Page 43 of Guarding Over You
“Is he here yet?” Gracie asked.
“I doubt it.” She looked at her watch. Still fifteen minutes until eight. “Do you want your snack?”
“Can I have cookies and milk?”
“You can.”
She poured a cup of milk and then pulled three chocolate chip cookies from the package. One of these days she’d have more time to make them homemade like she used to.
When she had another hand in the house to help with chores and running errands.
Could be a long time for that, if ever. Or maybe when Gracie was older and could help.
They moved to the patio where Gracie was sitting on her little plastic picnic table enjoying her snack when the chills spread up her back and over her arms. Not the scary kind but the anticipation ones.
She turned her head, and there was Blaze strutting around the two links of white fencing.
“Guess what I found?” he asked.
“You’re here,” Gracie said, milk dribbling down her chin.
“Wipe your face,” she said. “Or you’ll need another bath.”
“What did you find?” her daughter asked after her mouth was clean.
“A video of the fireworks show over Lake George last year. Do you want to see it?”
“Yes,” Gracie said, nodding her head up and down.
Blaze moved over and put his phone flat on the table next to Gracie’s glass and hit play. Arden stood up and moved closer to watch it with them.
The strong fresh scent of his shower filling her senses and swirling around her head in a daze had her losing focus of the bangs and bright lights on the small screen in front of her.
Her daughter’s laughter pulled her back though, as she lectured herself to stay in her lane.
He was being nice to her and her daughter.
Had they admitted they were flirting with each other?
Yep, they had. And it was the embarrassment that rode high along with her confession days ago.
When the last flash was on the screen, Gracie was clapping her hands. It was only a four-minute video and something she should have done for her daughter and was glad that Blaze thought of it.
“How about we light your sparklers now?” she asked, grabbing the box of them. Just a box of six.
“Can we each have one?” Gracie asked.
“I think that’d be nice.” She pulled out three and handed them over, then picked up the lighter and lit her daughter’s first, making sure it was held away from her body as far as her arms could reach, Blaze touching his to Gracie’s, then to hers.
“Yay!” Gracie was jumping up and down with hers.
“Keep it out in front of you.” Arden was staying close to grab it if she had to, but didn’t think there’d be too much harm in letting her hold it.
Once those three burned down, she pulled out the last and handed one to Blaze, but he gave it to Gracie. “I think it’s better when you’ve got one in each hand.”
Her daughter’s eyes were lit up almost as much as the show they’d just watched on Blaze’s phone.
She got all three lit, then held one while her daughter had two.
