Page 46 of Milkshakes and Mistletoe

“Now you really have to tell me.”

“Okay. As long as you promise not to freak out.”

She laughed. “I’ll do my best.”

“She told him that you’re lovely and …” He stopped and gave her a stern look. “Promise you won’t freak out?”

“I promise.” She couldn’t imagine that he was about to say anything too terrible.

“She told him that if I don’t mess this up you might marry me, and we could be a family.”

Hannah tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry.

“Are you freaking out on me?”

She shook her head. “No. I … we agreed that it’s too soon to go anywhere near that.”

“I know, sorry.”

“No, don’t be. I …” She smiled. “Let’s just say that I’d be okay with that being a possibility … someday.” She slowly raised her gaze to meet his, worried that she’d freaked him out.

But he smiled and nodded. “Good to know. But now that we’ve both admitted that the possibility of someday doesn’t freak us out, I think we need to come right back to the here and now and enjoy it.”

She relaxed. “I agree.”

“Awesome. So, how about you put your coat on and we go get her?”

“Okay. Do you think we should bring Scooter?”

He looked at the puppy, who was sitting by the kitchen door as if he expected to go with them. “He seems to think so. But I don’t know how he’ll feel about my place.”

“We could come back here – I can make us lunch and we can all take him for a walk later.”

“Okay. If you’re good with that.”

She smiled. “I’d like it.

He dropped a kiss on her lips. “Let’s go then.”

~ ~ ~

“Scooter!” Grady loved the sound of Ava’s laughter. She and the puppy were chasing each other around the patio. It made his heart happy to see her so happy. He really wished he could get her a dog, but it was just one more positive that Hannah was bringing into his life.

And although they’d only been over here for a couple hours, he could already see that Hannah was bringing plenty of positives into his niece’s life. The two of them had talked cameras and photography for ages when they first got here. Then Hannah had let Ava borrow one of hers and they’d wandered around the patio taking pictures. Hannah had gotten concerned about Ava getting too cold about three seconds before Grady had been about to ask them to go inside. He’d been putting off spoiling their fun. He wasn’t looking forward to being the killjoy. Hannah had suggested it was cold, and Ava had insisted that she was fine. So, Hannah had simply suggested that they cut some leaves and twigs and go inside to shoot them with water and light boxes. He’d held her back for a sneak kiss of thanks when Ava ran ahead – straight back into the cottage. She seemed to feel right at home here.

It was almost time to go now. He needed to take Ava home and get her things ready, then drop her off at Mel’s place before he went to work. He’d already told her once that they had to go but she’d begged for one more run outside with Scooter. And here they were.

Hannah came and stood beside him and leaned against him. “I’ll come up with a reason that I have to go out, if you want.”

He gave her a grateful smile but shook his head. “Thanks. That’s sweet of you. But I don’t want to get into doing stuff like that. She knows that we have to do what we have to do. Sometimes it sucks, but we still have to do it.”

“Sorry.”

He shook his head and wrapped his arm around her. He hadn’t done that around Ava till now, but reassuring Hannah was more important. Especially since he’d just said that he preferred that Ava should know how things really were. “Don’t be sorry. It was sweet of you. I appreciate it.”

He frowned when his phone rang. “Sorry.”

She smiled and stepped away from him. “No problem. Take it. I’ll go and say goodbye to Ava.”

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