistown, away from this guy and the weird hold he still had on me.
The frizzy-haired lady—Jess—reached into her enormous purse and produced a packet of baby wipes. “Here, honey. This’ll work.”
I took them gratefully and mopped off Hazel’s face with the first wipe. Once her face was clean, she stared up at Gideon and let me work on her hands.
“I’m Hazel G. McKnight,” she said importantly. “Who are you?”
“Hazel,” I sighed, though I wasn’t sure what I meant to convey, and both of them ignored me anyway.
Gideon looked down at her. “Gideon P. Mason.”
“What’s the P for?”
“Hazel Grace,” I said more sharply, and she blinked at me innocently.
“Not telling,” Gideon said.
Hazel’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t enjoy secrets.”
Gideon snorted and turned an accusing eye on me. “Well, we have that in common.”
I clenched my hands into fists around the wet wipe. I hadn’t kept secrets… I just hadn’t told Hazel or anyone else in my life about Gideon. And I hadn’t told Gideon why I needed to leave Vegas. And…
“Not volunteering every single piece of information about yourself isn’t the same as keeping secrets,” I said. “Mr. Mason doesn’t owe you answers.”
