satisfied one more time before it was time to go pick up Sami and Sadie.
I was plating everything on my good dishes when I heard a cry upstairs.
Shit.
“Bee?” I took the stairs two at a time and found Gina standing in the open doorway to the second-level deck, clad in nothing but one of my enormous white towels. Cold air was rushing in through the sliding glass doors she’d opened, but she seemed oblivious.
I came up behind her and set my hands on her shoulders. “Guess you found my handiwork.”
“When did you do all this?”
She stared at the blanket of fake snow I’d put down. It’d been a little cheeky, since we got the real thing often enough, but I’d checked the forecast first and we had a warm-up ahead. On top of the faux snow, I’d set up some old-fashioned blow molds Dad had unearthed from the basement yesterday. More fake snow lined the railings, interspersed with a bunch of different mini penguins arranged to look like they were sort of cross-country skiing.
“Yesterday. My dad helped a lot. Moose told me a while back they were doing some fancy holiday shoot for the kids, and I know it’s too late for any of that this year. But I thought we could set up something for Sami out here, since she only gets one first Christmas.”
Gina turned toward me and slid her hands up my chest to my shoulders. “That little girl is so lucky you’re her dad. I knew you would step up. I knew it. But you’ve been even more amazing than I could’ve imagined.”
“I didn’t want kids.”
“You wouldn’t let yourself want kids. Vital difference. You’re daddy material, Brooks.” She swallowed audibly. “Husband material.”
“I’m pretty particular about who I want to be that for.” I tipped up her chin. “Know anyone who might fit the bill?”
Seventeen
Gina smiled, but her eyes shuttered.
Too soon, jackass. Reel it in.
“This is going to be the cutest photo shoot ever, but you better do it fast. The real stuff is in the forecast in a couple days.”
“Since when? I checked.” I sighed. “Balls.”
That made her laugh. “Yeah, balls, but we can make it happen. Speaking of making it happen, I smell bacon.”
“I know my role.”
“And you play it so well. I’ll get dressed, and we’ll scarf down breakfast. Then we gotta go. My mom won’t care I got some when she’s blistering my ear in Spanish about letting down my poor, pregnant sister.”
She had an excellent point.
We hurried up and ate before heading across town. I did not speed, although it was close. I didn’t want Christian to pull me over. He’d enjoy it too much.
At the Ramos house, chaos was alive and well. I collected my daughter and my dog—both of whom seemed excited to see me—and gave my woman a discreet kiss.
So discreet that Gabby sang, “My sister’s seen the sheriff naked,” in a disturbingly cheerful singsong voice.
I practically ran away after that. The only things that slowed me down were the car seat I carried and the dog yanking on her leash.
Once I was home, I fed the baby and the beast and started texting my friends. Shockingly, many of them were busy on a Sunday afternoon. But I wasn’t above threats of parking tickets suddenly coming due if they didn’t show up for an hour.
I needed extra hands. Oh, and yeah, to tell them I had a kid.
John Gideon showed up first, driving his handyman truck. “I didn’t know if the help you needed required tools.”
“Nope, just manpower. Womenpower would be better, since they’re fundamentally more skilled at these sorts of things, but all of them are busy.”
“All of them? Like in town?”
“Close enough.”
“I’ll have you know, my wife says you will never get free coffee for keeping law and order again since you interrupted our Sunday.”
I shrugged. “There’s that stack of coasters now where people pay it forward with free coffees. I’ll just live off those.”
Sadie came barreling down the hall to leap all over my friend. Handily, he crouched to hug her before she could knock him flat on his ass. That was a special skill of hers, evidently.
After a couple of moments of thorough petting, she wandered off, probably to keep watch on the sleeping baby.
I’d gotten so lucky with all three of my girls. I smiled and tucked my fists under my arms.
Three. I’d gone from Gina coming over now and then to hang with Sadie and I to having a houseful of love.