Page 38 of Born to Make You Smile

She dimmed them, but the room was still quite dark.

“Mackenzie…” Gavin massaged his forehead, frustrated. “Oh, never mind. I suppose it adds a bit of ambience around here.”

I blinked, noticing how romantic the dining room looked in the dim light. I shook the thought. Spooky. Definitely spooky. I took a sip of sparkling water.

“It can put us in the mood—” I stopped as a bubble tickled my throat.

His brows shot up.

“For—” The word got cut off as I coughed into the crook of my arm.Holy shit. Could I have had a morehorriblepause in my sentence?

“Grace, are you all right?” he asked. I kept coughing but managed to nod my head.

“Pumpkin carving!” I finally spat out with a deep exhale. “The dim lights can put us in the mood forpumpkin carving.”

My cheeks were on fire.

Gavin’s lips twisted into an amused grin. “You’re still swinging by next Sunday for Halloween?”

“Definitely. Michelle and Hunter are coming, right?” I asked, pushing rice around the plate with my chopsticks, secretly hoping they weren’t.

“Yes. The little guy is excited. I believe he’s going to be Spider-Man.”

I stood from the table. “Will you and Michelle be dressing up?”

I thought of Gavin and Michelle dressing up as a couple, and I was curious about what they would be. For some reason, I couldn’t think of anything. I wasn’t quite sure what they had in common.

If Gavin and I coordinated costumes, we could go in ’70s disco attire. Perhaps we could swing by X-PLORE and spend some time in Studio 69…

“No, no,” he said with a firm headshake.

“Aw, come on! It’s fun. I’m dressing up.”

I collected our two plates and stacked them.

His gaze dipped down my body, slowly dragging up again. “What will you be?”

Goose bumps tickled my skin. “It’s a surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

We were in the kitchen cleaning and putting leftovers away when he came up next to me.

“By the way…” He cleared his throat. “I think I may have mentioned it, but there's a dental convention in Ottawa in November. I want to look at some new products and software for the office, digital radiography in particular.”

“That’s great. You’ll love it!” I exclaimed.

“I'd, um…” He scratched his neck. “I’d actually like you to accompany me if that's all right. Being my assistant and knowing your way around technology, I could definitely use your hand to navigate everything.”

“Sure,” I said. My stomach wobbled thinking about us away together. Surely, he’d bring one of the hygienists along too. “Just us, or is anyone else from the office coming?”

He ran a finger over his chin, his gaze intense. “Just us.”

Oh. Just us.

Warm tingles crept up my spine straight to my scalp.

“We will leave Saturday morning, get there in time for the afternoon to check out the products, then go for dinner after,” he continued, tilting his head. “Sunday, we can make our rounds and see some presentations, and then fly back home that evening.”

“Okay. Sounds great,” I said, trying to hide my apprehension. “Let me know what kind of arrangements you’d like me to make.”

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