“With your Mom, doofus,” Grant said. “Your dad is dating your mom tonight. For some adult fun time.”
“Oh. With Bugs Bunny?”
“Knowing Cade, probably,” Grant muttered.
Alex smiled. “I missed you, Uncle Grant. Can we play cards?”
“Yep. I think your dad packed them.”
Piper noticed a Paw Patrol backpack as well as a plastic sack filled with action figures.
“I hope this is okay,” Grant said to her. “Cade kind of sprung it on me.”
“No, no. This is fine.” She liked watching Grant with Alex. “Besides, your brother and Ellie need this.”
He flushed. “Yeah.” He sat with Alex at the coffee table and opened the deck of cards.
“Here, I’ll take that.” She took the towel from him and let him slide his hand over hers.
“Thanks, Piper. Man, you’re pretty.”
She blushed. “Oh, stop.” She walked away only to hear Alex whisper, overly loud, “But Uncle Grant, she’s a girl.”
“I know, goofy. Girls are pretty.”
“Pretty gross.” Alex hooted. “Dad said that to me yesterday, and it was so funny I snorted milk out my nose. Wanna see?”
“Ah, maybe later.”
She hung up his towel and saw the cologne he used. Bingo. She’d been wondering what to get Grant for Christmas, and now she knew. Which reminded her. She’d better get cracking. She had a little more than two weeks left until Santa arrived. Ugh.
After changing into her evening comfy clothes, she joined Grant and Alex for a fun card stacking contest and lost miserably to Alex. Go figure.
The night proved to be both fun and enlightening. Grant’s dry sense of humor went well with Alex’s hyperactivity. She laughed as she watched Alex’s uncle try to keep up with the five-year-old and failing.
“Oh my God. How does Cade do it?” Grant groaned after putting Alex to bed. “The little guy asks questions on top of questions and never stops moving.” But he grinned at Piper when he said, “Cade cursed me to have at least one just like Alex. Apparently, that was me as a boy.”
They walked out of Grant’s room, leaving on the attached bathroom light so Alex could see should he wake without Grant there.
“Oh, then you were even cuter than I suspected. I only met you when you were seven, I think.”
“And dominating me by nine.”
“Ew, stop it. I was babysitting, you perv.” She settled in next to him on the couch. “Grant, I’m glad you’re here.”
He turned to her. “Really?”
“Really.” She tugged a blanket over them. “Now shut up and watch It’s a Wonderful Life with me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He kissed her and whispered, “I’m game to be your boytoy whenever you want me to start calling you Mistress, by the way. Just putting it out there in case that’s what you really wanted for Christmas.”
Since the idea sounded entrancing, she didn’t reject it outright. Which caused him to laugh.
“I was kidding, Piper.”
“So you say. Much truth is said in jest.”
“What fortune cookie did you get that out of?”
