His eyebrows knitted together. “Of course.”
“I’d love to,” I said.
“Great,” he said then leaned over and kissed my cheek. “See you then.”
I nodde
d, unable to speak. I floated over to my car, unable to feel my feet touching the ground. I bit down on my bottom lip to keep from smiling. I had to play it cool, at least until I was alone. After spending an incredible day with Noah and Gina, our weekend together would continue, and I couldn’t be happier.
Chapter Seventeen
Noah
All day, I couldn’t stop thinking of Jess and the fantastic time we had the day before at Playland. Offering to take her to dinner was the second part of my plan. I wanted to show Jess that she would and always be a part of our family, even though she’d only been with us for a short amount of time. There was something special about her, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. I wanted to get to know every detail about her life and share every detail of mine with her. It would take time, but it would be worth it.
Jess was to arrive around five-thirty for our six o’clock reservation. I made sure I was ready before I started with Gina. She had a tendency to mess up her clean outfits before we even left the house, so getting her ready was last on the list before going anywhere nice.
“Which dress are you wearing?” I asked when I came into her room. I looked around and couldn’t believe what I saw. The room appeared as if her closet had exploded. There were clothes strewn on almost every surface. I pinched the bridge of my nose, attempting to push away my frustration. There wasn’t enough time to clean all of this up before leaving.
“This one,” Gina said, holding up a red velvet dress.
“That’s your Christmas dress,” I said.
“But I want to wear it!” she exclaimed.
“Fine,” I said, not wanting to argue. I picked up a few of the strewn outfits and placed them on the bed. I could at least get everything in one area before we left and then hang them up later on.
I went into her closet and picked through a basket overflowing with her shoes. Even though I installed built-in shelving units, Gina could never keep her closet clean, so I gave her a basket to store her accessories. At the very least, there was one place to find matching pairs.
I picked out a pair of black patent leather shoes. “Put these on.”
“No,” she said. “Those pinch my toes.”
“Okay” I said, tossing those in the back of the closet. I made a mental note to speak to Jess about helping sort out clothes and shoes that were too small for Gina. It wasn’t a task I had time for anytime soon.
There was another pair of black shoes a size larger. “How about these?”
“Yes,” she said, running into the closet and taking them from me. She sat on the floor and started putting them on. I walked around her room, picking up her clothes. By the time I finished laying them on the bed, it was already close to five-thirty.
Gina stood up and shoved her messy brown mane out of her face.
“We’ll need to put your hair up,” I said.
Gina cringed.
“Come on,” I said, shooing her out of the room. “We have only a little time before Jess gets here.”
While I worked through her tangled hair with a comb, I heard the door open downstairs.
“We’re up here,” I called into the hallway.
“Ow, Daddy!” Gina said.
“Sorry, honey,” I said, trying to untangle one particular stubborn knot.
“How’s everyone doing?” Jess asked from the doorway.
I turned, taking Gina with me. I dropped the comb from my hand, and it hung from Gina’s head. “Not so great.”