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Sage turned her face into his shoulder, helpless.

“How did it get there?” Hallie wheezed.

“I do not know.” Annie’s eyes were wide. “I do not know, Hallie. He won’t tell me. Tommy will not tell me how the gravy got into the boots.”

“Annie,” Rowan said, dry as paper, “as a medical professional, I’m going to tell you that there are some things you should not investigate.”

“DR. HALE!”

“That’s my recommendation.”

Sage was crying with laughter.

Her face was buried in Cal’s flannel. She could feel his chest moving against her cheek with his own laughter — that quiet, deep, in-the-bones rumble — and she thought, with the clarity that arrives sometimes in the middle of nothing, this. This is what I get to have now. This is mine.

Thank you Lord…

She had been slowly talking to God again. It was complicated. But something in Cal had opened a door for her. For so many years she’d refused. Not because she didn’t believe. She strangely did. But because her prayers had never been answered when she was desperate.

Thank you for my family and…and…

Sage’s thought process stalled.

Cal’s hand drifted a little higher and a little to the left.

Oh…fuck yes!

She spread her legs slowly under the table. Cal’s hand drifted higher. His fingers slipped beneath the waistband of her leggings, then under the edge of her panties. She spread her thighs wider, heart hammering, heat flooding between her legs⁠—

Only for his fingertips to glide slowly upward, stroking over the soft skin of her lower belly instead.

Oh! You… you absolute tease!

She tilted her face up, shooting him a look that very clearly said excuse me daddy! Fun Town is south and YOU’RE the mayor.

Cal looked down at the same moment. That wicked, warm grin. He bent, pressed a slow kiss into her hair, and whispered against her ear, breath hot, “Daddy one, princess four.”

Oh really?

Sage kept her face blank while Annie and Hallie chatted with Rowan. Then, very deliberately, she let her fork clatter to the floor.

“Oops! I’ll get it,” she said sweetly, ducking under the table.

The second she was hidden by the long tablecloth, she nuzzled straight between his thighs, mouthed the thick, already-hard ridge of his cock through his jeans, and gave one slow, teasing bite—gentle, but enough.

Cal jolted so hard the whole booth shook. He stood halfway out of the aisle before catching himself, face flushed, while everyone stared.

“I…ah…I…” he rambled.

Sage climbed back up, the picture of pure innocence, lips shiny. “Oh Cal! You saw the spider too? Don’t worry, baby, I killed it.”

She looked at everyone and solemnly said, “being afraid of spiders is nothing to be ashamed of right?”

Annie giggled, covering her mouth, looking at Cal. The conversation rolled on.

Cal shot Sage a dark, promising scowl. She just mouthed back at him, eyes sparkling. What’s the score now, Daddy?

He tried to look stern. Failed miserably. Laughing again, he hauled her tight against his chest and whispered into her hair, “I love you.”