Gina opened her mouth in a wide yawn.
“All right,” Noah said, standing up from the table. “I think it’s time for you to get going to bed.”
“Do I have to?” Gina whined.
“Yes,” he said.
He turned to me, and I held up a hand. “I’ll clean up.”
“Thank you,” he said.
When they left, I finished off my second cannoli and eyed the box. I decided not to take another one and started picking up the plates. It didn’t take me long to finish, and I would have left, but I wasn’t sure if Noah needed me for the weekend. For as much as we talked at dinner, we hadn’t spoken about logistics.
While waiting for him to come back downstairs, I went outside and cleaned up the outdoor toys Gina and I had played with earlier. Then I picked up around the kitchen and living room. As much as I tried to keep tidy during the day, it was tough when Gina went from activity to activity in a matter of minutes.
About ten minutes later, I heard movement from the stairs.
“You’re still here,” he said. His tie was gone, and the top two buttons of his shirt were open.
“Yes, I wanted to talk to you about this weekend. If you wanted me to come in regular time or later? I wasn’t sure of your schedule.”
“You’re off this weekend. I made sure I had it free to spend time with Gina.”
“Oh, that’s good,” I said. Then I thought of Gina’s conversation with me earlier. “Gina does miss you. She talks about all the time you spend together.”
He sighed. “I wish it could be more.”
“You’re a busy single father, she understands,” I said. “At least I try and remind her of that when I can.”
“Thank you.”
“Speaking of busy,” I said. “She did mention today that she thinks you would be happy with another woman in your life.”
“She did?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I wanted you to know what she thought of the idea, in case you were dating anyone.”
He chuckled. “I’m not dating anyone.”
“Well, so that you know,” I said. “I don’t mind working weekends or weekend nights if you need a sitter.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said and glanced at the clock.
I took that as a sign to leave. “Have a good night, and thanks for the pizza.”
“See you Monday.”
“See you.” I walked out of the house feeling quite flushed. Thankfully, the air had cooled, and it felt amazing against my heated cheeks. Even if Noah wasn’t willing to move forward with dating, I wondered what I could do to help Gina and Noah in finding him a wife.
Chapter Nine
Noah
The transition from Layla to Jess went smoother than I anticipated. Two weeks after hiring her, my life had completely reverted to the time before Layla quit. I was able to leave for work on time every morning and not worry about Gina all day. Sure, I thought about her, but I didn’t worry that her nanny couldn’t keep up with her. And as if Jess knew I thought about Gina often, she sent me at least one photo a day of Gina doing some activity. I wanted to tell Jess that she didn’t need to check-in, but I didn’t want the pictures to stop either.
Sometimes the photos would have Jess and Gina together, and if anyone else didn’t know their relationship, the two could have been mother and daughter.
The highlight of my day was getting home to both of them each night. How did I ever get so lucky?