Sullivan sits at the piano while Vincent leans on it, nodding in approval as Sullivan plays the closing bars of a Liszt piece with vigor. The club isn’t open yet, but Denver called my father and told him about Neil showing up, so my father said everyone would meet us here.
All eyes snap up in our direction as we cross the room.
“Go,” I say to Denver, knowing my father will be keen to have a debrief about Neil as soon as possible.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I breathe; a warm fuzziness filling my stomach at the way he’s always so concerned. “Honestly, go.”
He nods, his hand slipping from my lower back, and I immediately miss his touch.
I rush from his side before I find it too hard to move away from him and scoop Monty up as he runs over to me with his tail wagging wildly.
“He missed you,” Halliday says, looking up from the table where she’s coloring with Molly.
“I missed him too,” I say between Monty’s licks on my chin. Seeing him is already helping ease the tension that’s weaved itself into my muscles since finding out about Theo and then seeing Neil.
“That’s good, Molly.”
My niece beams at me, her crayon poised over the scribble on the paper. “Monty.”
“It looks just like him.” My returning smile makes her grin widen as she looks down at her picture with pride.
“Is that me walking him?” I ask, pointing at the pink shape with yellow on top of it.
Molly picks up her yellow crayon and adds more hair. “Mm-hm.”
“And who’s that?” I gesture to the giant black blob that’s twice my size standing beside me.
Molly sticks her lower lip out in concentration as she keeps adding more hair to me until it reaches my toes like Rapunzel.
“That Den-va.”
The way she says his name is so cute. I turn to look for him to see if he heard, but he’s deep in conversation with my father, Sullivan, Uncle Mal, Killian, and Jenson at a table on the far side of the room.
Halliday follows my gaze to them. “They look so serious,” she murmurs.
“I know.” I drop into the seat beside her, keeping Monty in my arms. My father’s face tightens as he runs a hand over his jaw, then says something to Denver. The men listen, then Uncle Mal speaks, and Sullivan nods. My father’s gaze shifts to me, his eyes softening before he says something that makes Denver glance in my direction.
The moment Denver’s eyes meet mine, heat blooms in my core.
“What do you think they’re going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I answer Halliday. “Knowing my father, he’ll want to go straight to Neil, even if all he’ll do is repeat exactly what he told me and Denver.”
“What about Denver? He sounded really pissed on the phone earlier.”
“You heard him talking to Dad?”
Her cheeks flush. “I was in the office with your father when he called.”
“Uh-huh. Helping him work, right?”
“Yeah,” she replies.
I narrow my eyes, smirking when she avoids my gaze and picks up a crayon to color with Molly instead.
“You know I’m messing with you. I’m happy for you both. And I know you…” I look pointedly at her stomach where she hasn’t started to show her pregnancy yet “… I mean, the baby got in there somehow, didn’t it.”
