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Luna hoped this was not going to be the end of his visit. “Not really, but I’ll gladly show you my brother’s space next door.”
“What about tomorrow?” Gaines asked pointedly.
“What about it?” Luna was puzzled. Would he make the two-hour drive back if he wasn’t in town for work?
“I’m scouting out the Village Hotel at Biltmore for a retreat for some of the marshals.”
“Ooohh, fancy. Is this where our tax dollars go?” Luna gave him a sideways look.
Gaines chuckled. “No. It’s a grant, and it’s only eight of us. Kind of like a think tank. And we’ll be bunking two per room. Fun times.”
“Well, I’m glad you were able to fit in a visit here to the art center.”
“So what about tomorrow?” Gaines repeated his question.
“Uh. Sure!” Luna remained cool despite her excitement. “Come on. Let’s go see what Cullen is up to.” Luna needed another person in the room with her and Gaines.How many times had they been together? Four? Five?She knew she should be over the willies by now. She tried to convince herself it was all in her head. The attraction. The pull. The energy. There was no denying something was reverberating between them. She could feel his body heat. Wiley followed happily behind.
Cullen strode over to them as they walked into his showroom. “Marshal Gaines! Good to see you, man. What brings you here?”
“Doing a little scouting. Decided to mix business with pleasure.”
Pleasure?That was almost fainting words. Luna got goose bumps. What kind of pleasure did he mean? She certainly wasn’t going to ask him. She tried the Jedi mind trick from theStar Warsseries, beaming thoughts to Cullen.Ask him. Ask him.
Cullen gave her a strange look. Luna opened her eyes as wide as her lids would stretch, hoping Cullen could read what was inside her head.
Cullen crossed his arms and leaned against a newly restored farmhouse table. “Which is which?”
“Which is what?” Gaines looked a little puzzled.
“Which is business? We’re not under surveillance, are we?” Cullen joked.Good save, bro, Luna thought.
Gaines laughed. “I’m scouting for a site for a weekend retreat”—he turned to look at Luna—“and your sister sent an invitation to the opening.”
Cullen smiled and nodded. “Glad you could make it.”
“That’s a nice-looking table.” Gaines tilted his head toward the piece on which Cullen was resting his butt.
Cullen immediately jumped away and grabbed one of the decorative towels Luna had placed on a baker’s rack and began rubbing the area where he had squatted. Luna couldn’t help but giggle. Then she thought about butt prints instead of fingerprints and started laughing harder. Both men stared at her as she got more hysterical, pointing to the table. She finally caught her breath. “I guess you could substitute them for fingerprints!” By that time, she was howling. Of course, most of her reaction was nerves. Her mind swiftly went intoI’m such an idiotmode.
Gaines let out a guffaw. “I’ll keep that in mind. Imagine if we still had to use ink pads?” Luna and Cullen were almost doubled over. For well over a decade, prints were taken electronically with a scanner. “Although I don’t think the scanners they’re using now could capture a whole lot of data.”
“Here’s an idea.” Luna snickered. “You put people on a conveyor belt like they do at the grocery stores!”
Everyone was having a good, hearty laugh. Wiley lay on the floor and put his paws over his face. That brought on more hilarity.
It took several minutes for the group to regain some degree of poise. The air was electric with delight. Luna could feel it. As did Cullen and Gaines. Cullen squeezed his jaw tenderly. “My face hurts.” Gaines blinked back tears. That moment created a bond among the three of them. Luna recalled a famous line from Victor Borge:Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.Even three.
“As I was saying,” Gaines snorted, “that’s a fine-looking table. I like the whitewashed finish. Maple?”
“Yes. I wanted to give it a bit of an updated look. Anyone can find a maple farm table anywhere. I put my own spin on things.”
“I can see that.” Gaines noticed the barn door that led to the back room. “Workshop?”
“It is. Wanna take a look?” Cullen was happy to share and discuss his work. Especially with a dude.
They moved through the showroom, Gaines stopping to admire a few other pieces. “I like to tinker. Well, I used to, but work takes up a whole lot of time.”
As the two men started to talk man-tool-speak, she felt like the little sister tagging along. Maybe that wasn’t so bad. It took some of the pressure off her. She tried to read Gaines’s body language. All she could decipher was a man of confidence without arrogance. Open. Honest. At least that’s what his body language was telling her. She wondered what her body language was telling him. She quivered at the thought.
