Page 19 of A Candy Cane Christmas
“Mhmm,” I hummed, already chewing the first bite. “Forgot to eat,” I said after swallowing.
“That’s not good, Luci,” Hazel said, shaking her head at me. “It’s very important to listen to your body and to eat when you’re hungry. Right, Daddy?”
Theo nodded, his face going all soft and gooey as he looked at his daughter.
Fuck. I wanted him to look at me the way he looked at her.
No, wait, that sounded creepy, right?
“You’re right, Hazel. Listening to your body is really important.”
She nodded again. “And my body says I need a lot of pizza.”
Chuckling, I watched as she grabbed a slice and took a huge bite out of it. Theo, on the other hand, was nibbling on his pizza as if he weren’t hungry at all. Which I guess was entirely possible. After a while, he slid closer to me until his knee gently nudged mine.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I bit my lip, trying to gather enough strength not to lean into him. I wanted to—desperately so—but I didn’t dare with Hazel right next to us.
“Thank you for this,” Theo whispered, his shoulder bumping against mine.
“You’re welcome.” I sounded lame, didn’t I? Yeah, definitely lame, but I didn’t know what to say. “I had a lot of fun.”
There. That was good.
“Me too. And considering the amount of paint I washed off my daughter, I think it’s safe to say that she had a lot of fun, too. Though I’m afraid we’ll have to visit you again for part two of this endeavor soon.”
We both looked at the painting that was drying a couple of feet away. It already looked awesome, but it definitely lacked glitter. I’d seriously underestimated how long it’d take to get the base done.
“I don’t mind. At all.” Winking, I grinned at him. “In fact, I couldn’t have planned it any better.”
Theo laughed, and there was that light nudge again, his eyes glittering with emotion. I couldn’t look away, even if I wanted to. He had me utterly enthralled with the way he was looking at me. All soft, but with an underlying heat.
I wanted to kiss him. Wanted to kiss that smile right off his lips.
I wanted to…
“Daddy, can I have a third slice?”
The moment broke as Theo turned his head toward his daughter. “What does your tummy say?”
Hazel’s face turned thoughtful for a moment. “My tummy says it’s still hungry.”
“In that case, go for it,” Theo said.
He didn’t look at me again, but he leaned in a little, his weight settling against my side. And today, that was enough.
Chapter 6
Theo
Should I text Luci or just go downstairs to see if he was available?
In theory, I knew the right answer. The polite thing to do was to shoot him a message and ask when he was free. Hell—ooo kitty, it was Friday almost-night, so chances were that Luci was either working as Mr. Elf or was getting ready to go out. He’d already spent last Friday night with Hazel and me, after all. And he seemed like the type who went out a lot. Extroverted, funny, easygoing. I bet people fought for his attention all the time.
Yet, here I was, desperately wanting to go downstairs and pull a Luci on him. As in, go downstairs and just pick him up for a date.
Shaking my head, I looked at the bars of chocolate sitting on the counter.
This was so unlike me. I was not a spontaneous person. I liked to plan things. I liked order. Planning. I needed to know things in advance to prepare for them mentally. Whenever I didn’t get time to prepare, I felt icky. Off-kilter. My skin itched as if a million ants were running all over me.
