Kimmy’s eyes go wide. “What kind of mission?”
“I’m afraid that’s classified. But I can tell you it involved a unicorn costume, several balloon animals, and at least one Chicken Dance.”
“Is Uncle Leo a good agent?” Kimmy asks.
“He’s the best I’ve ever worked with.”
“Even though his balloon giraffe looked like a llama?”
Leo makes a wounded noise beside me. The kid obviously inherited her uncle’s instinct for going straight for the jugular.
“Do you guys want some pizza?” Caitlin asks us.
“Tempting, but I think Archie and I need to have a conversation that isn’t in the presence of little ears,” Leo says.
He gives me a look that tells me talking is only one of the things we’ll be doing when we get some privacy, and my body heats in response.
But then his eyes narrow, and he glances between Caitlin and me.
“Before we leave, do one of you want to explain how Captain Giggles came to perform at Kimmy’s birthday party?”
“All the other entertainers on this side of the Atlantic were booked?” I offer with wide-eyed innocence.
I get the signature cut-the-bullshit Leo stare in return.
“I contacted Andrew, and he told me you were visiting your family in Detroit,” I concede. “Then I reached out to Caitlin and managed to convince her I wasn’t some kind of weird clown stalker, and she agreed to let me come and perform. Vaughn paid for my ticket.”
“Vaughn paid?”
“Yeah, he was the one who told me the truth about everything.”
“Archie sent me photos of you two together, and you looked happier than I’d ever seen you before,” Caitlin tells Leo. “And he said that the reason you left was because you’d done some kind of noble, self-sacrificing thing, which sounded like you, and because Andrew vouched for him, I figured he was legit.”
A tinge of color seeps into Leo’s complexion, creeping up his cheeks.
“I have to say I didn’t expect you to voluntarily don a unicorn onesie, so that has been an unexpected benefit,” Caitlin continues with a gleam in her eye.
“And on that note, Archie and I will head off,” Leo says.
“Shouldn’t you change first?” Caitlin asks.
Leo looks down at his onesie. “That’s probably a good idea.”
He heads toward the hallway.
“Just make sure you don’t crumple it,” I call after him. “Sparkle McHornface doesn’t retire just because the party’s over. I’ve got plans for that costume.”
Leo freezes at the door, then turns back to face me, suspicion written all over his face. “What kind of plans?”
I make a big show of glancing at Caitlin and the kids. “Um, I’m not sure if this is the best place to give an extended outline.”
Caitlin’s eyebrows shoot up, and she starts to grin.
“I think you’ve met your match,” she says to Leo.
“Oh, trust me, you have no idea,” Leo replies.
Leo and I barely make it a foot inside the door of the hotel room before I’m up against a wall and Leo’s mouth is on mine, kissing me so desperately that my head clunks back against the wall. The sound he makes against my lips is something I want to record and play on a loop for the rest of my life.
