by Quinn, Taryn
She nodded vigorously as Luna grinned.
“Okay, let’s go draw. We have some crayons right over here.” She shifted Rhiannon onto her hip to carry her to the table where I’d started placing some bins with extra supplies for kids who didn’t have them or for when we ran out.
Ivy stepped closer to me. “Man, she’s a lifesaver, isn’t she?”
I couldn’t take my eyes off Luna where she’d crouched beside Rhiannon to help select crayon colors from the big box. Rhiannon was smiling so broadly now as she chattered about colors that other than her still red cheeks, it was impossible to tell she’d even been crying. “She is. I had no clue she was good with kids.”
My sister hip-checked me. “Giving you ideas, mate?”
“You aren’t from Ireland, so don’t pull that mate crap on me. Rory is a bad influence on you.”
“Well, sorry, but he is my husband. And don’t try to stall.” But before I could drum up an answer for her crazy question, she leaned her head against my arm until I wrapped mine around her shoulders. “She’s so beautiful. Already growing so fast.”
When she sniffed, I glanced down at her with incredulity and made sure my voice was pitched underneath Rhiannon’s question if she should use red-red or pink-red for Ariel’s hair. “She was just howling like a wolf in mating season. Now you’re sad she’s getting older? That’s when the crying stops.”
“No, it doesn’t. That’s when we start crying because she’s starting to date. Her father isn’t going to deal well with that. He’s already discussing sending her to an all girls’ school.”
“Right. That causes chicks to end up in ‘girls gone wild’ shows. Doesn’t he know anything?” I tapped my chin. “Then again, probably not. He didn’t date much before you. Too much work makes Fergie a dull boy.”
Ivy poked me in the gut and circled her fingers. “So, tell me about…this.”
“About why you always have such jabby nails? I don’t know, but you always wear those press-on ones and—” I laughed at her disgusted expression. “It’s new.” I made sure to keep my voice low.
Handily, Luna was on her knees next to Rhiannon, coloring and giggling while they worked on their joint masterpiece.
I would have to hang it in a place of honor. Maybe right on the door until my students’ artwork filled the space.
“How new?”
“We’re having fun.”
My sister sighed. “I love you, but you’re a dumbass.”
I pulled on one of her long braids. “People today don’t respect the lack of labels. Lu and I are cool with that. She’s amazing, and I love spending time with her.” This last part I said loudly enough for her to hear.
Luna tossed a look over her shoulder. “Lu? New nick. And um, yes. He’s right. Labels are for nutritional info and jeans, not relationships.”
Ivy smiled tightly and said under her breath, “Oh, God, you’ve met a female you.”
I had to chuckle. “No, she’s definitely not that. But we have an understanding.”
Luna was about to chime in again when someone knocked on the doorjamb.
Mike London, third grade teacher extraordinaire, flashed us a grin. “Hey there, Beck. Back on the grind, huh?”
“Soon enough,” I agreed, stepping around my sister to bump knuckles with Mike. His T-shirt showed the dust streaks that were common on classroom clean-up day. “Have a good summer?”
“Definitely. Lots of brews and bonfires and camping. It was freaking awesome. How about you? That break beard is intense.” He ran his fingertips over his own neat scruff.
“Yeah, I’ll be dealing with it soon. Time to bring myself back to civilization.” I grinned and stepped back to encompass my sister. “You remember my baby sister Ivy.”
“Hardly baby. Younger suffices. Hi, Mike.” She smiled and gave him a little wave. “I bet your classroom is closer to done than this schlub’s.”
“Nice to see you, Ivy. And yeah, I’m getting there, but I started early today.” His gaze slid over to Luna, who’d just risen to dust off her knees. “Well, hello. I’m Mike London, third grade teacher here. Who might you be?”
“I’m Luna. I work at Kinleigh and August’s Attic among other things. Pleasure to meet you.” She moved forward to shake Mike’s outstretched hand, her smile dazzling.
He lingered far too long before moving back, and only Ivy hooking her fingers in my back pocket kept me from separating them.
Bodily.
“The pleasure is mine.” Mike cocked his brow at me. “Or maybe not, huh?”
“No. Definitely not. Keep your pleasure to yourself.” I walked over to Luna and looped an arm around her waist.
“Don’t pee on her, for heaven’s sake.” Ivy shook her head. “How’re you doing, pumpkin?”
“Good, thanks,” I answered in a falsetto, making Luna laugh before she went back over to Rhiannon. My niece was ignoring all of us and happily coloring away.
Sometimes I wished I could give as few fucks as kids did. They were definitely smarter than adults. They didn’t bother hiding their feelings.
Mike gave me a thumbs up when Luna turned away to grab another big piece of paper off the roll of scrap I kept on hand. Ivy sat down cross-legged on the floor and was just settling in with her own crayons when I decided to burst her bubble.
“Sister Tobias wants to see you.”
“Okay. We’ll stop in on our way out. She probably wants to talk ice cream again. I actually brought my itemized list of flavors for her to triple-check to ease her mind.” She kept coloring.
So, the only one with a popped bubble at the moment was me, and it was directly related to Mike checking out my girlfriend’s ass as she bent over the table to reach for more crayons.
She wasn’t my girlfriend though. And she did have a superior ass—and all the rest of her.
“Nice job, my man,” he said in an undertone.
“You seeing anyone?” Judging from his disturbingly lascivious smile in Lu’s direction—that she was not privy to, since she was talking quietly to Ivy while they colored—I had to assume no, but Mike didn’t suffer alone for long. He also hadn’t suffered a social life slowdown in recent months during the Cove baby boom.
Either he liked playing with fire, triple-bagged, or had no swimmers in the tank.
“I was earlier in the summer, but it fell apart. She was here on vacation and we tried to make a long distance go of it and that didn’t work out. I’m okay with being single though.” He spread his arms with a smile. “More of me to go around that way.”
“Uh huh.” I couldn’t keep the derision out of my tone.
“What’s with the judgment? It wasn’t so long ago you were singing the same tune. Gotta say that one might make me sing in a different key myself,” he added, waggling his brows as Rhiannon picked the right moment to let out a loud giggle and fall over backwards.
“I don’t judge anyone. Just so much stuff to do. You know how it is.” I led him over to the door. I managed not to drag him there, but I thought about it. “Good luck with your classroom. I’m sure I’ll see you at the picnic.”
“Definitely. I hope to see Luna too,” he said at a level meant to carry over to the women.
The tiniest one was currently trying to chew on a sienna crayon. Her mother successfully pried it out of her mouth and mimed wiping her brow.
Yeah, this parenthood nonsense was vexing. Who did this voluntarily and why?
Luna let out a breezy laugh. “Well, Mr. Beck hasn’t seen fit to ask me yet, so I can’t say if—”
“Come.” My unintentionally suggestive demand had Mike grinning and Luna arching a brow. “Please. I’d love to have you.”
“Oh, I just bet.”
I ignored Mike and wondered why I’d returned to the inept state I’d been in upon first meeting Luna. I’d hoped we’d progressed past all of that, but nope. Wishful thinking.
“Sure. Depending on my schedule, I’d love to go with you. If it fits.”
This time, I was the
one who arched an eyebrow. “Oh, you know it fits, baby.”
My sister heaved out a breath. “Know what doesn’t fit? Me in this conversation. C’mon, Mike, walk Rhi and I down to the principal’s office.”
“Have you been bad?”
“Married,” I reminded him.
He shrugged innocently.
“No!” Rhiannon declared, knocking over the box of 64 crayons and watching dispassionately as they rolled under desks and tables in every which direction. “Don’t wanna.”
Then she toddled over to me and held up her arms for me to swing her around as I always did if she wasn’t having a breakdown. I did it a few times until we were both dizzy, and by then, Mike and Ivy had gone.
Laughing and out of breath, I set Rhi down and bent to take her little hand. “Wanna have some fun?”
“Fun! Fun!”
My niece was practically a genius, if I did say so myself.
I led her over to the sight words chart we’d hung up in a new spot on the wall. “Remember this? You’re so good with these words, even though they’re for kids so much older than you. You’re my best smart girl, aren’t you?”
She reached up to move a word from one clear pocket to another, making the sentence not make sense. But it didn’t matter, since she was still a toddler and these words were way too advanced for her. “What’s this one?” I pointed to the word for one of her favorite things. “Can you sound it out for me? C-ccc. A-aaa. R-rrr.” I rolled my tongue to say r and she giggled, smacking her hand over her mouth. “Zoom zoom. Like Luna’s bed.”
“Car!”
“Good job. For that feat of magnificence, you get one of my prized possessions. Only the very smartest kids get one of these.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the tiny doll with red pigtails I’d picked up for her at a toy store.
The kid was a fiend for minuscule things, the smaller the better. She was obsessed with the dollhouse Ivy and Rory had put together for her, and this girl should fit at the small kitchen table her amazingly awesome Uncle Caleb had given her last Christmas.
Of course it had been built by her other amazingly awesome uncle August, but that didn’t matter. I’d come up with the idea.
She squealed and grabbed the baby doll, clutching it to her chest. Then she eyed me slyly and pointed at another sight word I’d taught her before. “Sky.”
I laughed. “Yes. Very good.”
She held out her other hand and I laughed harder, ruffling her soft curls. “Dream on, sister. One per day. But I do still have this.” I produced the sucker I’d tried to offer her earlier, and she grabbed it eagerly.
Still grinning, I looked up and realized Luna was watching us as she filled a bin with safety scissors and tape. Her gaze was surprisingly tender.
Instead of her expression filling me with my typical panic—oh, God, she just saw me interacting with a small child, her ovaries must be on high alert!—my grin just widened and my chest grew tighter in a not unpleasant way. I liked Luna seeing me in my element with kids, even if this one was below my typical age range. It proved there was more to my so-called playboy veneer than met the eye.
Besides, a guy only played the field before he met the one—
I choked as that nice warmth in my chest turned into an inferno crawling up my neck. Anytime now, I’d go up like a torch.
Had I grown a vagina? What the hell was happening?
It was this town. I should move far, far away. Turn exclusively to drinking and showering with spring water from Fiji. I couldn’t even trust the Cove water to be safe to wash my dishes.
All it took was a few little drops, and the next thing you knew, you were wondering if Pampers or Huggies provided the most absorbency to protect delicate little tushies.
To my relief, no one saw me incinerating where I stood, since both Rhiannon and Luna had rushed to the window at the sound of manic quacking.
And it was not due to my singlemanhood flying south forever.
I followed them and leaned over to lift the window—one plus about being in an older building, we still had some of the hand-crank kind—and leaned out to see not one, not two, but a whole family of ducks trailing along the edge of the grass.
“I canna see. I canna see.” Rhi jumped up and down, hanging on to the edge of the bookshelf in front of the window.
“Here you go, Ariel.”
Rhi giggled at Luna’s nickname for her as she lifted her up and leaned forward so she could stick her face against the screen. “Duck! Duck! Quack!”
I had to laugh as I ruffled Rhi’s hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “They’re a whole family traveling together. Pretty cool, right?”
“Yes.” Her laughter was delighted until the duck family verged toward the road, somehow knowing where to cross at the crosswalk.
Traffic stopped on both sides, but that didn’t calm Rhi.
“Stop!” She held both little hands against the screen. “Stop! Now!”
“It’s okay, sweetie. The cars know to stop for people, or um, ducks in the crosswalk. See how the cars aren’t moving?”
“Nononono.” She shook her head in a frantic motion that told me tears were on the way.
Not again.
Not today.
I took a deep breath and threw back my shoulders. I knew what I had to do.
“C’mere, Rhi-Rhi. We’ll make sure the ducks are safe.”
Her lips trembled and her eyes welled with tears as I took her from Luna.
“Where are you going?” she asked as I crossed the classroom.
“Outside to protect the ducks,” I said over my shoulder. “You can wait here.”
Or not, since she was dogging my heels.
Rhiannon’s thumb crept toward her mouth as we went down the maze of halls to the exit. The three of us weaved through the people on the sidewalk. The ducks had attracted quite a crowd, and the birds weren’t very speedy. There was a line of them moving in formation, but they hadn’t made it far yet.
“Can you hold her?” I asked Luna once we made it to the front of the assembled group.
“Sure.” She took her from me, her forehead wrinkled with confusion. “What are you doing?”
“Saving the day, babe.” I gave into impulse and kissed her, and she let out a surprised, pleased noise.
Rhiannon shrieked and shoved her fingers between our lips, making us both laugh.
Cutest cockblock ever.
“Be right back.”
I moved into the street in front of the line of cars and trucks respectfully waiting. I kept a good distance between the ducks and I, since I wasn’t sure if the parents might be vicious if they sensed a potential threat to their ducklings.
This was a baby-friendly town in all ways.
In the center of the street, I shut my eyes and did a quick mental request for some karmic kindnesses for this act of public embarrassment.
Then I stuck out my arms in both directions as if I was directing traffic.
Shouts and applause broke out all around me. I glanced back at the curb and grinned at Luna holding up Rhi on her shoulders so she was taller than everyone else. My niece was giggling and cheering and pumping her little arms, and hell if I didn’t feel 100 feet tall.
That was me, Caleb Beck, duck defender.
And I was something else too. I was a guy who couldn’t get enough of making my girl—both of them—smile.
Ten
I hopped up and down to get the stretchy skirt over my hips. I had been spending way too many evenings eating all the dude food Caleb and Lucky had been making on the rooftop. We’d fallen into a pretty easy summer evening routine with a few of the people in the building.
Post-work we met on the rooftop with Tabitha and Lucky. Sometimes August and Kin stopped over, but the parent thing wasn’t easy to work around. We didn’t mind when they brought Vivi with them, but I was pretty sure Caleb’s older brother had grown out of the beers on the rooftop evenings. Especially with a little one who was getting m
ore and more mobile—aka getting into trouble constantly.
Personally, I was pretty sure he and Kin liked their time alone together too.
I definitely understood that. It was getting so I didn’t exactly want to share Caleb with his best bro Lucky. I wasn’t sure what to do with that feeling. It had been a few weeks since the Goldilocks incident, and we’d been locked and loaded with the sexy times every night since.
I glanced over at my phone as it buzzed on my dresser.
Am I bringing wine? Or is this tequila night?
That was the question. I sent back a quick reply for him to go with the harder stuff. I was feeling a little reckless tonight.
I blamed him completely. He knew just how to get my motor revved, and I didn’t want to think too closely about how excited I got seeing his name on my phone. I’d pushed back my podcast with Ryan twice just because I’d been in a perpetual state of postcoital bliss.
And tonight, I was looking for a repeat performance.
Not that Ryan was all that concerned about our usual schedule. She was filling in for April, the third in our little triad, at April’s office assistant job this week. And to be honest, April had been just as MIA lately.
Was this what growing older included? Growing apart from my friends?
Nope, that would not happen to me. I added a reminder on my phone to contact the girls tomorrow and make sure everyone was okay. Especially after the call I’d gotten last evening from Ryan’s new temporary boss—while he was in her bedroom.
Yeah. It was like that.
If Caleb hadn’t been so overwhelming, I would’ve called her first thing today to get the full scoop. Okay, maybe not first thing. I had a feeling Ryan was doing some naked overtime in her new position.
Literally and figuratively.
There was much to discuss on both sides. But right now, I had some entertaining to do.
I padded into the living room and picked up a few random items that had cluttered up my small living room. I lifted Caleb’s shirt to my nose and took a nice big whiff of his spicy scent. It instantly flushed my skin with that familiar buzz.
I was quickly becoming addicted to his aura being part of my space. And tonight, I was going to drive him a little crazy.