Jacob’s head whipped around in her direction. For one moment the look on his face could put her six feet under but then the murderous gaze disappeared and a smile took its place.
“Hello.” He glanced back at Maddox and put one hand on his little butt to stop his decent. “We were just coming to see if you were home to introduce ourselves.”
“Oh. Um, yes.” She lifted the grocery bags. “I just got back from the store.”
“Do you need to take things inside?” At her confused look, he continued, “To the fridge. Is there anything cold in there?”
“Oh! No. Nothing perishable.”
“Would you like to come over here for a drink?”
“A drink?”
Jacob’s smile slipped and he scrambled to catch Maddox when the boy took off up the stairs as though he had rockets on his feet. “Hang on there, Madman. The nice lady might think you don’t like her if you run away.”
Mallory smiled as she watched Jacob scoop Maddox up and fly him through the air over to where she stood.
“Sorry about that. We’ve just learned to navigate stairs so I didn’t want to risk leaving him on his own over there,” Jacob said when he stopped in front of her. “Anyway, if you aren’t busy, I,we, would like to invite you to join us for an afternoon snack.”
“An invitation to afternoon tea? And who is this handsome man asking me on a date?” Mallory indicated Maddox.
“Oh, shoot, sorry. This is Maddox and I’m his personal slave, Jake.” Jacob hitched Maddox on his hip and offered her his hand. “I’ve tried to catch you a few times over the last couple of weeks but with us only being here every now and then to wait for deliveries and fix things to suit us, we’ve missed each other.”
She lifted both hands showing the bags she was carrying. “Sorry.”
“Oh, right. No problem,” Jacob said while lowering his hand.
“You haven’t moved in yet?” she asked.
“Today. Officially. But the furniture has been in since Monday.”
She didn’t want to ask something she already knew the answer to but she’d already done that asking who Maddox was so she said, “If your furniture was here, where did you stay?”
“At Madman’s uncle and aunt’s house. We’ve been staying there since we moved to Sunnyville. Mrs. Russell said you’re new to the area too.”
“Yes. I’m here for a few months.”
“Not permanently?”
Mallory had to bite her tongue. Her first instinct was to say yes. Yes, she was staying in Sunnyville. But she wasn’t.
Was she?
She’d already leased out her apartment in New York and put her things in storage. And there was no way she’d move back in with Donna when she left here and went back. Especially if they were going to continue being on opposite sides of what was right for the little boy grinning at her.
“Um, it’s Mallory, right?”
“Oh! Yes. Sorry, yes, Mallory Dawson.” She had the urge to offer a hand but they had done that already and she still had both hands full so… “But you probably know that from the lease agreement.”
“Yes, and you probably know I’m Jacob Conners the same way.” He smiled. “What you don’t know is that I go by Jake and this guy is Maddox aka Madman or Mad.”
“Well, Maddox, it’s lovely to meet you.”
“About that afternoon snack, we’ve got milk and cookies if that sweetens the deal at all,” Jacob said.
“Homemade cookies?” she asked not expecting the answer to be yes.
“Is there any other kind?”
