Page 32 of Unbreakable Love

“You got it.” I hooked my finger around hers and faced back to the front. We had turned down our street when I glanced at Gavin.

“I’d like to thank you for today, for taking care of my car and stuff, and the rides.”

“It wasn’t a?—”

“Maybe not a problem,” I finished for him. He’d said it enough today. “But it was an inconvenience. I’ve been planning on cooking chicken soup for dinner tonight. Can I bring some over for you and Josie?”

At the suggestion, his smile and easy looks fell, and was replaced with a hard jaw and a scowl out the front windshield.

“I love soup!” Josie shouted.

“That’s not necessary,” he said, but Josie, sweet Josie was already begging.

“Please, Daddy? Please. Soup’s my favorite! But it’s probably pretty messy to carry. You should just cook it at our house and eat with us. That’d be so much funner, wouldn’t it, Daddy?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a red hue creeping up his neck from beneath his hooded sweatshirt.

“Josie…” He voice carried a tone I’d come to know full well, at least when it was directed at me.

The man was mad.

“It’s okay,” I quickly corrected. It was a dumb idea anyway. The man could barely stand my presence on a good day. He wouldn’t want to spend time with me if he didn’t have to.

“Please, Daddy!

“Really,” I whispered to him. “Forget I asked.”

He turned to me, brows arched and a very obvious are you kidding? look stamped on his features. “You think she’s going to forget?”

Well, no, probably not with the way she was still begging in the back seat.

“Sorry.”

“We eat at five-thirty,” he said, and I figured that was acquiescence, until a tiny smirk curled one edge of his lips.

A smirk that did funny things to my stomach and had me looking away.

“But it’s not a thank you for the car, it’s a thank you for this.”

He pointed through the front windshield, and a quick gasp of surprise fell from my mouth.

“You shoveled my driveway?”

“Figured you didn’t have one yet, or a snowblower.”

I didn’t. I absolutely didn’t, and I’d already been trying to figure out how I was going to walk to the hardware store to get one without a car and with crappy boots.

“Thank you. That was really nice of you.”

Josie’s head suddenly appeared between the two front seats. “Daddy’s the nicest guy ever! See you for dinner, Miss Pesco!”

I was still surprised about the driveway and the walkway, so it took me a minute to remember what she was talking about. “Dinner. Right. It takes about a half hour, but I can make it here. Carrying it over isn’t a problem. I promise.”

“It’s fine,” Gavin said and shifted his truck back into reverse. A clear signal to get the hell out of his truck.

What a contradiction the man was. Smiling and giving in while he clearly didn’t want to. Anything for his daughter, I figured.

“Right. Thank you. I’ll see you later.” I grabbed my bags out of the truck, jumped out, and even though he’d put the truck in reverse and couldn’t wait to get away from me, he still waited in the driveway until I was inside my house, behind a closed door.

---