Going Down Easy (Boys of the Big Easy #1)(33)

“She does, but she’s a single mom, too. Young. I think she had Lex when she was only eighteen. So she’s working and stuff. Obviously, any help they can get is good, right?”

Addison nodded, feeling her heart warm. These people were something. She already found herself eager for the meeting each week and to find out how things were going at Bea’s new part-time job and what was going on with the woman Corey was seeing and to hear how Austin’s girls’ first dance recital went. She was getting invested. Damn Gabe Trahan.

And yeah, Gabe Trahan was definitely a part of the appeal here. It was just such a great excuse to see him without making it about anything more.

Except that she wanted to make it into something more.

Fuck.

“So you are aware that Caleb is a dad?” Gabe asked, propping a hip against the table and facing her fully. “I mean, he’s raising his niece, but he, for all intents and purposes, has a kid.”

Addison bit off a piece of cookie and gave him a no-shit look. “Yes, I am aware of that.”

“So this whole thing about dating him . . . that doesn’t really make sense, right? Because you’re not interested in guys with kids.”

She lifted a brow. Yeah, dammit, she liked this possessive Gabe. That was complicated. “I’m not dating him.”

“You’re flirting with him.”

“I’m giving him advice in the context of a single-parent support group.”

“And smiling at him.”

“I’m not supposed to smile at anyone here?”

“No, that’s ridiculous,” Gabe said.

Addison rolled her eyes.

“Just don’t smile at Caleb or Austin.” Gabe paused. “Or Corey. Just in case.”

“Just in case of what?”

“He breaks up with Melissa. Or realizes that you’re hotter and sassier than Melissa.”

Addison couldn’t help but be amused. “You’ve met Melissa?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know how we compare?”

He braced his hand on the table and leaned closer. “Because you’re hotter and sassier than all other women.”

She laughed. “Well, that is absolutely not true.”

“To me it is.”

So cheesy. Yet that made her go a little soft in spite of herself. She’d missed him, and he hadn’t been pressing her to give a relationship a chance, which was what she’d thought she’d wanted. But when he’d honored her wishes, she’d started wishing he’d push, just a little. She and Gabe had been hotter than hell together. They’d said all kinds of dirty, fun, naughty things to each other. But they hadn’t really been sweet and romantic. Not verbally, anyway. His buying her a rose from a street vendor had been sweet and romantic. She supposed bringing him the I LOVE NY shirt had been sweet. And hell, just the way he touched her and looked at her had been sweet and romantic, she now realized.

“Then maybe I should stop smiling at you,” she said softly.

He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “No. Anything but that.”

Lord, Gabe had melted her panties with a look, he’d made her feel like the sexiest woman in the world with a look, he’d told her I’d like to bend you over this table right now with just a look. But the look in his eyes now . . . that one was downright dangerous. Because it was filled with affection and possessiveness and a desire that seemed so much more than sexual.

“Okay, everybody! Let’s talk about the family get-together this month!” Bea called, saving Addison from responding to all of that stuff from Gabe.

Which was great, because she was pretty sure her response would be something along the lines of Take me now and never let me go. Those last four words being the problem, of course.

She swallowed and turned away, somehow making her way back to her chair.

“We were thinking that this time it might be fun to have a family game night,” Bea said. “We can choose a variety of games and have multiple tables going. Some of the games will work great for a mix of age groups, or we can pair some of the older kids with the younger, or we can do teams. But I think there’s a way to make it fun for everyone.”

Addison leaned over to Caleb. “What’s going on?”

“Once a month our meeting involves the kids, too,” he explained. “We all get together and have a potluck and get a chance to know the kids we all talk about all the time.”

Oh . . . crap.

Or maybe it was good. She would now have the chance to meet Cooper, but without admitting to Gabe that she wanted to meet Cooper. Because that might be too much to confess right now. Before she actually met the kid. Or figured out if she was just horny and into all things Gabe or if she really did want to meet Cooper.

What if the moment she saw him, she was reminded that one child was more than enough and that she wasn’t sure she was always doing a bang-up job with the one she had? Should she be letting Stella sleep in her bed once in a while? Should she have a chore chart? Was Addison cuddly enough? Was Stella independent because that was Stella . . . or had Addison pushed her daughter away inadvertently?

She glanced over at Gabe, who was frowning at the way she was leaning toward Caleb. In spite of her swirling emotions, she rolled her eyes at him. He simply lifted a brow.