Page 44 of Guarding Over You
“I want a picture,” Gracie said.
“Stand behind Gracie,” Blaze said, picking his phone up and squatting down to get eye level while she was bent close to her daughter’s face, her sparkler out far next to her daughter’s. “Smile and hold it.”
She didn’t know how long she was supposed to hold it. “Are you still taking pictures?”
“Video now,” he said.
“I’m going to dance then,” Gracie said.
Her daughter moved away and started to shake her body with her stiff arms out wide following orders, putting on a cute show for them until the last spark was gone.
Blaze put his phone down and clapped. “That was wonderful.”
“I want to take dance lessons. Mom told me I could after the summer.”
“On the list of things to look into.” The summer would be crazy enough and she was more worried that recitals would fall on Billy’s visitation days and didn’t want that headache with everything else they were going through.
“Can I stay up later, Mom?”
“Sorry, Gracie. It’s already past your bedtime. I expect you to sleep in tomorrow.”
“But I don’t want to leave with Dr. Blaze here.”
“Then I guess I should go,” he said.
She didn’t want him to. Not yet. But it might be for the best. One, if it got her daughter in bed faster, and two, to calm her hormones down.
“I’m glad you could stop down.”
“Thanks for asking,” he said. “Sleep well, Gracie.”
“Bye.” Her daughter was waving excitedly as Blaze walked past the fence and out of sight.
Not out of sight of her mind though.
And when her daughter was in bed, the lights out, and Arden in the living room with the TV playing mindless cooking shows, her phone went off with a text.
She reached for it to see the picture of her and her daughter smiling, then the video after and hit play.
There was her daughter putting on a show, coming out of the shell she’d been hiding behind for way too long and acting like she always used to.
For that alone, she’d be thankful for Blaze and asked herself if it was worth the risk of hoping for more if it could hurt her daughter in the end... again.
14
TAKE IT AS A WIN
Five days later, Blaze was leaving the night shift and walking to his SUV when he noticed Arden pulling in and parking in the distance.
Rather than go to his vehicle, he crossed the parking lot and jogged to catch up with her.
“Hi.”
She turned around quickly, a panicked look in her eyes. Maybe he shouldn’t have come at an angle and just waited by his vehicle as she got closer, but he didn’t want that many eyes on them.
Already it’d been brought up more than once about him and Arden.
Was everyone merely picking on him and being friendly? Yeah, they were and he was used to it.
