Chapter 12

Their hands remained entwined as they left their breakfast behind, taking the stairs slowly as they ascended to the office. Jesse half-expected Gideon to be in the playroom or sprawled on the couch listening for them. Instead, he was sitting at his desk, doodling on a notepad as he spoke to somebody on the phone.

“Yeah, the ones I showed you,” he said. He caught their eye and waved them in. “They’re actually here now. Let me call you back, and I’ll let you know what time.”

Jesse sat in his usual chair besides Gideon’s desk and absently pulled Emma into his lap. “What’s going on?”

Gideon played with his pen, rolling it between his fingers as he leaned back in his seat and faced them. “I want to do something for you two. Something I’ve been thinking about for, well, a while. Something to prove to you what you two mean to me, and better, that everybody else knows it, too.”

“Gideon, I know, I was just…”