before dinner. Come on downstairs with Grandpa and you can free Gump from his crate.” To Will, he said, “Dinner will be ready in about an hour. I can keep her occupied for a bit.”
“Thanks.”
Once the coast was clear, Will took Jasmine’s hand and led her to the short staircase leading to the top floor where the master suite was located. She’d been up there once before while his dad watched Katie so they could “review the lesson plan” for Katie’s next lesson. The moment they were upstairs, she stepped up to him and encircled her arms around his neck, giving him a bewitching smile.
“Thanks for my present,” he said.
“You’re welcome.”
He reached up and tucked a strand of hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear. “You were working on that while I was on my road trips, weren’t you?”
She nodded. When his hand moved to the side of her face and his thumb brushed lightly over her full bottom lip, her pupils dilated and she leaned more heavily against him.
“I’m not imagining how talented she is, am I?” he asked.
“No. You have a very special little girl, Will.”
There was so much more he wanted to say but he knew she wasn’t ready to hear it. So he spent the next forty-five minutes doing his best to convey the words in other ways. Whether she interpreted them or not, she was completely on board with his plan. By the time they joined Katie and his dad for dinner, they both wore satisfied smiles.
Sensing the mood was right for it, Will took a chance halfway through the meal and brought up the Family Fun Day event.
“There will be all kinds of fun games and activities,” he told Katie. “And you’ll get to hang out on the field where I play. Do you want to go with me?”
Katie’s lips twisted to the side in a way that said she was considering it. It had Will gripping his fork tighter.
She hadn’t outright refused.
“There will be kids your age there,” he went on, suddenly desperate for her to agree to go. It would be such a huge step for her. “Maybe…” Looking at Jasmine, he asked, “Would you be willing to go with us?”
Katie’s face lit up.
Jasmine’s eyebrows lifted. “To your Family Fun Day? Oh, I don’t think—”
“Please,” he pressed when Katie’s smile started to fade. “I’ll have to step away for photo ops and I wouldn’t want to leave Katie alone. It would help a lot to have you there since Dad and Gareth both have plans that day already.”
Her gaze moved from him to Katie. Whatever she saw on Katie’s face had her hesitating.
“I suppose I could talk to May about changing my shift,” she said at last.
Part of him felt bad for coercing her. The other part wanted to do wild, uncoordinated cartwheels of joy through the family room.
“I really appreciate it,” he said.
Jasmine stayed to help clean up after dinner before heading out. Will and Katie waved her off from the front door. Once she was out of sight, Katie skipped back to the family room to start setting up Candy Land.
“You know,” Frank said as he approached Will with a beer, “I don’t recall having any plans for next weekend.”
Will grinned and lifted his beer to tap it against his dad’s. “Then I guess you’d better make some.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The following weekend, Jasmine stood on the Atlanta ball field in the early afternoon heat debating if she had lost her mind before she agreed to attend this event with Will and Katie. She wasn’t a family member, she reminded herself at least ten times as she ventured with them from one food station or activity to the next. She wasn’t even close. She was Katie’s teacher and Will’s…
What, exactly? His lover?
She supposed that sounded better than his fuck buddy.
And what did it even matter, she told herself yet again. There wasn’t a need to put a label on it. Their casual arrangement was convenient for them, that was all.
Though that was becoming more and more difficult to believe. Would a casual acquaintance have agreed to attend a family event with her student and that student’s parent?
Apparently if the student was Katie, Jasmine would.
Her gaze fell to the child where she stood a couple feet away listening to another little girl chatter while the girl stuffed cotton candy in her mouth. Somewhere in her ongoing monologue, the girl tossed out the name Makayla, which Jasmine assumed was hers. Katie looked