Page 26 of Her Age Gap Match

“No, not the same as usual. Different. You look like you’re good, for once.” She cocked her head. “Did the matchmaker finally find the right lady for ya?”

“...not exactly.”

Kim extended a cup of coffee toward me. “Tell us everything.”

“Johnny?” Cassius was coming around the corner, grinning when he saw me and going for a hug even though I was now holding a cup of coffee–which I promptly spilled a little bit on the floor. “Hey, man…how’s it going?”

“John was just about to regale us with an update on his love life,” Kim said dryly.

“Was I?” I said.

“You absolutely were,” Kim said. She had settled back into her chair at the kitchen table with the newspaper. “Elle noticed it too. You look different.”

“I look the same.”

“You look like something happened,” Elle said, turning to the stove to flip a pancake. “Something good. Your shoulders are down.”

“Maybe I started doing yoga.”

Cassius let out a loud laugh. “Nah, dude…you do, in fact, look different.” He sat at the table and put his hands on his chin. “Tell us everything.”

“You know I don’t kiss and tell.”

“That implied there was a kiss…” Elle teased, glancing over her shoulder.

“Figure of speech,” I shot back.

Elle gave me a look that said she didn’t believe that for a second but was willing to let it go…for now.

Kim didn’t share that feeling.

“Is it someone from the agency?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Come on, Johnny,” Cassius said. “Who are we going to tell?”

“Lawyers talk,” I said. “I mean—Kim recommended me to the agency because she knows their attorney⁠—”

“I’m not telling Cole North anything,” Kim said, “but you are making me want to ask him about this.”

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. “Why do I even hang out with you people…”

“Because you love us,” Elle said.

The front door opened before I could respond to that—thank fuck—then I heard Marco’s voice, softly asking Dee if she needed help with anything. She was in her third trimester, big enough that she usually needed a hand.

Still, she liked to very loudly refuse.

“Sorry, sorry—” Marco appeared in the kitchen doorway, coat half off, already talking. “Dee couldn’t find her other boot and then there was a thing with the car…”

We all exchanged hello’s and hugs…the usual merry-go-round of familial affection. I stood to make sure Dee had a place to sit, taking the large lidded bowl out of her hands.

“There are tangerines and whip in there,” Dee said. “I thought that would be tasty with the pancakes.”

“I would tell you not to subject us all to your pregnancy cravings, but that sounds delicious,” Cassius teased.

Dee lowered herself into the chair I’d vacated, Marco hovering near her. She batted at him and he gave her just a few more inches of space—still hovering, but not in as much of a hovering way.