Happy Singles Day by Ann Marie Walker

Author:Ann Marie Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2020-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Paige kept her eyes closed, trying her best to ignore the sunlight streaming in through the window. She wasn’t ready to wake up. Not when her dreams brought images of Lucas, bathed in the soft glow of the fireplace. Like they had been the day before, his eyes were lit by the reflection of the flickering flames, but in this version, he wasn’t wearing a supersoft black sweater. No, Paige’s subconscious preferred him just as she’d first met him, bare-chested and wearing only a pair of faded jeans and a few days’ worth of stubble. She had wondered how it would feel beneath her fingertips, against her cheek, or even between her thighs. But unlike in real life, where her fantasies remained on the pages of romance novels, dream-state Paige was brazen, bold, and wanton. She reached out, her fingers tracing the outline of his jaw. His gaze darkened as he leaned closer, so close she could feel his warm breath against her cheek like a ray of sunlight on a cold winter’s day. Her lips parted in anticipation…

Wait.

A ray of sunlight?

What the…

Her eyes opened, and as they did, her sexy carpenter vanished like a genie being sucked back into his bottle. She groaned, as much from the bright sunshine as the evaporation of another near-kiss.

Paige’s hands flew to her face, shielding her eyes as she rubbed away the last remnants of sleep. She didn’t want to wake up. She wanted to stay in a dream world where cloudless skies and ferry boats didn’t mean the end of something that had barely begun.

Leave it to her to find herself plopped into a Hallmark movie where the storm clears too early.

No sense putting off the inevitable, she thought.

Paige rolled over…

…to find a small child beside her bed.

“Uh, hello tiny human.”

The little girl giggled as though someone had tickled her toes. “Hello, large human.”

Large, eh? Paige had always heard that kids were brutally honest. Then again, maybe she meant as compared to her size, not to humans in general.

“And who might you be?” Paige assumed she was Lucas’s daughter, but still, introductions were in order.

“I’m Maddie.”

Paige held out her hand—did you shake hands with a child?—but it didn’t matter because without hesitation Maddie placed her small hand in Paige’s.

“Why are we holding hands?” she asked.

“We’re shaking hands,” Paige corrected. She gripped the child’s hand and gave it a quick shake. “It’s what people do when they introduce themselves. I’m—”

But Maddie didn’t bother waiting to hear the large human’s name. Instead she bent down to get something off the floor. “Do you want to see what I’ve got in this box?” It didn’t seem as though Paige had much choice in the matter, since the shoebox in question was now resting on the mattress beside her. Not that she would have said no. The little girl’s eyes sparkled with such excitement, Paige found herself more than a little intrigued.

Maddie carefully removed the lid. When she did, she let out a small squeal,

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