Page 39 of The Maxwell Brothers

“I overslept.”

She grinned. “Really? I didn’t know adults oversleep.”

I laughed. “Well, this adult does. Never happens to you or your dad?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s here every morning for breakfast. I’ve never had to go into his bedroom and wake him up.”

Wow. That was one dad who was excelling at adulting. I never overslept during the school year because classes started at eight, but summers were my time to relax, so I usually didn’t even set an alarm, which was exactly what happened last night.

It didn’t help that I was dreaming about a certain sexy guy. This man was having a strange effect on me, but I chalked it up to the fact that I’d been intensely thinking about him.

When my phone buzzed with a message, my heart skipped a beat.

Tate: Sure. How are you feeling?

My pulse sped up.

Lexi: Great. My ear doesn’t hurt anymore. I have to remember the drops and antibiotics.

After a few more messages with Tate, I announced to Paisley, “Your dad says it’s okay.”

She clapped her hands. “I told you.”

“I know. I wanted to make sure. So let’s finish the toast, and then we can go.” Her excitement about decorating her room was contagious, and I was looking forward to seeing the end result.

Tate owned two cars, a Mercedes and a BMW, and I drove Paisley anywhere we needed in the latter. I was careful driving it because it was a brand-new SUV—much larger than the secondhand Mini Cooper I owned and rarely used. I relied on Uber and public transportation a lot.

I loved spending time with Paisley. She was a good kid and didn’t take advantage of situations, and I was impressed thatshe didn’t ask for anything else except the twinkle lights. We bought a lot more of them than I knew we needed, but I figured they could use them elsewhere around their house during the Christmas season.

Once we were back, we headed directly to her room to set them up.

“Where do you want to hang them?” I asked, looking around.

“Everywhere,” she exclaimed, making me laugh.

“Okay, so I have a few ideas. Why don’t we put a strand around your windows? We do need a place to plug them in, so that’s going to restrict us a bit.”

Paisley pushed out her lower lip. “Okay.”

“It’ll still look like a fairy tale,” I promised her.

It took us the whole afternoon to set up the twinkle lights, mostly because Paisley couldn’t make up her mind where she wanted them. She had a lot of plugs in her room, so we had several options. In the end, she had one string around each window, one around her bed, and one on her toy shelf. We turned all of them on and stood in the doorway, surveying our work while I braided her hair.

“I think we’ve done a great job,” I said.

“I love it. I’m like a princess,” she said, running off toward her bed before I could finish her braid. It came undone immediately as she jumped on her mattress and grinned as she looked around.

I took a picture of her against the backdrop of lights. Her smile lit up her little face. I sent it to Tate, who replied instantly.

Tate: Someone’s happy. Can I also get a picture of you?

Why would he ask that? And why was my heart flipping like that?

Tate had this effect on me. Just remembering his words and the way his lips felt on mine was enough to stoke the fire inside me.

“Let’s take a selfie, Paisley,” I said. “But wait, let me finish your braid first.”

“Okay.” She could barely stand still as I did it, and then she did mine. It was a bit messy, but I liked seeing her confidence grow as she braided my hair again and again, getting better at it each time.