Page 50 of The New Guy
“Sweet. You can skate, huh?”
“‘Course.” She shrugs. “Everybody can skate.”
“Well, every kid who grows up in New Hampshire,” Gavin says with a fond look at his daughter.
“Even you?” I put down my chopsticks. It hadn’t occurred to me that Gavin could skate. “Did you grow up in New Hampshire?”
“Rural Pennsylvania.” He shrugs. “But we had pond hockey in the winter. I played as long as the soccer fields had snow on them.”
“A man of many talents.” Shit, that came out flirty, too.
I take a big bite of chicken and mushrooms just to shut myself up.
* * *
“Hey, Hudson!” Jordyn says as we finish eating. “My birthday treat for school is next week. It’s a lollipop, plus a Bruisers sticker that Daddy got at work.”
“Cool. A hockey theme. I like it.”
“We put a picture on the goody bag. It’s from the Bombshells game—you and me and Neil Drake? The one we took after Neil stopped saying swear words.”
I laugh so suddenly that I almost choke on my beer. Drake had done a lot of cursing during that game, and I’d hoped that she didn’t notice.
Oops.
“You know, you could sign them,” she says, with a serious expression. “Then they’d beautographedtreats.”
I’m not sure many second graders care about my autograph. But this one seems to. “Sure, kid. Whatever you want.”
Jordyn slides off her chair and runs for her bedroom.
Gavin regards me with soft eyes as he drains his beer. “You don’t have to spoil her,” he whispers. “A kid can hear ‘no’ once in a while.”
“I don’t mind,” I whisper back.
He stands up and leans in to take my empty bowl. But at the last second, he places a soft kiss on my neck.
And—whoa—every nerve ending in my body is suddenly standing at attention. But Gavin is across the room already, loading bowls into his dishwasher. And Jordyn is running back with a shoebox full of little paper goody bags and a purple marker. “You can sign in the team color!”
So I do that. Meanwhile, Gavin opens another beer and watches me with a private smile on his handsome face.
I’m in so much trouble right now. I’d told him we couldn’t hook up anymore. I was very clear on that point for both our sakes.
But now I can’t remember why. Suddenly, none of my objections seem all that important.
After a while, Gavin tells Jordyn that she has to take a bath. So I rise from the sofa and carry my beer bottle into the kitchen. “I’ll leave you two to your evening. Thank you for dinner.”
“Wait for me a few minutes?” Gavin says. “I’ll be right back.”
He disappears to get Jordyn into the bath, and I take the opportunity to wash out his soup pot, and the other dishes in the sink. I’m drying everything when he returns.
“Oh, hell. You shouldn’t tease me like that,” he says, a serious look on his face.
“Wait, what?” I go still in surprise. “I’ve been trying all night not to flirt with you.”
His eyes twinkle. “Real talk—a guy who does all the dishes is honestly sexier than a naked stud with a giant woody.”
I laugh so hard I almost drop the pot on my foot.
