Page 19 of Come Fly With Me

“I love you too, baby,” Claire told him before finishing her ice cream.

* * *

“I don’t know what happened,”Josh McInnes said to his wife after he’d hung up on Lake Benson. “But we’re babysitting Grunt and Claire’s kids for a weekend at the end of the month.”

Caroline looked up from her laptop screen. She was camped out at the dining room table going over work from the talent agency she owned with Josh’s best friend, Mitch.

“Grunt asked you to babysit his children?” Caroline frowned. It was adorable. “I didn’t realize you two were that close.”

“We aren’t. The guy hardly talks. How are you supposed to get to know somebody who just grunts?”

“Then who asked you? Claire?” She cocked her head to one side, considering that. “No, I don’t see that either.”

“It was Lake.”

Now he had her undivided attention. She sat back in her chair and smoothed down the skirt of her 1950s-style lavender dress before folding her arms. “Why is Lake asking you to look after Grunt’s children?”

Josh ran a hand through his hair, no doubt making it stand on end. “I don’t know.” He walked behind the kitchen island and slotted a coffee pod into the machine. “One minute he’s calling to shoot the breeze, next thing I know, we’re babysitting.”

He opened the fridge and stared inside. Nope, still full of fruit and veg. No bacon or doughnuts in sight. This healthy-eating crap was getting out of hand. What he needed was a stash. A secret fridge all his own, stocked with all the foods Caroline refused to buy. He tapped his chin as he thought. But where would he put it?

They owned a castle. It had plenty of rooms and closets, but he couldn’t think of one place that Caroline wouldn’t look. Not that she’d go hunting for a hidden fridge. She just had a gift for stumbling across his schemes. Maybe he could hide it at Flynn’s house? It was chaos over there. Nobody would notice another fridge.

But then he’d need to padlock the damn thing, or Flynn’s feral kids would raid it and eat all his doughnuts. Josh shook his head, shut the fridge, and made himself a cup of coffee. What he needed was a man cave, somewhere just for him that he could stock with sugar.

As with most of his brilliant ideas, it came straight out of his mouth as soon as he’d come up with it. “I need a man cave.” He beamed at his wife and watched her cheeks turn pink. Even after all these years, his award-winning smile still had that effect on her, and he was damn glad of it too.

“What would you do with a man cave?” She tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear. As usual, her neat bob sat perfectly in place. She was his very own Grace Kelly, and he loved every single inch of her.

“I’d use it for man stuff.” He sat at the table beside her.

Unlike Caroline, who looked like she could have tea with the Queen without any advance notice, Josh looked like he’d just woken up and fallen into the closest pair of jeans and a tee. Although, he did like this tee. It had Baby Yoda on it and was almost as good as his Cookie Monster T-shirt.

“What kind of man stuff?” Caroline’s smile could lure people into confessing all sorts of crap, but he was too smart for that.

“You know, like watching football with the boys. Keeping man trophies on the walls. That sort of thing.”

“Man trophies?” Her eyes sparkled.

He shrugged after taking a sip of his coffee. “You know. A baseball you catch at a game. A fish you stuff and mount.” If that was what you did with fish. Who knew? “Photos of the gang hanging out. Star Wars posters.”

“And I suppose this man cave would be men only?” she asked sweetly.

Josh looked at the question from all angles, searching for the pit he knew he was about to step into. But he couldn’t see one. “Exactly. It’s a man-only space.”

“Maybe with a workshop area and tools,” she mused.

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“But with a little beer fridge?”

“Now you’re getting it.”

“One that held healthy snacks?”

He slumped in his chair. “What gave me away?”

“You stared into the fridge for so long you missed the call I made to Kirsty. I’m pretty sure there was a halo of doughnuts floating around the top of your head while you glared at the lettuce.”