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Her expression falls. “Tuck?—”
“He’s excited for us, Maren. I promise. You’ve got nothing to worry about. All right?”
Her gaze flicks over my face. “All right.”
“Good.” I press a scruffy kiss to her mouth. “Just because I knocked you up don’t mean I can’t date you all proper like.”
She catches my chin. “I like it when your accent comes out.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. You have a country boy’s heart with the manners of a gentleman.”
I grin. “Filthy mind, though.”
“Thank God for that.”
nineteen
. . .
Maren
It’s a Date
“Anybody home?”
My pulse skips a beat at the sound of the deep, thickly accented voice downstairs. Katie, who’s on my lap on the family room floor while we readLlama Llama Red Pajamafor the fourteenth time, leaps to her feet.
“Papa Joe!” she screams.
The tail of herPaw Patrolcostume wags as she runs toward the stairs. A huge man with familiar green eyes appears on the top step.
He scoops her into his arms. “It’s my Kit Kat!”
“Papa Joe, do you get to stay here tonight?”
Tuck told Katie that he and I had plans tonight. She’d asked where we were going, but he artfully demurred by telling her that her grandpa was coming to babysit.
“I do! Wanna play together?”
“Yes! But first, let me show you the new helmet Daddy got me for my bike. I rode my bike so far today!”
A smile creases Joe’s handsome face. “Did you really? That’s because you have strong muscles.”
“And because I have a strong back. I may have had to carry this little pup and her bike home after she got tired.” Tuck moves across the kitchen. “Hey, Dad.”
Joe puts down Katie and pulls Tuck in for a hug. “Hello, son. Glad you called. I been missin’ y’all something fierce.”
Rising to my feet, my heart swoops seeing them together. Not only is Joe a carbon copy of Tuck (or maybe it’s the other way around?) from his massive build to his full head of hair and alarmingly handsome features. But he’s also a hugger.
So that’s where Tuck gets it from. He may have been a stone-cold bastard when we met, but Tuck’s people are warm.
Confirms my suspicion that he’s made of warm stuff too.
Katie tugs on her grandpa’s shirttail. “Papa Joe, Papa Joe, Ineedto show you myhelmet. It’s so cool, it has purple on it, and there’s a crown too. Come see it, please.”
“In a minute, Squish.” Tuck lifts Katie onto his hip. “Papa Joe needs to say hi to Maren first.”
