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Gage freezes for half a second before his massive arms swallow her whole. “Don’t make it weird,” she mutters into his chest.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“You’re already making it weird.”

“Love you too, Maise.”

She shoves at him until he lets go, her cheeks coloring faintly as she sits back into her chair and retrieves the cat from me.

I’m still staring. “What thing? I feel profoundly excluded.”

“That sounds difficult,” Maisie says, stroking the cat’s head like a cinematic villain. “Like using a coaster.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

Oh, now she simpers.

Gage turns and holds out his hand. “Come with me, Princess.”

“Wait a sec. Why do you call him Jerkface?” I wonder, glancing between them.

Gage pales and rubs his temple while Maisie centers on me. “You didn’t flinch when you learned, and I said ‘boo’.”

“Right?”

“He did.” She nods to him. “He fucking jerked.”

Before we can riff off it, one tug, and Gage lifts me out of the chair and straight into him. My free hand lands flat on his chest while his other arm settles low around my waist.

“Where are we going?”

Those dark, hooded eyes hold mine, and the cramped little office blurs at the edges. His thumb strokes across my knuckles. “To announce that Gage Cannon is officially off the market.” Behind us, Maisie takes a very loud sip of coffee.

I stare up at him. “Holy shit,” I whisper.

“Good holy shit?”

My smile breaks loose so fast, my cheeks hurt. “Incandescently good.”

He laughs, low and warm, and presses a kiss to my forehead while an espresso machine shrieks somewhere beyond the office door. Maisie makes a quiet gagging noise.

“Ten?” I ask her over Gage’s shoulder.

“Absolutely not.”

“Room for improvement!” I chirp. “When do we get nicknames?”

Gage pulls me out the door just as Maisie flips me the bird, but nothing can hide her genuine smile.

CHAPTER 22

Gage

The line outside the Crazy Cat Lady now stretches halfway down the block.

I expected a crowd. I didn’t expect Maisie to count roughly two hundred people and say with complete sincerity. “If one of them screams inside my café, I’m blaming you.”

“They won’t.”