“Yeah?” replied Quinn, clearly only half-listening.
“Yep. She mentioned she was going to be watching Coop tomorrow since Coop’s district has a teacher workday.”
“Mmm-hmmm.”
He was losing her fast. Time to reel it in.
“I asked her to just watch him until nighttime as well to free up your night.”
She glanced up finally from her laptop. “Why? Did you need me to do something here?”
“Nope. I was thinking you should have a night off.”
Her grudgingly appreciative, almost tickled look told him she was already picturing a super fun night of laundry, ice cream, and DVR catch-ups. The wild woman. “And since Dani has a group night out planned, I told her you’d be able to make it.”
When she snapped him a narrowed look, he gave her a one-dimple smile that immediately had her rolling out every excuse in the book.
He cut her off at the pass. “So, your sister is going to take Coop and the twins up north to see your mom all day. Everyone is thrilled.
Especially
Coop. And your date for the night.”
“Why you sneaky—ˮ
“Best friend,” he interjected a substitute for the more colorful name poised on her lips. He patted her head with an utter lack of sympathy. “No excuses, babe.”
“But—”
His teeth glinted in a seriously fiendish grin. “Don’t worry, I didn’t make it a sleepover babysitting gig or anything. Don’t want you psyching yourself out. I’ve instructed your sister to bring Coop home around midnight, since that’s how late you let Coop stay up sometimes.”
“Midnight? But that’s only on holidays!”
“Believe me, Quinn, you going out on a date is a bigger holiday than the Fourth of July.”
The venomous look she shot him was loaded with shrapnel.
His humor deflected the detonation. “Dani’s actually planning the whole thing so I have no idea what we’re doing. But, she told me we’ll be done by eleven-ish. That’ll give you a full hour to...say goodnight to your date.”
Quinn looked ready to hyperventilate—and kill him. A long second later she asked finally, “Who’s my date?”
The evil big brother expression he gave her said loud and clear that she already knew the answer to that one. He handed her a paper bag to breathe into as he left the office. “You should wear a skirt,” he added from the hall. “Your date apparently thinks you have killer legs.”
A balled-up paper wad nailed him in the back, and his laughter echoed throughout the shop.
* * * * *
ABOUT THIRTY-SIX HOURS
and two more unsuccessful attempts by Quinn to bail later, Luke was pulling in to Dani’s secret destination. To
one
of his two passengers’ delight.
Quinn got out of the back of his car and gaped in disbelief. “You’ve
got
to be kidding me!” She spun around to face Luke with a flash of actual anxiety in her eyes.
He almost took out his camera phone to capture the unprecedented moment.
Dani, oblivious to Quinn’s distress, hopped out from the front seat and flung her arms out in flourish. “Isn’t it great? It’s the biggest indoor rock climbing arena around! Oh look, the guys are already here!” Smiling wide, she scampered across the lot to collect Isaac and Rylan.
“You told me to wear a skirt!” growled Quinn. “How am I supposed to climb like this?!”
“I didn’t think you were actually going to listen to me. You never do. Plus, how was I supposed to know that Dani was going to pick something so off-the-wall for this date?”
“Because it’s
Dani
!” she hissed.
Dani’s laughter chimed out from behind them. “She has you there, Luke.”
Luke glanced back and saw her in tow with Rylan, who was doing a horrible job of trying
not
to stare at Quinn’s legs, and Isaac, who looked even more nervous than Quinn at the moment.
He sighed. His friends really needed to get out more.
“Dude, seriously, you’ve got to chill the hell out.” Luke could’ve been talking to all three of them, but mostly, his advice had been directed at Isaac, who was busy checking first his watch then his phone for the time. Oh yeah, the guy had it bad. When Dani first suggested they all gather some friends together for a group date, Isaac had practically offered her business shares in his gym if she’d bring Xoey and let him be her date. Dani, diabolically okay with pimping out one friend for the benefit of another, of course negotiated until she brokered a deal wherein Xoey would be Isaac’s date if and only if Quinn agreed to be Rylan’s.
Yep, his woman was a wily one.
“Xoey is going to stand me up, isn’t she?” Isaac frowned.
“And miss out on watching you fall on your ass?” asked Xoey from behind him.
The woman certainly did know how to make an entrance.
Isaac whipped around and grinned. Luke had seen that very grin break a string of hearts over the years. If he wasn’t mistaken, it looked like that grin was ready for a permanent home.
“Them’s fighting words, babe,” said Isaac, lowering his eyebrows playfully. “Care to wager I’ll run circles around you in there?”
By the time they got inside, Isaac and Xoey were up to some pretty hefty stakes. Rylan, on the other hand, was gently pulling Quinn off to the side, away from the group. And though Luke knew she didn’t need brotherly protecting, he still eavesdropped, just in case.
Rylan nodded at Quinn’s skirt, “Sugar, you pulling at that thing isn’t going to make it any longer.” He stepped back to study Quinn’s frame, and not in a lewd way. “I’d lend you one of the spare gym shorts I keep in my truck but they would fall right off you, you’re so tiny.” Tilting his head sympathetically, he asked quietly, “If you want, I can drive you home. You don’t need to stay if you’re not comfortable. But, if you’re game, we could also just sit and talk here on the floor while the others climb. I’m not one to brag but you’re looking at an undefeated champ in thumb wrestling here,” he added, only looking like he was partially kidding.
That did it. Rylan might as well have pulled out Excalibur because he’d accomplished the immortalizing feat of enamoring Quinn right then and there. Wide-eyed, she gazed up at him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” said Rylan gruffly. “I’m not that noble. Believe me, most of me really wants you to climb just as you are so I can check out your legs for the next hour.”
Pleased, a grin teased the corners of Quinn’s mouth, and the effect transformed her face.
While Rylan just stood there, visibly reeling from the effect of that smile, Quinn put in a little addendum to his offer. “Thumb wrestling sounds fun. But how about we make it interesting? If you win best out of five, I’ll agree to climb one wall just like this…and all you have to do is promise not to look up my skirt. Deal?” Laughing lightly at his incredulous expression, she headed off to pop a squat in a secluded corner without waiting for his answer.
Which was pretty much just a heartfelt groan.
Luke chortled and thumped Rylan on the back. “Good luck with that one; you’ll need it.”
Rylan nodded over at Dani, who was crawling sideways up one wall already, clearly in no rush to make it to the top like everyone else. “Ditto for you, buddy. Ditto for you.”
* * * * *
RYLAN TOOK A SEAT
next to Quinn on a low brick wall next to the ice cream shop they’d all gotten dessert cones from after their post rock-climbing dinner in town. Since the owner of the little shop was a fan of Luke’s chocolates, she was more than happy to oblige when Luke ran back to Desert Confections and brought over some of his best chocolates to use as the toppings she chopped up and mixed in to create the rich ice cream concoctions this shop was known for.
Now, Rylan had tasted a few Desert Confections chocolates during their opening week, so he already knew they were great on their own, but
good lord
, having decadent old-fashioned slow-churned ice cream swirled with three of Luke’s specialty chocolates—loganberry bourbon bonbons, hazelnut butter cream squares, and the coffee fudge roll—was a religious experience.
By all visible and audible evidence, Quinn undoubtedly thought so too because she was basically worshipping at the altar of chocolate-mixed ice cream in a way that had Rylan taking huge bites out of his own ice cream in pure self-defense.
He used the resulting brain freeze to counter the effect of seeing the woman savor a dessert as only she could.
Talk about a religious experience. Sweet Jesus, if she didn’t look so adorable doing it, he’d swear he was watching porn.
Her eyes fluttering shut as she savored the flavors was bad enough, but with her tongue venturing out to catch drops of melted cream on her lips and her humming that whispery little sigh of pleasure every so often, the effect was enough to make any red-blooded man go nuts.
Eventually, Rylan gave up eating altogether and just stared.
It was possible he might’ve quietly sworn after that last nearly-silent moan she’d made because Quinn jumped and popped her eyes open wide. Seeing his expression, she lowered her brows in bewilderment bordering on aggravation. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
He blinked and shifted his gaze back to his ice cream before answering with the truth, his voice understandably low and rumbly. “You’re making a G-rated activity climb up a few letters.”
She froze at the comment, mouth and tongue poised in front of the cone, mid-lick.
Rylan flicked his eyes to the sky and said a silent prayer.
“
Excuse me?
” she sputtered.
“When you eat, sugar, you look and sound like you’re having sex.”
Quinn’s face flushed. “No, I don’t!”
“Uh, babe, you really do. So unless you want me to embarrass myself, you might have to scale it back just a bit for me.”
Please don’t
, his mind beseeched silently, not truly wanting it all to end.
Quinn frowned at her ice cream. “This is ice cream; everyone looks sexy when they’re licking something,” she argued, making a concerted effort then to take just a demure bite.
“Maybe. But you do it whenever you eat anything good. You did it at the Japanese restaurant earlier too. When you tasted that sesame beef tartare the chef made, you were all bedroom eyes over buttery moans and purring sighs. I swear you had the college guys at the next table drooling.” Rylan left out the part about him being in just as bad a state at the time.
“You’re exaggerating.” The tone of her voice was unsure, however.
“No I’m not. It’s so sexy you’re making me a little nuts here. All I can think about is what you’ll look and sound like when you’re rounding the bases to the big O.”
Quinn’s morbid embarrassment at his teasing suddenly dissipated and her expression changed, locked, sank into a deep reflection. Until she became statuesque.
“Aw, hell. I was just playing, sweetness. No need to go shy on me now.”
She didn’t look like she’d even heard him. Instead, her eyes boggled and then narrowed with cold, murderous intent. “
LUKE
!
” she screeched.
From the bench a few dozen yards away, Luke shot to his feet in startled concern. “What’s wrong, Quinn?” He immediately glared at Rylan. “What the hell did you do to her?”
Rylan threw his hands up in the air—he had no idea.
Quinn jumped up and stalked over to Luke swallowing the courtyard pavement outside of the ice cream shop with fuming, ominous stomps. “All this time?” she growled at Luke. “
ALL THESE YEARS
you let me think you were just referring to
baseball bases
in your Quinn chocolate tasting scale?!” She gasped in fury. “Ohmigod,
that’s
why your friends were all staring at me that one time they saw me taste testing your caramel ganaches!”
“Oh shit!” Luke whipped Dani a caught-fugitive look. “Dani, baby, it’s time. I’m heading to the border. Come find me one day.” He jammed a hasty farewell kiss to her lips and took off running.
Quinn dashed after him, cursing up a storm.
Puzzled, Rylan walked over to Dani. “Do you know what that’s all about?”
Dani grinned. “Sadly, yes.”
“Huh.” Rylan sat down to enjoy the show while he finished his ice cream, chuckling when he saw Quinn launch, with amazing accuracy, the rest of her ice cream at Luke’s back.
That was going to leave a stain.
From wherever they’d been ‘innocently’
MIA
for the last ten minutes, Isaac and Xoey reappeared to join Dani and Rylan to watch the unfolding spectacle. Together, they all headed over to the grassy slope Luke had run down in hopes of getting Quinn off his tail. From Rylan’s vantage point, it did look like Luke was earnestly trying to get away.
But with ire as her fairy godmother, Quinn was showing Olympic speed in her pursuit.
“Are we
wanting
her to catch him?” asked Xoey curiously.