Chapter 48

But Gavin takes a moment to wrap an arm around her and draw her close. “Give me a kiss first.”

Her lips smack his cheek as he kisses the top of her head. “You’re going to love it,” she gushes, pulling on the paper. “Open it, open it, open it.”

“Hold your horses.” Gavin laughs and raises the gift up out of her reach. “It’s my present, not yours. Where’s Brody again?”

His lover’s voice comes from the bedroom door. “Right here, Gav. Happy Daddy’s Day.”

With both hands Brody carries a folding tray laden down with breakfast fit for a king. In the center of the tray, a plate of towering pancakes trembles with each step Brody takes. A gravy boat full of syrup wafts a delicious maple scent ahead of him. Other plates hold sausage links and bacon strips, buttered toast, and scrambled eggs.

Carefully Brody steps around the bed and sets the tray across Gavin’s legs. “Evie?” he prompts, nodding at the door.

He keeps hold of the tray as she bounds off the bed. “Right! I almost forgot!”

Gavin looks from the food to Brody. “What’s all this?”

“Breakfast in bed.” Brody leans down to give him a long, lingering kiss. When he stands, he whispers, “Be right back.”

Within minutes Evie returns carrying three plates, the top one covered with napkins and silverware. With Gavin’s help, she lays out a place to eat on either side of him, then climbs back into bed again. Brody comes back, too, with cups and a pitcher of brightly colored orange juice. He positions himself on Gavin’s other side and smiles across at Evie. “Dig in.”

She reaches for the pancakes, then notices the gift Gavin set aside. “Wait!” she yells, holding up a hand. “Daddy has to open his present first!”

Gavin gives Brody an indulgent grin. “I have to open this first,” he says, plucking the gift from where it rests on the bed sheets.

This time he doesn’t pick at the tape—he’s ready to eat, his stomach rumbling, so he tears into the paper as Evie squeals in delight. Inside is a frame, but the picture inside isn’t one Brody had up for sale the day before. No, it’s the picture he’d been drawing when Gavin first met him, a candid sketch of Evie in a sunny dress and ponytails. In a few simple strokes of a pencil, Brody managed to capture her carefree innocence and budding beauty so perfectly, it takes Gavin’s breath away.

As he stares at the drawing, tears sting his eyes and he has to blink quickly. Evie touches his hand and leans over into his line of vision, replacing the sketch of her face with her actual grin. “Do you like it?”

“I love it.” He gives her a tight hug, then kisses her cheek. “Thank you, honey. I love it.”

“It’s me!” Evie says, and then, “Brody drew it.” As if Gavin might not know.

Turning, Gavin wraps an arm around Brody’s neck and hugs him, too. “Thanks,” he murmurs into Brody’s ear.

“You’re always saying how she’s growing up so fast,” Brody says. “Now you can remember her this way forever."

Gavin laughs. “Yeah, before the boys start noticing her.”

“Oh, they see her already,” Brody assures him. “You don’t have to worry until she starts noticing them.”

Evie spears a pancake with her fork. “The only boys I like are you two,” she says. “Can we eat now? I’m starving.” 37

Sunday is spent lazing on the shore—Gavin slathered with suntan lotion and stretched out on the sand beside Brody, who reads under a beach umbrella to avoid the sun. “It fades tattoos,” he explains, liberally dousing himself with SPF 30 as Gavin tries to get some color. Evie splashes in the waves, alternating between making friends with other children playing in the water and racing back to show her father and Brody the treasures she finds in the breakers. She seems to tan without even trying, while at the end of the day Gavin feels sticky and reeks of coconut oil, but his skin is still the same pallid shade it was before. It’ll take more than one day basking in the sun to lose his frumpy college professor tint.

They’re back on the road after dinner Sunday night, and by the time they reach the house where Brody lives, Evie is asleep in the back seat. Brody leans across the gear shaft and shares a quick kiss with Gavin, which leads to another, and a third, until they’re making out like teenagers in the front seat. When Evie snorts in her sleep, it startles them both, and they snicker over one last kiss before Brody whispers, “Call me.”

“Tomorrow,” Gavin promises.