in Temptation.
“And a cookie delivery service?”
She looked down at the plate and then up to him again.
“They’re from someone named Nana Lou. Mr. Otis at the B and B said she promised to make them for Jack and Lily.”
Gage frowned. “Who?”
He’d come to Temptation to be with his family and so hadn’t met many people living in the town.
“Nana Lou is like our grandmother, but not really. She bakes the best double chocolate chip cookies ever,” Lily said.
The precocious seven-year-old girl appeared, leaning against Gage’s leg.
“You’re hogging the ball, Uncle Gage,” she continued before bending down to take the ball he still had under his foot.
“You must be Lily,” Ava said, her attention shifting to the little girl Gage had been thoroughly enchanted by in the last couple of days.
He’d come back to Temptation to meet Gray’s new family and had been amazed at how much he adored the children. Sure, he delivered babies for a living, and he studied ways to help every woman wishing to have a baby fulfill her dream. But Gage didn’t think of becoming a father himself. Still, not even the smiling faces of youth, or the pure sweetness of babies, had been able to erase the thoughts of his one night with Ava. In fact, it had been all those things combined that kept Gage from thinking about his career situation.
“I am Lily, and this is my Uncle Gage. I have another uncle—his name’s Garrek—but he’s away flying planes right now.”
“Oh, that sounds cool. These cookies smell amazing, Lily. Do you think I could try one?” Ava asked.
“Sure. Mommy won’t let me and Jack have more than one for dessert. But Jack doesn’t like to share, so you should take yours now.”
“Hey, guys, Morgan is calling us in for dinner,” Harper said as she joined them. “Oh. Hi,” she added to Ava.
“Hello,” Ava replied. “I’m Ava Cannon. I’m in town for a writing retreat and was told to deliver these cookies.”
“And she’s Uncle Gage’s friend,” Lily added.
Gage didn’t know what to say. Hence the reason he’d been standing there watching the exchange between his niece and his ex-boss-slash-one-night-stand.
“Hi, Ava. I’m Harper Presley.”
“Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Harper. I met your cousin Craig when I was checking in to the B and B. He gave me your card.”
“Really?” Harper asked. “Do you have a house that needs to be renovated?”
“No,” Gage replied quickly. “She’s just here to write.”
Harper, with her sandy-brown hair pulled back from her face, arched a brow as she looked at him.
“You two know each other?” she asked.
Before Gage could answer, his legs almost buckled once more as a laughing seven-year-old ran into him.
“Come on, Uncle Gage, you’re gonna make us lose,” Jack said.
“You already lost. He fell, and the lady got the ball. That means the girls win. Right, Aunt Harper?” Lily asked.
“I’m calling interference,” Gage told Jack. “We’ll need a rematch.”
Lily pouted, and to Gage’s chagrin, Ava knelt down until she was face-to-face with his niece.
“Boys always try to cheat. I think he fell on purpose so he could ask for a rematch,” she said.
A mutinous Lily nodded her agreement. “I think so, too.”
Harper chuckled. “Okay, we’ll have a rematch, but Morgan has dinner ready. You two run along and wash your face and hands so we can eat.”
Thankful to Harper for getting rid of the children, Gage turned his attention back to Ava. It was close to six o’clock in the evening, and the sun was beginning to set; still, the last fading rays cast Ava’s creamed-coffee-toned skin in a golden hue that looked surreal. Or maybe it was because this was the first time he’d seen her outside of the sultry dreams that plagued him each night in the last few weeks.
“Why don’t you join us for dinner, Ava? Gray and Morgan always cook a ton, and since you’re a friend of Gage’s, you should definitely be here to help us celebrate his homecoming,” Harper said.
The gratitude Gage had just felt toward his soon-to-be sister-in-law dissipated as he turned from Ava to look at Harper with a frown.
“I’d love to,” Ava happily replied.
“Great, Gage will bring you up to the house,” Harper said. “I’ll just go and tell Gray and Morgan to set another place at the table.”
When Harper was about to walk away, Ava spoke again. “I really appreciate the offer. I’ve been traveling all day, and I don’t even know if my room at the bed-and-breakfast is ready yet. I just dropped my bags off and came straight here.”
Gage touched her elbow to stop her from following behind Harper.
“Why would you come here? How did you know where here was?” he asked, because no matter how his body was reacting to seeing her again, his mind was still suspicious.
Old habits were hard to break.
A breeze swept by, and Ava eased her arm from his grasp. She pushed her blowing hair behind her ears. And Gage thought he’d never seen anyone as pretty as she was at this moment.
“Small towns are great for writing retreats. Meeting Craig at the B and B and Mr. Otis having cookies that needed to be delivered were coincidences,” she said.
Gage watched her lips moving as she spoke and listened to the slightly husky timbre of her voice. Not only did he listen, but he felt as if that voice, her words, somehow touched a part of him. It was ridiculous, he knew, yet...he decided to believe her. It wasn’t that big of a deal. She could go wherever she wanted without needing his permission. Just because she ended up here, at the same time he was, didn’t mean anything. He needed to stop being so suspicious all the time.
“I would have never expected you to be here,” he replied.
“It’s work,” she said. “Everything I do is about my work.”
Gage could definitely relate to that. In contrast to her writing retreat, however, he had been taking the last couple of days to think about things other than his career. She was one of those things, even though he’d called himself a thousand fools for thinking about a one-time fling weeks later.
“But I can go if it’s weird for you,” she continued.
Was it weird for him?
Considering he hadn’t expected to see her again until it was time to start shooting the second season of the show, maybe. Realizing that his body had already begun reacting to seeing her—via the beginning of an erection as his gaze dipped from her big brown eyes to the unmistakable curve of her full breasts in that tight blouse—hell no, this wasn’t weird at all.
“It’s cool,” he replied. “But we’d better get going. From what I understand, my sister-in-law, Morgan, does everything based on a schedule these days. Something about having a set of twins in elementary school in addition to a set of newborn twins and coveting any sleep she can get.”
“Two sets of twins?” Ava asked with an incredulous look on her face.
Gage nodded and smiled. He ignored the burst of pride that spread throughout his chest as he looked toward the house and the back porch, where his family had begun to assemble at the table to eat the celebratory meal. Gage never talked about his family to anyone because he liked to believe they belonged to only him. Not a part of the world,