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“Special delivery!” Olivia sang as she waved a folded piece of paper with stickers all over it above her head.
“We got somefin’ for you!” Owen said in his adorable way, bending down on his knees before he popped into the air.
“Wait ’til you see.” Oliver jumped even higher at his side.
Olivia shoved it out in front of her for me to take.
“Open it, my S’vannah!” Owen beamed, his gap-toothed smile turned up to me.
Energy whispered on the cool breeze. Warm and right. Soothing and stirring me straight into a disorder. My attention traveled from the kids to the source. Ezra loitered at the edge of the porch. He leaned a shoulder against the pillar, those massive hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans.
One ankle was crossed over the other.
Hot Cop the epitome of aloof.
Except there wasn’t a single thing in his expression that said he was indifferent or impassive.
Severity blazed from the clench of his jaw, though those eyes…they were so freaking soft as they took me in.
A shiver rocked me through, and I gulped down the tumult and forced myself to return my attention to the kids. “What do you have for me?”
“You gotta open it to see because it’s a surprise,” Olivia told me.
I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking when I accepted it. I slid my fingers under the colorful pieces of tape.
“Hurry!” Olivia begged.
An affected laugh left me, and I peeked over at Ezra before I unfolded the note, and my ribs clamped around my heart when I saw what was written inside.
Will you go on a date with my dad?
It was decorated with heart stickers, and the check boxes were exactly the same as they’d been in the first two invitations.
? Yes.
? Definitely.
? Absolutely.
Moisture burned my eyes.
“You have to fill out the box,” Olivia prodded, and she handed me a pink marker.
I glanced at Ezra again.
His gaze had gone even softer.
Knowing.
My knees wobbled because this wasn’t stolen or secret. It wasn’t him sneaking through my door so no one else would know.
This was him making a stand.
A statement.
“All right, you yahoos, you delivered the message, now it’s time for you to head back into the house like we talked about.”
“Do we has to?” Owen groaned.
Affection clutched my chest.
“Yeah, you need to let me and Miss Savannah have a talk.”
“If they’re going to go on a date, they need privacy.” Olivia all but scolded them in a whisper as she took the twins’ hands, and she took a step to guide them back to the house, only she shifted to look at me from over her shoulder and sent me a wink.
I choked over a surprised laugh, and I watched them prance back across the lawn before they disappeared into the house.
All while an intensity built in the air. A thickness that churned on the gentle breeze.
I finally looked at Ezra.
God, he looked so good in the evening, too.
So sexy it wasn’t fair.
He pushed from the pillar, colossal where he stood, the man fully filling my sight as he slowly edged my direction.
Overpowering.
Overwhelming.
All wide shoulders and brimming strength and beating, thrashing heart.
Clearing the roughness from my throat, I waved the letter between us, no stopping the tweak of a smile that pulled at one side of my mouth. “If this isn’t a form of manipulation, Ezra Patterson, then I don’t know what is.”
A low chuckle rumbled out of him, both smooth and raw. “I warned you that my daughter has a way of getting what she wants.”
I glanced down at the letter before I returned my gaze to him, the easiness drifting away as I gave into the heaviness that whirled around us. “And this is what she wanted? It was her idea?”
He stepped closer. The air rippled around us. “Yeah, it was her idea.”
“Not yours.” It wasn’t a question.
Ezra reached out and ran his thumb along my chin, tipping it up and sending chills skating along my flesh.
“No. Not mine. Because you and I have been tiptoeing around this thing between us and my daughter is the one who was smart enough to call us on it.”
“What are we doing, Ezra?”
It was a plea.
Those eyes flashed before a wry grin tugged at his lips. “We’re going on a date, Savannah.”
He angled his head toward the piece of paper I held. “It seems you don’t have much of a choice, now do you?”
“When?” Would it make me a fool if I begged it? But I didn’t think I could hide this any longer, either.
“What time do you get off tomorrow?”
“Three.”
“Then I’ll pick you up at four. Bring your camera.”
FORTY-TWO
SAVANNAH
It was exactly four p.m. when knuckles rapped at the front door. I’d expected him to come to the back the way he always did, and a grin pulled to my mouth that he was obviously making this a special thing.
