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“Fair. It’s just that Gav’s kind of the resident babysitter. His wife, Gwen, she’s the nurse. But when she doesn’t have to be doing first aid on one of us, she’s a full-time Little. So when other girls’ Daddies have to go off fishing or do other chores, they usually go over to the Bayards’ cabin. It’s nice that way, always having someone around who’s willing to help out.”
“And what about you? Are you looking for a full-time Little?”
Linc’s face crunched, and he took a draught of his Coke. “Sort of? Maybe? I like doing the physical work they need out on Enclave, and I don’t want to give that up. That’s the kind of thing I’ve always been good at, and it seems like all those random-ass skills I’ve picked up over the years all come in handy there. And if my wife had a job she enjoyed, I wouldn’t want to take that away from her. But I do think most of the time I’d want to be watching out for her and have rules. Discipline her if she broke ‘em. Have her be happy to hand herself over to me when I get in from… whatever the hell it was I’d been doing that day.”
An image of Linc coming into a cozy wood cabin where she’d been hunched over her keyboard all day came into her mind. To give herself a second to play out the fantasy, Nova took a sip of her Coke. He’d stomp the snow off his boots and take off his coat, and then pad over to her in thick wool socks. She’d squeal when he came up behind her and put his cold hands on her neck and kissed her cheek, but she’d go limp in her chair when he wrapped a hand around her throat and used his thumb to tip her chin up.
“Enough working, shortcake. You’re Daddy’s Little girl now.”
“Hey,Nova! Didn’t think we’d see you here, you’re usually eating at your desk.”
The woman with dirty-blonde hair and hazel eyes had on a sweater dress over leggings and looked very cozy in her fur-trimmed boots. She was accompanied by a man with short brown hair and light-blue eyes dressed in what probably passed for business casual around here—jeans and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Nova looked up, clearly startled, like she’d been interrupted. She had to know a lot of people at the Ranch since she’d been working here for three months, but maybe not if she was always working. And unless things had changed, she’d always been the type to have a few deep friendships instead of a flock of shallower ones.
His shortcake gathered herself and did seem genuinely glad to see the couple.
“Yeah, I would be, butsomeoneinterrupted me and dragged me over here. Linc, this is Quinn and her Daddy Ryder who’s also the main cybersecurity person here. Ryder and Quinn, this is Linc.”
“Ooo, did you meet at the Snow Squall dinner?” Quinn asked, her eyes brightening. “I heard Master Derek really did some good matchmaking that night.”
“Um…” Nova’s brows gathered.
Did she not want to tell her friends how they knew each other? It was a good story. And Derek might be a great matchmaker but even his skills couldn’t have helped Linc at that dinner with all the wool he’d been gathering about Nova. Or at the rope workshop. Or the paint and sip mixer. He was beginning to think he was hopeless.
Ryder pulled Quinn more snuggly against him with an arm around her shoulder.
“I’m not usually a fan of matchmaking—a little too busybody for me,” he told Linc. “But Derek’s machinations are how Quinn and I ended up together so I’m kind of a fan. If he put you two together—”
“He didn’t,” Nova said.
“Would you like to join us?” Linc offered. “Then I could tell you all about how I know Miss Nova here.”
“Story time!” Quinn exclaimed and clapped her hands. “Daddy, can we?”
“As long as it’s all right with Nova, sure.”
Which was something Linc should’ve checked before offering, but he was feeling defensive. Was she embarrassed to be seen with him? He didn’t have a major brain like Nova, wasn’t a polished suit and tie type, and god knew he didn’t have much in the way of money but he didn’t think he was too shabby. At least not shabby enough for Nova to be ashamed of him but maybe he was wrong.
Nova gave the interlopers a tight smile which only strengthened his suspicions. “Um, sure. We’re almost done with lunch but I was thinking about a cup of tea.”
“Yay!” Quinn clapped her hands together. “We’ll grab some food while you do that and then we can hear all about it. I can’t wait!”
A few minutes later, Linc had cleared their plates while Nova went and fetched her tea, and Quinn and Ryder were back with their food. Quinn plopped down in her seat and looked between the two of them.
“So. How did you two meet?”
“This woman told me to stop eating paste,” Linc told them, and enjoyed how Quinn’s eyes went wide, and Ryder almost choked on his water.
Yeah, it was a good story, especially now that they were adults. Linc maybe ate a lot of things most people wouldn’t—caribou tongue was fucking delicious, he’d die on that glacier—but he wasn’t chowing down on glue products anymore. “We actually grew up in the same town in Idaho, so I’ve known Nova since pre-school. Which is where she told me to stop horking down that jar of Elmer’s.”
Quinn was laughing now, and Ryder chuckled.
“She’s still a lot smarter than me.”
“She’s smarter than most people,” Ryder chimed in, and Linc thought Ryder would know since he worked with Nova on computer stuff.
Nova put a hand over her face like Ryder’s compliment embarrassed her.
