“I’ll make you a new one.” She turned and reached into the space underneath her desk again, coming back with a smallish box containing more beads. “You can choose which ones you want next time.”
“I think I’ll leave that up to you. You did so well with this one.” She nodded again, put the box away, and showed me around the room some more.
We talked about the pictures on the puzzles they’d built, how they’d made Play-Doh, and about the small class garden they watered together every afternoon. When I heard some of the other kids moving into the hallway, I inclined my head toward the door and held out my hand.
“Come on. We’d better go get you some more ice cream before it’s all gone and you have to come back to class.”
We walked outside together, got Winter a scoop of the butter pecan, and then she left me to go eat with some of her friends who were still outside. I was packing up my things when I overheard her bragging to her friends. “Tiffeny gives me free ice cream when we go to her shop. She’s so nice.”
Another smile touched my lips, but I ducked my head so my hair would hide it. I guessed any three-year-old would brag about getting free ice cream, but it was cool that I got to be the one to give it to her.
My shop might make a lot of kids happy, but I liked being directly responsible for putting a smile on Winter’s face. Before I left, she came up to me and gave me another hug.
“Thank you for the necklace,” I said. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”
“Can I see you before then?” she asked, uncertainty clouding her eyes as her teeth sank into her lip.
“Sure, you can see me whenever you want. You know where to find me.”
That earned me another smile and I returned it easily, reaching out to tug gently on one of her pigtails before saying goodbye. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Okay.” She hugged my leg, squeezing it tightly before letting me go and running off after the remaining members of her class.
When I got back to the shop, Julia was waiting outside. She pushed away from the railing she had been leaning on, coming over to help me with the few bags I was carrying.
“How did it go?” she asked as she hoisted a material bag filled with scoops I’d left behind at the center last week onto her shoulder. “Do the kids still treat you like their fairy sweet-mother?”
“Yeah, it’s awesome. I love it. I got to spend some time with Winter today, which was cool too. She showed me around her classroom and gave me this.”
I touched my chin to the beads around my neck. Julia leaned in to examine it while I unlocked the shop. She followed after me and we set the bags down on the counter.
Once we offloaded the bags, she turned to me with a thoughtful expression in her eyes. She drummed her fingers on her cheek as she sat down at one of the booths.
“Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that you spent some time with her and all, but isn’t something like that a gift she should be making for her mother?”
“Probably.” The thought had crossed my mind when she’d presented it to me. “I don’t think her mom is around, though. Callen’s never mentioned her and neither has Winter. I mean, if she was around, I’m sure Winter would have kept the necklace for her.”
“If she’s not around, then where is she?” Julia frowned, concern etched into the tightened corners of her eyes. “I don’t want you getting attached to them if she could just swoop in at any moment.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I lifted my hands and turned my palms out. “I’m not getting attached to anyone, so you don’t need to worry about that. Besides, if there was a chance she could just swoop in at any moment, I’m sure one of them would have mentioned her by now.”
“Okay,” she said but didn’t look convinced by my denial at all. Then again, I wasn’t either, so I couldn’t exactly blame her. “You have no idea what happened with her mother?”
“No clue.” I really didn’t have an answer for her, but I realized she was right.
Before anything went any further with these two, I should probably find out where Winter’s mother was. I might not have gotten attached to them yet, but I had a feeling I was in the process of doing just that, and as much as I didn’t want to push Callen, it felt like it was time to find out a little bit more about what I was getting into.
Chapter 17
Callen
“Can we have spaghetti tonight?” Winter asked late on Saturday afternoon. She looked up from the paper doll she was dressing and tilted her head. “We played with cold spaghetti at school this week, but we weren’t allowed to eat it.”
We were out in the backyard, both of us sitting on loungers next to the covered pool. I had opened our large umbrella to shield us from the sun and a breeze from the ocean kept us cool.
It was the perfect day to relax outside and I was glad we got to do it together. The corners of my mouth lifted in a lazy grin. “Sure, baby. I should be able to handle making that.”
“I’ll help you,” she offered excitedly. “My teacher told us that you cook spaghetti in a pot.”
“That’s an excellent place for us to start then.” While I knew my cooking skills were severely lacking, I was confident that even I couldn’t fuck spaghetti up.
Winter sat up straighter, her eyes widening in that way that let me know she’d just had another idea. “We should invite Tiffeny over.”
I nearly choked on my own breath, my eyebrows lifting. “What? Why would we do that?”
“I saw her yesterday at school when she brought us ice cream. She said I could see her whenever I wanted.”
“She did, huh?” I mulled the idea over in my head. While I was hesitant to dive right into a relationship with anyone and especially to let a new woman into Winter’s life, inviting Tiffeny over for dinner didn’t seem like it could do much harm.
“Well, if she said you could see her whenever you wanted and you want to see her, I think it’s a great idea to invite her. It’s a Saturday though, so she might already have plans. Let’s give her a call and find out.” Damn it, and now I sound like a game show host.
If I was being honest with myself though, I wanted to see her as well. It had been a few days since I’d gone to hang out with her at the shop, and this was as good a time as any to see her again. With that in mind, I picked up my phone from the table beside me and fired off a quick text to her.
She replied a minute later, saying she’d see us at seven. I grinned at Winter, trying my best not to let her see how excited I was about Tiffeny coming over.
“She said yes.”
Winter cheered and her lips spread into a smile that lit up her whole face. Clearly, she didn’t have any similar concerns about tamping down her excitement. It made my own feel more acceptable, so I decided to stop fighting so hard not to let Winter see that Tiffeny coming over made me happy too.
She was my friend, which Winter already knew. I’d been happy at times when Clark came over, so it wouldn’t look that much different to her.
Both of us kept smiling for the rest of the afternoon, then rushed through getting cleaned up and ready before she arrived. At seven on the dot, our doorbell rang.
Winter dashed to the door, reaching up to open it and let Tiffeny in. I stood behind her, impatiently waiting to get my next first look at the woman who never seemed to fail at making breathing—and other things—a little harder for me.
When the door swung open to reveal her standing there wearing a deep purple sundress and her hair cascading past her shoulders, I wasn’t disappointed in my reaction. The next breath I inhaled staggered and caught before it came out again. Hot damn, she’s beautiful.
“Hey, guys,” she said, lifting her hand in a wave as she stepped inside. She slung an arm around Winter’s shoulders and pulled her in for a tight but casual side hug. “How are you, sweetie?”
“I’m good.” Winter gazed up at Tiffeny with adoration shining in her eyes. “You’re wearing your necklace.”
“Of course I am,�
�� she said, bringing her hand to her chest to lift a string of beads. Even though I knew full well it hadn’t been her intention, it made my eyes drop to her cleavage and linger there as I remembered the sounds she made when I toyed with her nipples.
“I told you I was going to treasure it every day, didn’t I?” She ruffled Winter’s hair when she finally let her go.
Realizing that the time for staring at her rack and fantasizing about what had happened between us was not now, I shoved the thoughts to the back of my mind and took a step forward to greet her. “Hey, you. Glad you could make it.”
“Yeah, me too.” She shut the door behind her. “So what can I do to help?”
“Nothing,” I said, tilting my head toward the kitchen and motioning for them to follow me. “We’re having spaghetti. Hope you don’t mind that we’re keeping it simple.”
“I like simple.” She laughed as Winter grabbed her hand and dragged her past me to enter the kitchen first. “Whoa, where’s the fire?”
“Hopefully not in there later,” I muttered.
Tiffeny must have caught my comment because she turned to wink at me over her shoulder. Before she could say anything though, Winter explained. “Daddy said I could cook. Do you want to help me?”
“Daddy said you could help,” I reminded her, arching a brow at my daughter as we entered the kitchen. “Not cook. There’s a hot stove and boiling water involved.”
Winter shrugged her shoulders, her eyes sparkling as she slid them to Tiffeny. “Yes, but Tiffeny will help me.”
“Yeah, I won’t let anyone get burned,” she assured me, looking around the kitchen as if she was getting her bearings.
I walked toward the fridge, shaking my head. I pulled out a bottle of soda and filled three glasses I’d set out earlier. “I’m sure you wouldn’t, but you’re also our guest. You’re not cooking for us. We’ll do the cooking. You sit. Relax and keep us company.”
“Okay,” she said, but she noticed the pot standing on the stove already and cocked her head. “Are you sure that’s not too small for enough pasta for all three of us?”
I waved my hand, smirking as I walked around the island and got myself situated behind the stove. “It’s the only pot we use. It will be fine.”
It wasn’t fine.
Ten minutes later, we were all sitting around the island talking when I smelled something burning. I’d just dropped the noodles into the pot, so I figured it couldn’t be those. Not sure what else it could be, I frowned and sniffed the air.
At the same time, Tiffeny stopped telling Winter about something that had happened to her in kindergarten. A confused frown marred her beautiful forehead for just a moment before she looked at something behind me and burst out laughing.
“What?” I asked, twisting around with a jerk to see what she was laughing about. Thin streams of smoke were rising from the uncooked noodles resting on the side of the pot. My eyes widened before I jumped to my feet and grabbed a mitt to remove the pot from the heat.
“What the fu—” I cut myself off just in time, my eyes darting from Winter’s to Tiffeny’s and then down to the pot in front of me. Tiffeny’s shoulders were shaking with laughter and Winter had her head tilted, a deep confused V between her brows.
“What happened, Daddy?”
I had no clue what the fuck I was doing in the kitchen apparently. That was what was going on. “The spaghetti got burnt, baby. It’s fine, though. We have more. We’ll just try again.”
Tiffeny stood up from her stool, coming over to reach around my waist. For a moment, with her body so close to mine I could feel the heat coming off her, my gaze snagged on her lips and the urge to kiss her nearly overtook me.
Thankfully, those lips were quirked into a grin and mischief shone from her eyes. I felt a tug at my back. Then she stepped away and beckoned to me with her index finger. “Come on. Hand it over. Winter and I are taking over from here.”
It took me longer than I was proud of to snap myself out of the haze she’d plummeted me into when she got so close to me. Eventually, I realized she was waiting for me to take off the apron. That was why she’d gotten so close and what the tug had been at my back: her undoing the tie.
Such an innocent move on her part and I’d been halfway ready to maul her. This woman seriously did things to me, but I couldn’t say I minded it too much.
“Fine, but just so you know, my second attempt would have been perfect.” I lifted the apron over my head, gave it to her, picked up my glass, and took a seat. “I have no idea what went wrong, but I would have figured it out and corrected it.”
Tiffeny’s brows lifted and amusement danced behind her blue eyes as she settled the apron in place. “What happened is that you just managed to burn raw spaghetti. I don’t think I know anyone else who’s been able to get that right. I mean, older kids and drunk people alike are able to toss some spaghetti into a pot and cook it without it burning.”
She’s teasing me, I realized. And I like it.
Like so many other things with her, it felt natural, like she was already so comfortable around us that we’d reached the stage where she didn’t feel like she needed to hold anything back with us.
“Yeah, I’m talented like that,” I retorted, giving her a smirk. “If you think that’s impressive, you should see what I can do with instant pancakes.”
“You mean the type where they’ve already premixed all the dry ingredients and you only have to add eggs and milk?” she asked, disbelief in her tone.
I nodded, puffing my chest out with faux pride. “I might have forgotten to add the eggs and I might have thought it was a good idea to add oil to the mixture.”
“That couldn’t have ended well.” She chuckled, shaking her head. She pushed herself up on her toes to grab a bigger pot from the rack hanging above the stove. “I can’t wait to hear that story, but let me get some water on to boil while you tell it.”
“What can I do?” Winter asked.
Tiffeny pursed her lips, then snapped her fingers and smiled. “You can get us some more pasta. Once the water boils, I’ll set a timer and you can watch it for us.”
“Okay,” she agreed, sliding off her stool to hurry to the cupboard.
“What can I do?” I asked.
Tiffeny smirked at me and nodded at the fridge. “You can get us more soda and tell me what you wanted to have with the spaghetti.”
“There’s a jar there next to the kettle. It’s a tomato and basil sauce. There’s also some parmesan we could sprinkle over the top.”
“An instant sauce?” Her nose wrinkled. “I’m sure I can do better than that. Let me see what I have to work with.”
I motioned for her to go ahead. “You’re welcome to use anything you can find, but there might not be much. I do my best, but I’m obviously not great in the kitchen.”
“Obviously.” She winked and shot me a grin. “But that’s okay. We’ll work on it.”
Tiffeny and Winter rummaged through the kitchen and came back to the island with tins and bottles of some of the stuff that the realtor must have arranged to have brought in before we moved.
They got to work, with Tiffeny letting Winter help where she could, talking nonstop while they did.
“I’m glad you’re wearing the necklace,” Winter said. She’d told me this afternoon that she’d made one in class and had given it to Tiffeny. Now that I wasn’t staring at her cleavage, I took a moment to notice the necklace instead. “I’ve started with a new one for you. It’s purple and yellow, like your favorite colors.”
“That’s great.” Tiffeny’s smile was warm and genuine. “I can’t wait to see it, but I’ll keep wearing this one as well. I’m attached to it now.”
Winter looked as proud as if Tiffeny had just told her she was going to be in the Beading Olympics. Watching them interact with one another, I liked how Tiffeny was with Winter and how Winter reacted to her.
I was glad she’d asked if we could invite Tiffeny over. This was fun, and it looked li
ke it was good for my little girl. Between the two of them, there wasn’t silence for a second.
“Okay,” Tiffeny said about forty minutes later. “Grub’s up, guys.”
A silky looking tomato-based sauce was transferred to a serving dish, and Winter carried the tub of parmesan shavings to the dining-room table. I’d set it while they cooked and waited for both girls to be seated before taking my own.
“All right, dig in,” Tiffeny said. “If you hate the sauce, I’ll go heat up your instant one. No offense taken.”
“Yours smells delicious. Those other ones always have a distinctly plastic-ness to them that I’m sure I’m not going to miss.” I served Winter before letting Tiffeny help herself. Once she was done, I grabbed my own food and dug in.
Fresh basil and rich tangy tomato exploded in my mouth when I took the first bite, and I nearly fucking groaned out loud because of it. I chewed, swallowed, and blinked at Tiffeny. “Turns out ice cream isn’t the only thing you know how to flavor. This is great.”
“I can get by.” Her cheeks flushed. “I’m glad you like it. I’m not an excellent cook, but I wouldn’t mind showing you some basics sometime.”
“Sounds good.” Winter and I couldn’t live off instant or fast food for the rest of our lives, nor could we go out for every meal. As much as the internet had helped in my pursuits of becoming better in the kitchen, it obviously wasn’t going very well for me.
Plus, it gave us an excuse to spend more time with her.
Winter cleared her bowl in record time, then told us all about her teacher’s pet rabbit and her friend, Nathan. By the time we’d finished our own meals, her eyelids were drooping.
“That’s it, kiddo,” I said. “Time for bed.”
Winter gave me a crestfallen look. “Do I have to? I’m talking to Tiffeny.”
“Yeah, but you’re going to have to talk to her again some other time,” I said. “I’ll give you five more minutes. Then it’s off to bed for little girls.”
Keeping Secrets Page 12