fist and refused to let go.
“Don’t even think about putting that in your mouth,” Grady said with a chuckle. “You might like it because it’s shiny and has rubies for eyes, but I don’t need baby slobber all over it.”
“Here, let me help before he pulls too hard and breaks the chain on you,” Sage said as she came to stand beside Grady.
“I doubt he’d be able to do that. It’s pretty strong.”
Sage gently pried the pendant out of Josh’s hand. “Nice cougar. I’ll take Josh now and give him his bottle.”
“Thanks. All right.”
Grady couldn’t resist giving the baby a quick kiss on his soft cheek before he passed him over to his aunt. She settled on the couch with Josh, propped him into the crook of her arm, then put the nipple of the bottle into his mouth. Josh greedily took it.
“I guess he was hungry,” he said as he sat next to Sage.
“My sister has started him on solid food, but Josh still loves his bottle. She said he’ll fall asleep while he takes it, then that’ll be it for the night. He usually sleeps through.”
Already, Grady saw Josh’s eyes were fluttering closed. “In that case, we should decide what we’ll want to eat. I can order it while you finish feeding him.”
“Okay. I don’t think it’ll take very long.”
“Then what would you like to have?”
“It’ll probably be easier to order pizza. I like almost anything on it, except for onions and anchovies.”
“That makes it easy. Do you have a usual place you get it from?”
Sage told him of a pizza place not too far from her house. So as not to disturb the baby, who’d fallen asleep, Grady stood and went to stand near the entrance of the living room. He used his cell phone to find the restaurant’s phone number, then made the call.
Chapter Three
Sage set her gaze on Grady as he turned his back to make the call to order pizza. She had a great view of his ass, which was encased in black denim. His jeans were tight enough to show it off. His wide back tapered to a narrow waist. She had to admit he had a great body.
She sighed to herself as she fixed her attention back on Josh, who was asleep and still sucking on his bottle. It was already half gone. Sage had thought the baby would be a great excuse to cancel her date with Grady. What she hadn’t counted on was him asking to help babysit and then wanting to order in food. And for some damn reason, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him no, be it going out on a date or inviting him inside her house.
Seeing him again brought how attractive she found him to the forefront of her mind. She wanted him, there were no ifs, ands or buts about it. What she wanted to do with that knowledge was something entirely different.
Usually able to pick up a vibe off people who she thought she’d have to watch out for, Sage didn’t get any of that from Grady. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and seeing him hold Josh and hearing him make her nephew giggle had almost melted her insides.
Grady came and sat once again on the couch next to her. He spoke in a quiet tone. “I ordered a large pizza with just about everything they had, except for the two toppings you didn’t want. It should be here in twenty minutes.”
Sage looked down at Josh and saw he’d finished the bottle and pushed the nipple out of his mouth. “And it looks as if Josh is all done. I’ll put him upstairs.”
After leaving the living room, she took the stairs to the upper level and headed for her bedroom. Even though she had two guestrooms, Sage wanted Josh in her room in case he did happen to wake up in the middle of the night. She tended to be a deep sleeper, especially when she was trying to make the changeover to another shift.
Inside her room, she carefully placed Josh in the playpen and covered him with blankets. Before she headed downstairs, she turned on the baby monitor that sat on her dresser, then picked up the receiver to take with her.
Sage returned to find Grady sitting on the couch exactly where she’d left him. He smiled as she closed the distance and took a seat next to him. She placed the receiver for the baby monitor on the end table.
“Did Josh stay asleep?” Grady asked.
“Yeah. He was out like a light.”
“Good.” Silence stretched between them for a few seconds before Grady said, “I’m glad you didn’t cancel our date.” He turned on the cushion toward her. “I was looking forward to seeing you again.”
“I guess you could say I was as well.” That was mostly true. Even though Sage had wanted to come up with a way to cancel their date, she really had thought about seeing Grady again. And now that they were together once more, she didn’t mind having him around.
“So what do cops do on their days off?” Grady asked with a grin.
“Well, this one, besides babysitting for her older sister, usually hangs around at home and relaxes. I also get caught up on laundry, house cleaning and grocery shopping that I tend to neglect during a workweek.”
“Sounds exciting.”
Sage chuckled. “No, it’s not, and you know it.”
“Okay, that’s true. How long have you been a police officer?”
“A couple years now. It can be a stressful job, but I wouldn’t want do anything else. How about yourself? What do you do for a living?”
Grady smiled. “Live. Seriously though, I don’t work. I don’t have to. I own stocks in my uncle’s multinational software company, which is the biggest here in Anchorage.” He said the corporation’s name.
Sage instantly recognized it. “Yeah, you must do well for yourself.”
The doorbell rang and Grady pushed to his feet. “That has to be the pizza. I’ll get it since I’m paying for it.”
She watched him leave the room, then heard him talking to the delivery guy. It didn’t take long for Grady to return, holding a pizza box. The smell of it made her stomach growl once it hit her nose. Sage hadn’t realized how hungry she actually was until then.
“I’ll get some paper towels,” she said as she quickly headed for the kitchen.
She handed Grady a sheet once she returned. He opened the pizza box and they dug in. A quiet moan pushed out of Sage after she took the first bite, chewed and swallowed. It was exactly what she needed. She looked over at Grady to see him watching her eat. He stared at her as if he wanted to taste her along with the food. A surge of arousal shot through her. To hide it from him in case she showed any outward sign of it, she took another big bite of pizza.
“Enjoying it?” Grady asked.
Sage nodded, then swallowed. “This place always has the best pizza. I’d hate to tell you how often I order it. Cooking is another thing I find hard to do while working.”
“You must work long hours.”
“I do, and a lot of them can be during the night shift.”
They didn’t talk too much after that and concentrated on finishing their meal. Once they were done, Sage got rid of the pizza box in the kitchen and returned with a beer for each of them.
Now that they were no longer eating, Sage decided to bring up the subject of how she’d met Grady. So far, she hadn’t seen any sign of the nasty head wound he’d received. He seemed to have recovered rather quickly.
“How’s your head?” she asked.
“Fine.”
“Did you end up going to the ER?”
“Actually, no. It wasn’t as bad as you thought it was. Even though it bled like a bugger, it was only a
