Page 68 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

“I didn’t really talk about you that much in school,” he told Laney.

“It’s cute how you think I’d believe you.” She kissed his cheek, whisper-shouting, “Come on! Cookies!”

Ethan tamped down his grin and patted her hip as he motioned for her to go ahead of him. Once in the kitchen, he filled up two glasses of iced tea and passed one to Laney before standing next to her, his hand on her waist. Justin pointedly raised his brow at the gesture, but Ethan ignored him. He’d had girlfriends before, none of them serious, and certainly none whom he’d have over while babysitting his nephew or whom he would invite to a family gathering like this.

Probably because he’d been waiting and hoping on a wing and a prayer.

And now he was soaring through clear blue skies.

“Laney, would you like a piece of carrot cake?” Rita asked, dropping slices onto decorative paper plates.

“Yes, please.” She accepted it with a smile and grabbed a plastic fork, digging in. “Thank you for letting me intrude on your holiday.”

“You’re welcome any time,” Tom told her, reheating his coffee for probably the fourth time today. Whenever Trace was around, he tended to forget about his food and drink.

“So, you guys were friends in high school, right?” Leah asked, wagging her fork back and forth between Laney and Ethan.

“Yeah, he was good friends with my brother. And me, I guess,” Laney said, slanting her gaze to him for a second, a little secretive smile solely for him.

“That’s so sweet that you guys found each other again,” Leah said. “Like it’s meant to be.”

Ethan dragged his hand up Laney’s back. He couldn’t answer Leah without talking with Laney first, but from the heated look she sent him when he squeezed her shoulder possessively, he assumed he wasn’t the only one in this for the long haul. Because it was meant to be.

“Is it time yet?” Trace asked, barely hanging on to his stool at the kitchen island, cream cheese frosting smeared on his top lip.

“After everyone finishes eating, buddy,” Justin told him. “You have to be patient a little longer.”

“Yeah, Mommy isn’t done with her cake yet,” Leah added.

Trace growled, transforming into a dinosaur.

“Uh-oh. He’s back, Traceasuarus!” Ethan held his hands up. “Don’t eat me!”

Trace hopped off the stool and attacked his uncle. Laney scooted out of the way as Ethan grabbed Trace at the waist to hoist him upside down so he erupted in a fit of giggles. “Do that again!”

Following orders, Ethan reversed course, set Trace back on the floor, then picked him right back up again.

“You’re gonna make him puke,” Justin said, but Ethan only tickled Trace’s stomach, making him laugh harder. Over his nephew’s kicking feet, Ethan met Laney’s eyes. They were rounded and faraway, a dreamy smile that he’d never seen before gracing her lips, and he wondered what she was thinking.

He didn’t have to wait long because a minute later, his parents handed everyone a wicker basket and opened the back door, herding them outside. “You know the rules,” Rita said. “Whatever you find, you keep.”

“Ready, set, go!” Tom put his fingers in his mouth and blew a whistle. Trace was off like a shot, his parents laughing and jogging after him, while Ethan held his hand out for Laney’s.

“Am I really allowed to find eggs?” she asked.

“Of course.”

Gleefully, she tugged him toward a row of tulips beginning to bloom by the fence. She picked up an egg. “What did your mom mean when she said whatever we find, we keep?”

“Because it’s not always good stuff.” He took the pink plastic egg from her and opened it to find a scratch-off lottery ticket, already scratched. He showed it to her, and she frowned. “Since we lived all over the place, we didn’t always celebrate holidays and stuff a lot, so when Trace came along, it was their chance to redo it. Make everything bigger. And they thought it was funny to put some gag gifts in Easter eggs. Or, in this case, a losing scratch-off.”

Laney snorted a laugh. “Amazing.”

Ethan put the ticket back in the egg, capped it, and tossed it in her basket before they searched for more. “What were you thinking about?” He picked up a green egg, this one filled with jelly beans. “In the kitchen.”

“With you and Trace?” she clarified, sneaking a white jelly bean before he closed the egg back up. When he nodded, she spotted another egg by the bird feeder. It had a few pennies in it. “I was thinking about you and me and the future.”

“And…?” He snagged an egg with packets of soy sauce.

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