Page 10 of The Night
I did not participate.
“Boom,” Parker whispered way too close to my ear. “Movaries.”
Jesus.
And apparentlyno onewas immune to the sight of Ash in the costume, because on the other side of the bakery, someone screamed, “Ohmygod!Santa! It’syou!”
There was the sound of a chair scraping across the floor, a long-suffering “Hazel Grace!” and then a half-sized human rushed past Parker and me, barreled around the side of the counter, and threw herself against Ash’s legs, knocking him away from Cal.
The kid wascute.
I wasn’t generally a kid person. I mean, I wasn’t a psychopath. I didn’tdislikechildren. But I also hadn’t spent any time around them since I was a child myself, I had no plans to procreate, and I had zero interest in hearing the trials and tribulations of those who had, so for me to notice that this particular miniature human wascutemeant she was genuinely,particularlycute.
She was all dark curls, tan cheeks, and big brown eyes, and she looked up at Ash with more infectious enthusiasm on her little face than I’d probably ever possessed about anything in my entire life.
“Oh. Wait, no. I ah…” Ash ruffled the girl’s hair with one hand and pulled down his beard with the other. “I’m not the real Santa, sweetie. I’m just a, um… helper.”
“Oh.” The girl took a giant step back and held up her hands. “Shoot. My bad. This is embarrassing.”
She sounded five going on fifteen, and I snorted.
So did Cal. “Nah. It’s no big. I’m Cal. This is Ashley. Ash helped you and your dad pick out your cookie earlier, remember?”
“Ah, yes. I, um… very much enjoyed it. Your frosting is delicious,” she said with such adult over-politeness I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling.
“Thanks.” Cal grinned. “You can pick out another one, if it’s okay with your dad.”
Her smile got even wider as she looked at someone behind me. “Please, Daddy, can I?”
It was none of my business, but that didn’t stop me from turning my head toward the little tables by the window tovery strongly encouragethis kid’s parent to give her another cookie because she was a fucking ray of sunshine, but when I saw the guy smiling back at her, I froze.
For a minute, I wondered if I’d thought him into existence because, honestly, what were the chances that I’d slipped up and let myself think of Liam for the first time in forever out there on the sidewalk, and then he suddenly appeared, in fuckingO’Leary, all smiling and sexy in a festive red sweater and jeans that cupped his toned thighs like something out of my personal spank bank?
Slim to none, right?
And yet there he fucking was.
It had been overfive yearssince I’d seen that smiling face. Half a decade since I’d felt that silky, dark hair against my fingers and watched that lean, compact body slide across too-soft hotel sheets. A hundred million lifetimes since I’d seen those green eyes—eyes that were infinitely brighter and more beautiful than Parker’s poor imitation—widen in pleasure as I made him come and soften with what he’d literally vowed one night, in front of witnesses and a rhinestone-suited minister who lookednothinglike Elvis, waslove.
I would have happily gone the rest of my life without seeing any of it—or him—again.
“Last one, Hazel. And what have I told you about accosting strangers?”
“But they’re not strangers! They’re Cal and Ashley,” she said brightly. “They make cookies.”
“I have a cookie con artist on my hands,” he said dryly, and hearing that teasing voice, all I could think was…
I’m Liam. Liam McKnight. And I’m in town to take pictures of ‘fascinating desert landscapes,’ but… I’m kinda thinking maybe I found something that fascinates me more.
I swallowed hard, my mouth dry as smoke.
He gave the little girl a lopsided grin, and from the depths of my brain came…
No,youhave the world’s most beautiful smile, Gideon Mason. Stop! No tickling! I’m serious, you ass! You know, if I could harness that electricity, I could light up the entire Strip, but I… I think I’d rather keep you all to myself. What do you say?
“Hey! You were the one who forgot my cookies at home, Daddy!” she giggled.
I sucked in a breath, thrown out of the past and very firmly into the present. Liam was thefatherof a girl who looked to beat least five years old, and very probably more.