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“What brings you by?” Tina asks casually.
The girls love Tina and Evie, which means I have a responsibility for their safety. No negotiations. “What was with the interrogation?”
Frowning likeI’mthe crazy one, she turns away. “No interrogation.”
“Do you ask everyone about their family’s interior decorating when they knock on your door?”
Matching my attitude, she pops her hip. “Only the unexpected visitors when the sun isn’t even in the sky yet.”
“Who are you afraid of?” I speak in a neutral tone to not upset Evie, but my eyes are all for her mama.Answer me.
“I’m not afraid! But we’re two girls living alone, I need to be careful.” She has a point. Better safe than sorry. But I feel like there’s more to it. “Why are you here, Jim?”
“I came to see Evie.” I press my nose to her hair. She smells like sugar cereal and rainbows.
“No seriously, is something wrong? I told the girls I couldn’t come this week, I’m booked out solid, but if something’s wrong…” She walks to her planner and flips through a couple pages. “I can probably move a few things around. Reschedule some stuff for next week–”
“No, honestly, I’m here to see Evie.” I let the wiggly toddler down when she bores of me.
“That doesn’t make sense,” she laughs awkwardly. “I don’t get it.”
“I was having a really,really,” I add with a chuckle, “bad day. I wanted some sweet Evie cuddles. I was just at Jonah’s, so I took the twenty second detour and came here looking for my girl before I had to go to Bobby’s.”
“You were having a bad day?” She pours a cup of coffee from the pot. “The day just began.”
I accept the cup with a grateful smile. “Trust me, I know. Today sucks sweaty old man balls. Already.”
She snorts and holds out a My Little Pony plastic bowl. “Cereal?”
I shake my head and show her my breakfast bar. Indicating to the table, she pulls out a seat and waits for me to sit opposite. “Wanna talk about your crappy day?”
“Not really. Talking this one out won’t help. But the Evie hug did.”
She smirks and starts on her own coffee. “You Kincaid’s are something special, you know that?”
“Yup.”
She snorts at my arrogance. “I meant, I was new to town, but your women basically forced me, under extreme duress, I might add, to like them. I resisted. I tried to get rid of them, but they’re just too likeable.”
I scoff. “Trust me, I can relate. I try to get rid of them daily, but love is love.”
“Right? So then I figure the girls are cool, whatever, I’ll just hang with them. But I definitely expected to hate you guys. Men suck. I had every intention on hating you, but then, big, sexy professional fighter Jimmy Kincaid comes along early one morning and wants to hug my daughter – just because.”
“You think I’m sexy?”
She snorts. “You’re a dickhead.”
I laugh at the way her cute accent wraps around the swear. Irony. She scolds me for swearing, but doesn’t even realize it half the time when she swears.
“Yeah, well, Evie’s kind of adorable.”
“She really is. Did you get what you came looking for?”
I turn to watch the girl eat at a little kiddy table in front of the television. Her bouncing ringlets make me smile. “Yeah, I did.”
“Hey, why does your mom only have pictures of you guys as kids on display?” She takes a sip of her coffee. “Like, there are no adult pictures…”
“Probably because she liked us better back then.” I laugh at her scandalized face. “No, well, yeah that’s probably true. She does actually have grown up pictures around, but she prefers to have the older pictures, with my Dad in them, in the living room. Like, to keep us all together, you know?”
