Boy, was she spinning a tale. Now if she could just remember it all to repeat back to Grimm later, they’d be in business.
“A perfect time, indeed,” Mrs. Marcum said.
Her granddaughter narrowed her eyes on Quinn as if she didn’t buy a word of what she said, but then Grimm returned, and the girl gave another big sigh. Quinn didn’t like the way the teen ogled him.
“Here you go, sweetie.” He handed her a cone.
“Thanks. Let’s take it to go. I want to show you a few places in town as we head back to my place,” she said.
“Sure, whatever you want. It was nice meeting you both.”
“Nice meeting you, young man,” Mrs. Marcum said.
“See you around,” Quinn said, and they headed out of the creamery.
Once on the street again, Grimm asked. “Where to?”
“Back to my place. Showing you around was just an excuse to get out of there,” Quinn said. “I didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but I’d had enough small talk for the evening. I was making up stuff about your job and how you could take time off. It didn’t feel right. I’m not sure what had come over me.”
His brow arched. “What exactly did you say?”
“That your company gave their employees time off to put in new equipment and you had an open-ended ticket, so we didn’t know how long you’d be here,” she said. “Once I got started, I couldn’t stop.
“Sounds like you did get carried away.” He winked at her and then licked his ice cream cone before too much of it melted and ran down the side.
“I know,” she said.
“I think you got into role-playing,” he said.
“Maybe.” She licked her ice cream too. “Mm. They make the best rocky road.”
“I was thinking the same about mine.”
“Is that mint chocolate?”
“Pistachio.”
“It’s green. It looks the same to me.”
“Big difference in taste and texture. And it has nuts, not pieces of dark chocolate.”
“I’m sure. I don’t like either.”
“No?”
She shook her head, taking a bite out of her own.
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I’m particular about my chocolates,” she said. “I only like mint with dark chocolate if it’s a thin mint. So, putting it in ice cream is a big negative for me.”
“Again, you don’t know what you’re missing,” he assured her.
They continued along the sidewalk falling into a silent companionship as they finished their waffle cones. They were almost at Quinn’s intersection when Grimm called, “Hold up, I need to tie my shoe.”
“Okay,” she replied, slowly pivoting to her left to look back at him.
“Hey, look out!” He yelled, lurching from his crouched position to push her out of the way as a black Firebird came barreling onto the sidewalk toward them from the opposite direction.
