Page 95 of Pink

“Yeah?”

Too quiet for his kid to hear, he asked, “Are you staying tonight?”

“I mean, I didn’t plan—”

“You don’t have to, I just wondered.”

“I only need to make a call. Kayla can handle the rest.”

Lev grinned. “A whole team at your beck and call, huh?”

“It’s not always to my benefit.”

Well, Lev didn’t know much about that.

“Stay tonight,” he murmured.

Gigi turned so her back was to the cupboard. Staring down at the floor, she folded her arms over her chest while the noise of Arely climbing back into her chair echoed through the kitchen. “I will. But will it confuse—”

“She’s going to be up and gone by seven. Nessa is picking her up for daycare. She works there, too, so it helps when my schedule doesn’t always work out for me to take her. I think you can stay in bed until then, right?”

“Well—”

“I can make sure you do,” he added, his tone dipping lower.

That pink flush came back to Gigi’s cheeks in a flash. It had him laughing, even when her arm swung out and the back of her hand smacked his side.

“You’re terrible.”

“Hey, I’m just making this even.”

“What did I do for it to need to be even?” she asked. “And since when are we keeping score?”

“We’ve always kept score, and you know it. Also, you’re about to introduce my kid to lip gloss. Sparkly lip gloss. That is a hell even men like me don’t deserve.”

Gigi pursed her lips, nodding. “That’s fair.”

Yep.

• • •

Lev’s gaze drifted between the phone in his hand—and the last text his boss sent—and the little girl snoring away in her bed. His mind, however, bounced back and forth like a ping pong ball from one thing to the next.

The question his daughter asked as he put her to bed; the woman down the hall, showering in his master bathroom; the man waiting for a response from him.

“Will Gigi come back to play again?”

Lev hadn’t known what to say. So instead of fumbling about like an idiot with the wrong words, he simply told his daughter, “I sure hope so.”

Because he did.

And that was terrifying.

He was a man who had spent the majority of his life, but certainly the last few, in a bubble of privacy and protection. Mostly for his kid’s sake. Gigi wasn’t quite the same when her entire life was focused on being a public figure.

How should they deal with that?

He didn’t know.