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“Nice outfit.”
“You either have style or you don’t, boy.”
“Never a truer word spoken,” Luke agreed.
“Need to go. My nephew has decided to visit for the first time in his worthless life.
Luke watched her walk away, ate another cookie, and looked at the others carving pumpkins. The competition would be stiff.
“One o’clock,” Jack said softly.
Luke looked and found Quinn wandering through the pumpkins. He turned his back and dropped down beside Grace and Ella, who were discussing their pumpkin.
The problem was, he wanted to look at her because she was cute. This was his first good look at her in daylight. Jeans, navy sweater, and a down jacket. She had on a cap again. On her feet were tan boots. She stopped every few feet to chat with a kid and inspect the pumpkin they were carving before moving on. He caught a smile as one of the kids spoke to her.
Nice, he thought.
“White, Uncle Luke. Gold ears and horn,” Ella stated, drawing his eyes back to her.
“So not a scary one with teeth and squinty eyes?”
“We want a unicorn one,” Grace said.
“Sounds reasonable,” a voice above him said.
Quinn had reached them. No big deal; he could be polite. No one was dragging him down the aisle, for pity’s sake.
“Grace, Ella, this is Quinn. You remember Jack, I’m sure. The loser of the Trainer clan. With him is my nephew, Benji.”
“Hi.” Her smile was small, but it still notched up her sweetness.
“We’re making a unicorn pumpkin.” Grace added a bounce to the words.
“That sounds pretty cool.”
That smile had a kick to it, Luke thought. She didn’t look embarrassed at seeing him like her mom had said she would be.
“I just wanted to say thank you again, Luke.”
“No worries, and it’s my job. You didn’t need to bake the cookies, but thanks. Not a flavor combo I thought I’d enjoy as much as I did. The kids loved them.”
“And me.” Jack smiled.
“Pardon?” Her frown formed a line down her forehead, and the smile fell from her lips.
“Your mom brought me the cookies you baked as a thank-you for helping out with the fire.” If he hadn’t been watching her, he would have missed the wince.
“I… ah, great.” The words were flat and hard; all expression had left her face.
“So that tone and the face tell me that you didn’t want her to bring me cookies, did you? In fact, I’d go so far as to say you didn’t know about them.”
“Sorry, no, I didn’t.” She was embarrassed now, color filling her cheeks. “My mom, she’s…” Her words fell away. “I have to go.”
“Quinn, it’s no big deal.”
She didn’t stop at his words, just walked away.
“Well, hell,” he muttered.
