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“Is this an actual date?” Pip waddled up to their table.
“No!” Mandy said before he had to. Ted wasn’t sure why it pissed him off again that she said no instead of yes. He was clearly more fickle than he’d realized. “I just showed Ted my new apartment, and he was coming here, so I tagged along.”
Lie number two.
“Wait, what?” Pip pulled out a chair and sat.
“Hi, Teddy Bear.” Gracie arrived to lean on her mom. She wore lavender today, a jumpsuit with a strange, big-headed doll on the front with long legs and bug eyes.
“Hey there, Miss Gracie.”
“Can I sit with you?”
“Sure.” He pulled her onto his lap. He’d got over his initial reluctance to be near this little girl because she reminded him of Emily. After all, it wasn’t her fault, and he liked interacting with her.
“Any chance of a coffee, Piper?”
She shushed him and fired another question at Mandy about her apartment.
Getting to his feet again with Gracie in his arms, Ted walked to the counter.
“Two BLTs and two coffees, thanks,” he said to the waitress. “You want anything?”
“A chocolate milkshake,” Grace informed him.
“And you can eat my fries.”
She beamed at him.
When he returned, Mandy’s eyes were on him instead of Piper.
“I’m so excited for you.” Piper got to her feet and smothered Mandy with a hug. “What do you want to eat?”
“I’ve ordered. You seemed busy, and Jack told me it’s not good to annoy you at the moment,” Ted said.
“He’s a good cousin.”
“Take a load off, Piper,” Ted added.
“And what a load,” she moaned. “But I’m up now, so I just need to do a few things, then we can go home, sweetheart.”
“I’m having a chocolate milkshake and fries with Teddy Bear.” This was followed by a smug little smile.
“Are you now? And what did I just say to you when you asked me for exactly that?”
“I don’t remember.” Grace smiled again, but her mother wasn’t buying.
“You’re doing extra chores tonight for that,” Piper said. “And that doesn’t mean getting the ice cream out of the freezer for your father.”
Piper walked away with a hand pressed into her back.
“You just played me, Gracie, and I’m now in trouble with your mom.”
“Oh look, there’s Buzz!”
Ted watched as she climbed off his lap and ran to the doorway where the fur ball stood.
“It’s amazing how early a female can learn evasive tactics.”
