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“Can you put it out of your mind and get back to sleep?”
She nodded, and then covered her mouth when a big yawn escaped. “Yes. I’m tired.”
“I’ll bet you are, Pixie. Get some good sleep, okay?”
“Okay. But Uncle Grady?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you working tomorrow?”
“Yep.”
“Who’s going to get me after school?”
He sighed. “I need to figure that out. But don’t worry. We’ll have it figured before I drop you off in the morning, okay?” He didn’t want her to spend the whole day anxious about what she was supposed to do once school finished.
“Do you think I can come here again?”
He pursed his lips. “I don’t know yet, Pixie. I’ll talk to Hannah. But she might have to work, too.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“I know.”
He kissed her cheek and pulled the covers up over her shoulder when she lay down on her side.
“Get some sleep.”
She nodded, a small smile playing on her lips. “I will. I hope I get to come back here tomorrow.”
“We’ll see how it all works out.” Part of him hoped she did, too. But another part was wrestling with all the realities of the situation. On a practical level, Hannah might have to work. And on another level, he wasn’t sure if them all being thrown together so quickly and so often, would help his fledgling relationship with Hannah or hurt it.
He dropped another kiss on the top of Ava’s head. “Goodnight.”
When he went back down the hallway, Hannah was waiting in the kitchen. “Is she okay?”
“She’s good. I think she’ll go right back to sleep now. Did you two do okay?”
“We had a wonderful time. We took more photos. She has a great eye. She’s a natural.”
Grady couldn’t help smiling. “She loves it. I need to figure out what kind of camera to get her for Christmas and order it.”
“I can tell you what I think will work for her, now that I know her a bit better.”
“Thanks.” He went to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “We’ll get to that, but I don’t want everything to be about Ava, you know.” He slid his fingers into her hair and drew her closer as he kissed her. Her lips were so soft. As he slid his tongue between them to explore her, his whole body hummed with a craving for her. He wanted to take her to bed, slide between her legs, lose himself inside her.
Her arms came up around his shoulders, and the way she pressed herself against him made it clear that she was thinking along the same lines.
She pulled away before he was ready, and he tried to reclaim her mouth, but she leaned back. “Don’t we need to talk about this?”
He raised his eyebrows. “We can, if you like. But I thought we figured it out this morning. We’re good, right?”
She chuckled. “Yes, we’re good. If this morning is anything to go by, we’re very good. But this morning, Ava wasn’t asleep in the guest room. Is it … will it be okay if she wakes up? What would she think if she found you in my bed?”
“I think she’ll be fine. She …” He frowned. “Am I a bad parent that it didn’t even occur to me? I mean, she lived with Braydon and Vanessa. They share a bed. She stays with Molly and Marcos, they do. I don’t know. I … She’s never known me to share a bed with anyone.” He met Hannah’s gaze. “Do you see a problem?”
