He released the door handle and turned to her with questioning eyes.
Oh no.Words spewed from her mouth. “I mean, if you’re not busy. It’s totally okay if you can’t. I mean, Blanchard Bay is a long drive from here. I just thought maybe it would be nice and?—”
He kissed her quiet, and some of the built-up tension within her released.
“I’d love to spend Thanksgiving with you. Honest question, Frey,” he began, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. She held her breath. “Were you thinking about asking me the entire drive here?”
She squirmed and gave him a sheepish smile. “Maybe.”
He exhaled and mimed wiping sweat from his brow. “Well, that makes me feel better. You were so quiet, I’d thought you were having second thoughts about coming to the party.ThenI thought maybe you were having second thoughts about us.”
Shaking her head, she chuckled. “If you could have been in my head a few minutes ago, I was going down the rabbit hole of whether we’retogethertogether or just kinda together.”
The smile he flashed her had her insides lighting up. He leaned over the console and pressed another kiss to her lips. “Togethertogether. For the record, boyfriend and girlfriend feel a little juvenile to me, and partner feels too formal. And since lover just gives me the creeps, my vote is to go with boyfriend and girlfriend. Thoughts?”
For a second, she could only stare at him in wonder. This amazing man was constantly surprising her. “I’m in agreement on the term lover. It’s...” She scrunched her face. “Not a fan. So boyfriend and girlfriend it is.”
“Great.” His gaze darted to the house, and his smile widened. “I see a very excited little girl waving at us. Ready to party?”
Freya glanced at the house and laughed. Sure enough, Daisy was standing on the porch between Matt and Wilson. She washopping from foot to foot with a giant smile on her face, waving frantically at them.
She patted his shoulder. “Go give the birthday girl a hug, and I’ll grab all the presents.”
His gaze swung to hers. “You sure?”
She glanced at Daisy again and chuckled. “Uh, yeah.”
Freya laughed as she grabbed their gift bags from the back of the SUV, and Xander made his way to the house shouting, “Birthday girl!” Daisy leaped off the porch—fluffy rainbow-sloth dress, sparkly unicorn tiara, and all—and launched herself at Xander with an excited squeal.
“Let me help you with those,” Wilson said, heading her way while Xander carried Daisy inside. He grabbed the bags and then held up the three largest, shaking his head. “I swear, the rest of us don’t stand a chance of ever getting to be that girl’s favorite.”
With a smile, she followed Wilson into the house. Xander, still carrying a beaming Daisy, was immediately beside her.
“Hi, Faya!”
“Happy birthday, sweet girl. Are you having a good birthday so far?”
Daisy nodded. “We’re gonna have cake and ice cream with sprinkles and popcorn and M&M’s! And Xandy’s gonna sit right next to me!”
The little girl wiggled in Xander’s arms, and he set her down. She flew through the great room and out to the back deck.
“In case you can’t tell, Matt already snuck her some ice cream,” a woman who was obviously Daisy’s mother said with a smile. “I’m Scarlet. I’ve seen you around, but it’s nice to officially meet you in person.”
“Same,” she said, shaking the other woman’s hand.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to call the kids in,” Scarlet said, resting her hands on her baby bump. “It’s cake time. We’redoing things out of order since I’m hoping the kids will crash during the movie.”
Xander scoffed. “With all the snacks you have planned, not likely, Scar.”
The other woman grimaced. “I know. I put out some baby carrots and cucumber slices, but Matt put them next to the gummy worms and Nerds Clusters. Let’s just hope they don’t all end up puking by the end of the night.”
As Scarlet went to wrangle the kids, Xander introduced Freya to the handful of people she didn’t know. She was pleasantly surprised to see one of her local clients, Poppy, at the party. The woman owned a popular boutique downtown and was apparently very good friends with Scarlet. Gotta love small towns.
The party was controlled chaos. It helped that there were only a handful of kids, but there were alotof adults, mostly from Hudson Security. The amount of testosterone in the room was high. It was telling how everyone had shown up for their colleague’s daughter. Plus, each and every one of those badasses were wearing light-up unicorn headbands.
After dinner and cake and ice cream, they all moved into the great room for presents. Freya stood off to the side, taking it all in, and she marveled at the efficiency. Daisy sat on the couch, flanked by her parents, while Xander and Wilson were in charge of bringing the gifts to her and handling the discarded wrapping and tissue paper. Esme was perched on the arm of the couch, jotting down who gave Daisy what. It was quite a well-oiled machine. But considering this was the Hudson Security crew, Freya wasn’t exactly surprised.
She couldn’t help but grin at the slew of pink, purple, and unicorn gifts, and at how Daisy was a wonderful mix of delighted and shy as she thanked each person for their gift.
