Page 101 of Clinically Delicious
“We were just about to clean up,” I said quickly. “All the glitter. Every single sparkle. I promise.”
His mouth twitched. Almost a smile.
“I’ll help,” he said.
“You don’t have to.”
“I’ll help,” he repeated, and something in his tone made it clear this wasn’t about the glitter.
Megan had already run off to wash her hands, leaving Gabriel and me alone in the sparkling war zone.
He stepped closer.
Close enough that I could smell his cologne. Close enough that I had to tilt my head back to look at him.
“Hi,” I said stupidly.
“Hi.”
“Sorry about... everything.”
“She’s happy,” he said simply. “That’s what matters.”
God, why is that so attractive? Why is everything he does attractive? Why am I like this?
His hand came up, and I thought he was going to touch my face, but instead he plucked something from my hair.
A piece of red glitter. “You’re covered in it,” he murmured.
“Occupational hazard.”
“I like it.”
He likes it? He likes me covered in craft supplies?
His thumb brushed my cheek, and I forgot how to breathe.
“Gabriel.”
“Tonight,” he said quietly. “After Megan’s asleep. Come to my room.”
Oh.“Okay,” I whispered.
He stepped back just as Megan returned, completely oblivious to the fact that her father had just made my entire body temperature spike fifteen degrees.
“Let’s clean up!” she announced cheerfully.
We spent the next hour vacuuming glitter—which, for the record, is impossible because glitter is eternal and will probably outlive humanity—while Megan chattered about her volcano and Gabriel asked questions about her project with the kind of focused attention that made my chest ache.
He was a good dad. A great dad.
And I was sleeping with him.
What are we doing?The question had been circling my brain all week, getting louder each day. We hadn’t talked about it. About what this was. What we were.
We just... existed in these stolen moments. These secret touches and midnight texts and closet quickies that made me feel alive and terrified in equal measure.
But what happened next? Did we keep sneaking around forever? Did we tell people? Did we...
