Make a Wish (Spark House #3)(84)

“Yeah, it makes perfect sense. I just … I wasn’t sure because of what you’ve already been through.” I don’t want to push too much, but I’m honestly surprised that he feels this way.

He traces the edge of my jaw. “I’m not going to lie, the idea is scary as hell, but I think it’s a lot easier to deal with if we know it’s coming than if it happens by accident. Okay?”

“It’s absolutely okay. It’s more than okay, actually.”

He smiles gently and leans in to kiss me, lips soft but insistent. And I let myself get lost in the kiss, seeds of hope for the future taking root.

I pull back when I feel the nudge against my hip. “How in the world can you still manage to get a hard-on? We’ve had sex three times in two hours.”

Gavin shrugs. “I’ve always been able to go twice in a row.”

“Always?”

“For as long as I remember. The first time is usually fast, but the second time I can go a lot longer. Then I need maybe twenty minutes to recover.”

I gape at him. “No offense, but you’re on the left side of forty. Shouldn’t that particular skill set be reserved for guys in their twenties?”

Gavin narrows his eyes. “That’s ageist.”

I roll mine. “It’s not ageist. It’s basic biology. Usually twenty-year-olds can do the whole back-to-back thing without having to take a break, but recovery time gets longer as you get older.”

He tucks his arm behind his head. “And you know this how?”

“Conversations with girlfriends.”

“So it’s not from experience.” He seems amusedly pleased by this possibility.

“No. You’re actually the first man I’ve ever been with who’s over thirty-five.”

“Over thirty-five?”

“Usually I ended up dating guys closer to my own age. In part because people often think I’m younger than I am.”

“You’re all woman in a slightly smaller-than-average package,” Gavin says.

I shrug. “Either way, I think it’s probably part of the reason most of the guys I dated before you were under thirty.”

“And did any of them possess my particular skill set?”

“Would you really want to know if they did?”

He considers that for a moment. “Not really, to be quite honest.” He rolls to his side and props up his cheek on his fist. “Your class finishes soon. Do you have an exam to study for?”

“No, just a paper. I’m mostly done. I might need a couple hours tomorrow morning to work on it, but it’s not a big deal if I don’t tackle it until I’m home on Sunday night.”

“Is that going to give you enough time?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve tried to stay on top of things, and it’s been easier the last little while since we hired new staff to help with the events.”

He tucks my hair behind my ear, fingertips following the contour of my jawline. “What would it take to finish your degree if you didn’t have to juggle courses and your job?”

“One semester plus one additional course.”

“Is that something you would consider?”

“I think before now, probably not, but with the way things are going at Spark House and my job always shifting and changing, maybe?” I trace a vein in his arm with my fingertip.

“What’s holding you back, then?”

I put a lot of things on hold after Gavin and Peyton left, and it was easy to use Spark House as an excuse. Now things are different. I’m different. “It would take me away from my sisters, and I love working with them.”

Gavin nods. “But you don’t love the actual job.”

“I don’t dislike it.”

“In an ideal world, if you could still work with your sisters and do what you love, what would that look like?”

I don’t even need to think about it, since the paper I’ve been working on is based on what my ideal role at Spark House would look like. “First I’d bring back the kids’ birthday parties because they bring me joy and they don’t feel like work. And I would keep it separate from the rest of Spark House, so it would be its own thing and wouldn’t interfere with the big events. It would be its own side venture, and I would be in charge of overseeing it. And—” I tap my lips. “I’d love to set up a daycare program, not necessarily just for big events, but possibly for our staff. Cosy, the wife of one of the Mills brothers, mentioned it, and I’ve been thinking about how that might be a great way to support the people who work for Spark House. Having an on-site daycare program could be amazing. London and Avery could bring their kids there, and if it made sense, we could make daycare available for some of our bigger events. That way, when families are at Spark House for weddings, we’d have a program for the kids to keep them entertained. It’s a big project, but I think it could roll out in stages. First daycare for wed dings, so we can learn what we’d need and the logistics, then opening it up for potential on-site daycare.”

“You’ve really put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you?”

“It’s the focus of my final paper for the course I’m taking, so yeah, I’ve had lots of time to think it through and develop an implementation plan.” I mirror his pose, propping up my chin on my fist. “So much has changed with Spark House over the past couple of years. And at first, the franchise seemed like it was undoing everything we’d worked for. But now I can see so many great opportunities that could come from it. We have all these full-time staff who are there to help manage. It’s good in a lot of ways, but half of our job has turned into meetings and planning sessions. I know when the franchises are up and running, that will shift again, and so will our roles. It would be nice to have something that’s mine to foster.”