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“All set, Mom.”
“Thank you, but I couldn’t eat another thing,” Curt answered. “Dinner was delicious.”
Priscilla pushed back her chair and stood up. “In that case, I’m going to make sure Reese did what she was supposed to before she starts reading.” She left the kitchen almost as quickly as her granddaughter.
Curt and Taylor looked at each other, and he struggled not to smile. “She left us alone on purpose, didn’t she?” Curt asked.
Taylor sighed. “Yeah, probably. But it’s not unusual for us to tell Reese to get ready for bed, and instead she sits down and starts reading. The girl is a bookworm.”
If his mother or one of his aunts did something similar, he’d be beyond annoyed. Tonight, it didn’t faze him. “I can picture my mom doing the same thing.”
He considered his next sentence before he opened his mouth. He’d moved here with a simple plan: keep to himself, work on his house, and finish his book. Right now he wanted to add a fourth item to his plan: get to know the sexy DEA agent living next door. If he kept it very casual, she never needed to know who he really was.
“Would you like to go for coffee sometime?” Taylor asked the question before he could.
“Name the day and time.”
Chapter Three
“Auntie Taylor, you look pretty.”
Taylor looked over at Reese standing in the bedroom doorway. “Thanks. How’d the game go?” Reese had made the town’s travel soccer team this year. She loved it, even though her best friend Hazel wasn’t playing with her. Instead, Hazel had decided to play softball like her older sister, a sport Reese found boring.
“We won. I scored the only goal. I wish you’d been there.” Reese came into the room, and made herself comfortable on the bed where Stripes was already curled up in a patch of sunlight.
Taylor tried to make it to as many of Reese’s games as possible. She had planned on going to this one, too, but a last-minute development in one of her cases had kept her from getting home until three o’clock this morning. Getting up in time to get Reese to the soccer field in New Ipswich for her nine o’clock game had been out of the question, so Mom drove her.
“I should be there next week. Did you and Mimi stop to eat after the game?”
“Reese wanted to wait and see if you wanted to come with us,” Mom said from the doorway.
Taylor leaned over and ruffled her niece’s hair. “Thanks for thinking of me, but I have to pass this time. I’m having coffee with Curt in a little while.”
Reese bounced up and down on the bed. “I like him. He’s cute. Can I come with you?”
She’d expected a different response from Reese. Frequently, the three of them would stop for pizza or burgers after a soccer game. Sometimes they’d grab ice cream, too, before coming home.
“You can’t leave me all alone. Besides, we’ll have more fun than Aunt Taylor. Maybe we’ll even stop for ice cream after lunch.” Mom walked into the room.
“Can I get a waffle cone?” Reese asked, forgetting all about going with Taylor at the possibility of getting ice cream, one of her favorite treats.
Mom took her time before answering. “I think we can arrange that. But first go wash up and change your clothes.” Reese still wore her soccer uniform, minus her cleats. “Don’t forget to get your face, too. Not just your hands and arms.”
No one had to tell her twice. Reese jumped off the bed, waking Stripes up in the process. After the cat verified nothing was wrong, though, he twitched his tail and again closed his eyes. “’Bye, Auntie Taylor. Love you.”
With Reese gone, Taylor waited for Mom’s questions. She didn’t need to wait long.
“Having coffee with Curt? When did this come about?” Mom took the spot Reese had vacated on the bed, a clear indication she planned to ask several questions.
To avoid having Mom bring it up countless times over the past few days, Taylor had decided not to tell her she’d asked Curt to have coffee with her. While she loved Mom, Taylor didn’t think she needed to know every single aspect of her life. Unfortunately, living in the same house made it next to impossible to keep many things private. “The night he had dinner here. You’d gone upstairs to check on Reese.”
Taylor could practically see the already-spinning wheels in Mom’s head go into overdrive.
“Did he ask you?” Both Mom’s expression and tone became suspicious.
“Nope.” Taylor put her earring in and waited for the next question. Mom wouldn’t let her get away with a one-word answer.
Mom crossed her arms and glared at her. “You didn’t ask just so you can interrogate him, did you?”
