Page 8 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

Athena got a little teary-eyed as she pulled back and smiled. “Of course. Anything for my Allie bear.”

“You said you’d stop calling me that when I grew up.”

“I lied.” She smiled and kissed me on the cheek. I also looked in on Caleb, who was currently taking a nap on the couch, and kissed him on the forehead before I strode through the hallway to the door.

I was standing in front of it when the knock came.

I took a deep breath before I opened it.

Marcus looked at me, his eyes running down my form. When they came back up to meet mine, they were filled with palpable heat.

“You look good,” he drawled. His rumbling baritone made me want to shiver and soak in the compliment.

“Thanks,” I said, and my voice was a lot deeper than I intended, almost sultry.Come on, Allie, get a hold of yourself. This is not the time to get flirty.

But it was hard. He looked so damn good, dressed casually in his button-up shirt and slacks. It was the most dressed up I’d ever seen him.

“You don’t look bad yourself,” I said, coughing as I felt the heat crawl into my face at his little smirk.

His hazel gaze shifted behind me, and he raised a hand in a silent salute. I glanced back to see Athena standing on the steps, looking on disapprovingly. She nodded once, and that was it.

If Marcus noted her coldness, he didn’t say anything about it, gesturing instead for me to lead the way out. I walked in front of him to his truck. When I moved to put my hand on the handle, he came forward, tutting his disapproval. As he pulled open the door for me, I turned and smiled at him.

“Thank you kindly, gentleman,” I said, and he winked.

“So, where are we going?” I asked when he slipped into the driver’s seat and put his car in gear.

“I thought we could smash lobsters at Keke’s Lobster House.”

I gaped at him, joy zapping through me. “You remembered?”

“Of course.” Mischief glinted in his eyes. Back in the day, I had told him how much I liked the lobster place, and he promised to take me there one day. Of course, he’d left town two days later, but it seemed “one day” had finally arrived.

It took us about an hour to get to the restaurant as it was in the next town over. During that time, we maintained small talk. Marcus mostly asked me about how I’d been doing, what I’d been doing, and all the usual stuff. I told him I quit waitressing to work in my family’s resort.

“How’s that been going?” he inquired.

“It’s been going well,” I lied, mostly because I didn’t want to get into the doom and gloom of it right now. Tonight, I just wanted to be happy. “Real well.”

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were shown to a table tucked into an intimate corner of the room and decorated with red origami napkins and a bottle of wine. There was candlelight in the corner that basked a romantic orange glow over the setup.

“This is nice,” I commented appreciatively, trying to sound casual even though my heart was racing. I knew all about the lover’s package here at Keke’s, being a massive fan of the restaurant, and this had all the makings of it, down to the little dove figurines and Cupid’s arrows in the middle of the table.

So this was a date.

The little girl inside me jumped around giddily, but on the outside, I tried to keep my cool.

The menus were already laid out, and I felt a little anxious, glancing at the prices.

“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked him as he pulled out a chair for me. “This place is pretty expensive.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Alright,” I replied, even though I made a note to pay a little of the bill at the end. I knew money was probably still tight for him, and I didn’t want to add to any stress he might be feeling.

We didn’t talk a lot as we waited for the lobsters to come. Mostly, we just stared at each other and basked in each other’s company. He was looking at me with a fathomless expression on his face. I couldn’t look away from his gaze, something in them ensnaring me and drawing me deeper into them, making me imagine things that were probably not decent to be imagining in public. I couldn’t help myself, though, and I thought about it until there was a rhythmic pump in my chest and a flutter in my stomach.

He’s really here, I thought in awe.This is really happening.

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