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Jude clears his throat. “Honey—”
“Give me a minute, Jude. Okay?”
My best friend is so whipped. He puffs out his cheeks. “Sure, babe. Come on, Alice. Tell Levi goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Uncle Bear.” Alice bows her head and dips into a deep curtsy. She holds out her hands as if she were stretching a skirt wide on either side of her—only she’s in sparkly pink leggings today. “Thank you for letting me play with Max and eat all of your Starbursts.”
“See ya later, little snitch.”
She blows me a kiss, completely unoffended. Then Alice waves to Meredith and Max. Scooping up her backpack, she skips over to Jude, and out the glass double doors of my shop, not even realizing the world of trouble she’s left me in.
“It’s Meredith, right?” Coco says, a hand out to shake the girl’s.
“Yes.” Meredith nods, then places her hand in Coco’s. “Meredith Porter. I’m new in town.”
“New?” Coco’s eyes drag up to mine once more.
So what? She’s new. What does that have to do with me and my time?
“Welcome,” Coco says. “I’m still pretty new to Coeur d’Alene myself. Levi and I didn’t grow up together.”
“Cora,” I bark. Why is she telling a stranger our business?
“Ooo,” Coco says to Meredith, like they’re conspiring together. “He’s dropping my given name. He means business.”
Meredith breathes out a laugh. “I like you.”
“I like you, too.”
“You don’t even know each other,” I can’t help but say. What’s with these women?
“So, what are you in town for?”
Meredith’s nose wrinkles and lines form around her eyes with her grin. “I’m staying with my uncle. He’s diabetic and a little lonely since my aunt died.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, he’s okay—mostly. I shouldn’t have implied that he wasn’t. He invited me to come stay, and I needed a change. Truly, he’s more help to me than I am to him.”
Coco smiles again. Like what she’s said is endearing. It’s not. Not at all. I’m not even sure it makes sense. “My brother has time to help you.”
“He does not,” I say—calling on myself in the third person like some prideful jackalope.
Coco lifts one shoulder. “Only, he really does.”
“Mom,” is all I say. Coco hasn’t been around that long. It’s true, we didn’t grow up together. My sister was put up for adoption at birth and we only found one another last year. Still, we’ve created a bond, a sibling love like we’ve always been there for one another.
Which is exactly why she should know better than to volunteer me for some service project I don’t want or need.
“Mom is fine, Levi.”
“I don’t have time. After work, I make her dinner and—”
“Mom is making dinner for herself and her friends tonight. She doesn’t need you to cook for her. Not anymore.” Her tone may be gentle, but it’s also annoyingly assured.
I shrink under the weight of Coco’s stare. “She’s cooking for friends?”
Coco gives one nod, to which I snatch her by the elbow and drag my very pregnant sister across the room and through the backroom door.
