Page 135 of Falling Back to You

“Cinderella!”

Naturally. I was several years out of practice with princess stories, but I could work with this one.

“You ready?” I asked, settling beside her on the bed.

Khia snuggled close, her silky hair bonnet tucking under my chin. “My feet are under the covers so monsters can’t get me.”

I kissed the top of her head.

Oh, if it were only that simple.

Chapter forty-nine

Cal

It was officially Pumpkin Patch Day. Something I indulged Khia in.

Okay, fine. I liked the hayride and corn maze. Sue me for being a kid at heart.

Khia and I picked Noelle up after lunch. (Carpooling was a real hardship when she lived at the end of the driveway.) She looked incredible in her jeans and pink flannel. Very festive. Wait a sec—her navy T-shirt had the number 22 on it.

I tried not to stare, but she caught me, lips twitching with a smile. Yeah, she knew what she was doing.

“Eyes on the road, Cap,” she teased.

I chuckled, giving my head a shake to refocus—hard to do with her enticing smile on display, but we had an audience.

While Khia chatted with Noelle, I did a double take at her hands. They were dry and cracked. That has to hurt. “There’s lotion in the glove box,” I said casually as we headed north on the highway.

Noelle shot me a curious look.

“Uh, your hands are acting up.” For as long as I’d known her, she’d struggled with chapped hands from the dry weather and every soap product known to man.

She rummaged in the glove box, holding up a pink bottle of Cherry Blossom Explosion. “You still carry lotion with you?”

My cheeks warmed as she stared at me. “I got into the habit and guess I never stopped. You never know when you’ll have a lotion emergency.”

“Ooh, I want lotion!” Khia piped in, her feet kicking the back of my seat.

“No kicking, please,” I said, glancing back at her.

“Sorry.”

Noelle squirted the product into her hand, and I was immediately transported to all the times she rode in my truck and that smell accompanied her. She was the reason I always carried it.

Hand on my seat, she reached back to squirt some into Khia’s hands. This close I caught the whiff of her tropical shampoo. It immediately made me want to take her on a beach vacation. Palm trees, coconuts, ocean waves . . .

“Thanks,” Noelle said softly, snapping me from my vacation daydreams.

And for once, I was completely out of words.

Greyson would call it a miracle.

I fumbled with the console for my sunglasses as the sun glinted off the road. Gum. Sunscreen. Napkins. Random receipts. No glasses.

“Sunglasses?” Noelle asked.

“Yeah. I left them on the counter.” I’d been engaged in a debate with Khia about the necessity of wearing a sweater in sixty-five-degree weather.