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He had to laugh. “That’s so not what I was worried about.”
“No?”
“Hell no! I’m more worried about scaring you off by roping you into my domestic issues from the get-go.”
“I don’t mind that. It’s called real life, I believe.”
“Yeah, you’ve got a point there.” He met her gaze. “If she stays with you, it can be just a one time, emergency measure type thing. It doesn’t have to mean anything more than that.”
She nodded slowly. “I know it doesn’t have to.” Her big brown eyes looked steadily back into his.
He understood what she wasn’t saying – that she’d be okay if it did end up meaning more than that. Probably the scariest thing about it all was that he’d be okay with it, too. More than okay. He’d loved seeing Ava blossom under Hannah’s attention today.
“Do you think she’d be comfortable with it?”
He had to laugh at that. “Yeah, that’s about the only thing that doesn’t concern me. Well, except that she might be a little too comfortable – get too attached.”
“I’d never hurt her. Seriously Grady, even if things don’t work out between you and me. I’ll still want to be there for her, if you’ll let me.”
He squeezed her hand, not sure he trusted himself to speak around the emotion that clogged his throat. It was crazy. He still barely knew Hannah, but he already knew that if things went south between them, he’d do everything he could to keep her in Ava’s life. She was good for her.
“Okay. Let’s talk to her. But I know what she’ll say. She’ll be thrilled. Do you want to come back to my place with us to get her things?”
“Okay.”
Grady took hold of Hannah’s hand and made a conscious decision to keep hold of it when he called Ava over to tell her what was going on and ask if she wanted to stay with Hannah while he went to work.
~ ~ ~
Hannah had followed Grady to his townhouse to get Ava’s things. It made more sense for her to bring Ava back to the estate with her and let Grady get straight to work. It was just after four o’clock when she pulled up to the gate. Ava looked over at her when it swung open.
“Did you do that or did the man in the little house?”
“He did. He came out to see us before because we were in Uncle Grady’s car, but since he knows it’s me in this car, he just pressed the button inside to let us through.”
Ava peered past her at the gatehouse. Slade smiled and waved at them through the window. Hannah put her window down and beckoned to him.
He came out and waved at Ava again.
She waved back. “Hello!”
“Hi.” He raised an eyebrow at Hannah.
“Slade, I’d like you to meet my new friend, Ava. Ava, this is Slade. He runs the gatehouse.”
“Hello, Slade.” Ava smiled shyly at him.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Ava.” He turned back to Hannah. “Are we done for the night now?”
“No. I think you’ve met Grady a couple of times, haven’t you?” She used to hate having to explain all her visitors to the guys who worked on the gate when she was younger. Now, it mostly didn’t bother her. Perhaps it was because she was older, and Slade and the other guys were her contemporaries rather than feeling like disapproving uncles. But she couldn’t help wondering if they’d noticed that Grady hadn’t left last night.
He grinned. “I have.”
“Well, he’ll be back to collect Ava tonight after he finishes work.”
“Okay.” He leaned down so that he could see Ava. “I hope you have a fun evening with Hannah.”
“Thank you. We will.”
