Page 76 of Knot What I Expected

The bags in my hand suddenly don’t matter. The crowded mall doesn’t matter. Nothing does except the female whose scent has been driving me insane and the little boy staring at a cookie like it’s the greatest treasure he’s ever seen.

“You like cookies?” I ask.

Gabriella freezes.

Matteo turns.

And for the first time since I walked into this godforsaken mall?

Monster goes completely still.

Mine.

Chapter 7

Gabriella

The mall is small.

Really small.

Some malls I’ve seen have their own freaking zip codes compared to this place.

But it’s clean and bright, with polished floors, shiny storefronts, and enough colorful signs to make Matteo stare around like we’ve entered another dimension.

His little hand stays firmly tucked inside mine.

“Wow.”

I smile.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“Mommy!”

“What?”

“Wow! Are those cookies? They’re huge!”

He points toward a kiosk near the center of the mall.

And okay.

Those things are enormous.

Like somebody looked at a normal cookie and said, “You know what this needs? Steroids.”

“You like cookies?”

Every muscle in my body freezes.

Oh no.

No freaking way.

That voice.

Deep.