by Quinn, Taryn
“Macy Devereaux, will you go out with me?”
I didn’t even think. I just blurted out an affirmative. He nipped at my lower lip quickly than stood up straight. “Great, I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“What?”
“Seven o’clock.” His lips twitched with amusement, then his attention diverted to his daughter. “You all right, squirt?”
I blinked out of the fog he’d dropped me into. What the hell? “Wait.”
“Nope, you said yes.” He slid his fingers into the back pocket of my jeans for a quick squeeze before stepping away from me.
Who the hell was this man? Talk about a change of situation between us.
“Dani?”
She spun around with a skull in her hand. “Yeah, this place is so sick. You don’t ever have to pick me up.”
“I’m sure Macy would disagree, but please behave for her. I’ll be right next door if you need me.”
Dani waved him off. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to help her decorate.”
He glanced at me. “Well, that’s that.”
“Evidently.” I crossed my arms since I didn’t quite know what to do with them. Especially since leaning into Gideon was becoming more and more of an inclination. I scooped my flyaway hair out of my face. “Is she allergic to anything? Would you hate it if I plied her with chocolate and espresso?”
His jaw dropped, then his eyebrow quirked. “I know you’re not exactly used to kids, but I’m hoping you’re kidding. Sometimes I can’t tell.”
I lifted a shoulder. And the joke was on him, since I knew far more about children than he could even fathom. The old wound throbbed and I pushed it back where it belonged—in the past.
“She’s not allergic to anything,” he said into the silence.
“Good, then she’ll probably only be slightly high on chocolate by the time you get her later.”
“Well worth it. My dad will be back this afternoon. He’s a long haul trucker and will be making a stop in.”
Hmm. Interesting tidbit of information there. And spoke volumes as to why Gideon was so…Gideon. Isolated sometimes, even-tempered most of the time, and affable always. He was a chameleon of sorts, and this past week had taught me more about him than the two years we’d spent sliding around one another.
I drifted toward the kid since she was in my box of favorite decorations. Gideon checked that Dani was busy and quickly spun me around to him one last time. The kiss was as fast as a rattlesnake and left my mouth just as swollen as a bite.
Then he was striding across the room without another backward glance, leaving me just as unbalanced as the day before, dammit.
I shook it off and headed over to the corner. Dani had a dozen skulls set up with little trios of decorations around each one. Kind of genius. Like little triptychs.
“What made you do that?”
She peered up at me. “Bit of glitter on this one looks like it would go good with—”
“Well,” I interrupted instinctively. Jesus, I sounded like my mother.
She gave me her father’s inquisitive eyebrow raise, only hers was a golden strawberry in hue.
“Go well. Grammar is important.”
“Grumps says the same thing.”
“Grumps?”
“Yeah, my grandpa. He’s grumpy like you.”
I laughed.
“Okay, so these go well together.” She pointed to the little bit of pink and black in one of the skull’s teeth. “So, that one looks cool with the pink and black boa with the bats.”
“I like it. Take a crack at it, Ash.”
She preened at the nickname I’d used before and went to work. I picked up the remote control and beefed up the music. At least things would move along a little faster.
And maybe a little different than last year.
She boogied to “Give Me Shelter” as she hopped around on one foot and moved books and mugs around to turn her skulls just so. I climbed the ladder to do the higher shelves, and we met in the middle.
Finally, one box was empty. I stood back and she hopped after me, mirroring my crossed arms as I took in the various shelves. “You have a good eye, kid.”
“Yeah? My teacher says that too. I like to decorate.”
“Guess I have to introduce you to my friend, Dahlia.”
“Oh, I’ve met her. She works with my dad.”
“She worked with me first.” I moved to the water station and filled a mug with lime water before grabbing my own tumbler. I handed the mug to Dani. “You can pick a tumbler to drink from if you want. But for now…”
She took it and peered inside. “Water?”
“Hot chocolate is earned.”
She gave me a gap-toothed grin. “Guess I need to do some more work.”
“Guess you do.”
She took a gulp and her eyes went wide. “What’s in it?”
“Limes.”
“Wicked.”
I laughed. “All right, since you did okay with the skulls, let’s see what you can do with my collection of bats.”
“Excellent.” She shoved the mug at me and hopped her way over to the boxes again. I couldn’t stop the smile when I followed her over.
By the time Vee came bustling in, belly first, we were moving on to the dessert station and spreading cobwebs everywhere.
“Holy Halloween.”
Dani turned around, fake cobwebs sticking to her hair. “Hi!”
Vee leaned on the door as she looked around. “Bit early even for you, Mace.”
“I know. I had an itch.”
“A rather big one. And a helper.” Vee rubbed the side of her belly. “I’m Veronica.”
“Dani.” She hopped up and winced when she forgot that she was supposed to be being careful with her left ankle.
I moved to her and she leaned hard enough that I had to take a side step. She was more sturdy than she looked. “This is Gideon’s daughter. She’s going to be hanging out with us today.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a first. We love your dad, but he hasn’t been very forthcoming about you.”
I gave Vee a hard look. “What Vee means—”
Dani picked a piece of the web out of her hair and made a face before wiping her hand on her cargo shorts. “It’s okay. My dad’s protective. It’s because my mom is famous. He doesn’t trust anyone with me really. Well, except for my usual babysitter, but Grumps told me it was after an FBI-level review.”
I snorted.
Dani grinned up at me.
“Sounds like your dad.”
She shrugged. “He’s really weirded out with this girlfriend search thing. I kinda messed up.”
“I’m sure he knew you meant well.” Vee’s soft heart went on full alert.
“Tell that to him. He keeps trying to figure out some way to ground me. Luckily, he forgets about it almost as fast.”
I pressed my lips together. Sounded like Gideon was pretty well wrapped around this little girl’s finger. I liked her even more already.
Vee laughed. “Happens to my husband all the time. My son, Bray, has his ways.”
Dani hopped over to the couch. “I just got back from my mom’s.” She dropped down with a overblown sigh. “I get away with more right after the summer.”
I wasn’t sure what to say there. It seemed skeevy to pump her for information. I’d resisted the urge to Google the hell out of Gideon after Dani’s Facebook post’s wildfire, beyond doing an image search for Jessica.
Hell, the post had ended up on Instagram too. Probably even on Twitter. All over the dang world, it seemed like. I still couldn’t believe it had become as huge a deal as it had.
Her dad had an impressive physique for sure. I had intimate knowledge of just how good he felt up close and personal. But just how famous was her mom?
Ugh. So many questions. I really hated having standards in morality. A lot.
Vee seemed to understand I was at a loss. She jumped in. “Sore?”
Dani shrugged. “A little.”
“You probably overdid it. How about I fix you some breakfast?”
Dani’s eyes lit up. “What kind of breakfast?”
Vee picked up Dani’s crutch. “We have a full kitchen. Why don’t you come help me make something special?”
“Thanks, Vee.”
“Sure.” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “You can get the rest put away before we open.”
“Isn’t that my line?”
“When it comes to you and Halloween, you lose time.”
That was definitely a true statement. I dug out my phone and checked the time with an inward wince. People would be showing up for their morning coffee soon, and I was way behind.
One more thing I could blame on Gideon.
Seven
I was literally dragging when the noon hour came along. Enough that I called in a marker and asked Rylee to cover for me. And because I had to make sure everyone was covered—and I was at least two people’s worth—I called in one of my new part-time girls.
Dani had been remarkably great the whole morning. She’d read in the nook for a good bit of the day. Somehow she ended up starting a children’s book hour and entertained a sobbing set of twins with her hilarious rendition of Where the Wild Things Are.
The frazzled mom had been so happy she’d bought cake pops for the five kids that sat down to listen as well.
My cash register liked it just as much as my throbbing head.
Vee and Dani hit it off so well that she was shadowing my baker more than me. I wasn’t nearly as interesting once the Halloween decorations weren’t a factor anymore. That and I didn’t exactly know what to say to her.
Hey, I’m into your dad—is that cool?
But not too into him. I’m not looking for step-mom status.
I shuddered. God, no.
All I wanted was my bed and perhaps a shower. Between crawling around in the dust and sleep-deprived frustration, I was overdone in the worst way.
And somehow I had a date tonight.
I’d taken my phone out of my pocket to beg off more than once. Instead, I ended up easing Gideon’s fears about my babysitting prowess via text.
Rylee breezed into the café. “I’m here.”
I shoved my phone back into my butt pocket. “About time.”
“Hey, I had to drag Gage out from under his latest pet project.”
“You?”
She gave me a saucy grin. “No, that was this morning. Once I sent him to work with a whistle, he was all about the ’67 Impala he’s doing for some Supernatural ultra-fan. And of course because Gage is Gage, we’ve been watching the show.”
“There’s worse ways to spend an evening.”
She laughed. “That is a fact. He even let me call him Dean and I played his angel.”
“Okay, too much info.” I shoved my frayed braid over my shoulder. “Wait, which angel?” I watched the show. It had my catnip in the title, for God’s sake.
“The redhead. That Castiel dude would be a whole different scenario.”
I snorted.
Rylee tied her apron on. “Seems like I’m having a better day.”
“It’s been busy.”
Not as busy as when the abstastic dude next door had gotten a zillion likes on his photos—the number of likes on the post was somehow still growing, I’d just checked—but we were doing okay.
“Didn’t sleep, huh?”
“Do I ever?” I finally locked my espresso portafilter under the correct chamber. It took three tries.
Rylee shoved me out of the way. “Go upstairs before you burn your-damn-self. You look like death.”
“Thank you.”
She huffed out a breath. “Don’t make me worry about you.”
“I just need a few hours down. I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the kid. I couldn’t leave her alone here. I was responsible for her.
I dug out my phone and tossed off a quick text to Gideon about when he was relieving me. I didn’t want to bug him, but I was nearly crosseyed.
My phone buzzed in my hand.
2PM. Sorry, he got held up. I’ll make it up to you tonight. Promise.
Yeah. About that date, buddy.
It’ll be worth it. Don’t back out—you already said yes.
I hung my head. When I looked up, Rylee was standing in front of me. “What?”
“You’re on your phone.”
“Yeah. So?”
She snatched it out of my hand.
“Hey.”
She thumbed through the texts. “Date?”
I plucked it out of her hand. “What of it?”
“You have a date with Gideon? Holy crap. It’s about freaking time.”
“Would you help a customer or something? That’s what I called you here for.” I did not want to have a conversation about my date. I didn’t even want to define what things were between us, let alone dissect it.
“What are you wearing?”
“Clothes.”
She rolled her eyes. “What kind of clothes?”
I glanced down at my jeans and sugar skull fox shirt I was wearing. “Whatever is next in my drawer.”
“You wound me on nine different levels.”
“Yeah, well, my girl genes got ground up with my All Hallow’s Eve blend three years ago. I had to sacrifice them to the dark lord.” About the time my ex ground my heart to dust. Seemed fitting that I’d create my darkest and best coffee ever.
“Sounds like you. Us mere mortals rejoiced, because that’s the only thing that kept me alive while Hayley was cutting her first damn tooth.”
My chest tightened. There had been a time when I’d done the same. Sleepless nights, thanks to an ear infection or upset tummy. So damn long ago.
I slammed the door on those emotions. It was just easier to forget about that part of my life. Crescent Cove was my fresh start. God, I really must have been starved for sleep to let the memories surface after so long.
“Well, not even AHE can help me today. I’m going to take the kid upstairs with me. Trick will keep her appeased, I hope.”
“Kid?” Rylee twisted around and scanned the café.
“Gideon’s daughter is hanging with me today.”
“Did I enter another dimension?”
“Shut up. I’m too tired to banter.”
“No, seriously.” She lifted onto her toes and craned her neck to look over the customers waiting at the counter. “What does she look like?”
“Guess.”
Ry tucked her inky hair behind her ear. “Is she a mini-me deal?”
“Nope.”
She dropped back on her heels. “You’re not helpful.”
I spotted Dani with her left leg draped over the arm of the couch. She looked bored as hell. “I’m good with that.” I walked out from behind the counter to the dining room and did a sweep of mugs and plates on my way over to her.
I gritted my teeth through a few smiles at my regulars, but they were used to my less than chatty moods. Dani, not so much.
“Hey.”
She sat up and swung her leg down, a blush firing up her neck. “Hi.”
“Don’t worry, you can’t hurt that couch. Not sure a flamethrower could.”
Dani giggled. “You’re funny.”
“Not to most people.”
She giggled again. The sound of it was a balm. And again, my exhaustion had to be at epic proportions if that was a thought in my head. “What do you think about crashing upstairs with my cats and The Princess Bride for a few hours?”
“Cats?” She bounced up, hopping on her right foot. “How many?”
“Two.”
“Cool. Dad won’t let me have one. Says he would have to be the one to take care of it. I mean, I told him I would, but he doesn’t believe me.” She grabbed her crutch without me reminding her, which told me she was probably feeling the ankle deal more than she let on.
Could kids have drugs? What kind? I knew about baby Tylenol, but what
if you were more of a middle of the road age like Dani?
Ugh. Why the hell was I in this predicament? I wasn’t the mothering kind anymore.
She hopped along beside me. “What are your cats’ names? What’s The Princess Bride?”
“You know about Army of Darkness, but not the second best movie known to man?”
“What’s the first?”
“Halloween.”
“Oh my God.” She wrapped her arm around my waist and Velcro-ed herself to my side. “You are the coolest person I’ve ever met.”
“You need to get around a bit more, kid.” Her gleaming smile remained unchanged, but I hugged her back for a second before slipping away. “Can you do stairs?”
“Yes. As long as there’s a railing.”
“Then we’re a go for my apartment.”
There was a fairly decent network of apartments above my café. The owner, Gavin Forrester, had slowly been renovating all of them. I’d taken one of the larger corner units.
In the end, it had been worth it.
I led her upstairs to my floor and down the hallway to the quiet nook I guarded like the cranky gargoyle I could be. It was my one oasis in a busy life. I tried everything to settle my brain against the incessant insomnia I dealt with.
On the door, a wreath of ivy had year-round bats nestled in the greens. Dani grinned as she reached for one of the fuzzy rubber pieces. I braced for her to mishandle it like any kid, but she only brushed the tips over her fingers along the wing before waiting patiently for me to open the door.
I unlocked the door and a black blur shot across the wide open living area.
“Whoa.”
“That’s Trick. She’s a little shy at first, but she’ll come out.” I tossed my keys in the smoky gray bowl inside the door and automatically set my cell on the recharging pad. “Are you hungry?”
She shrugged. “Depends.”
I kicked off my sneakers. “I’m not Vee,, but I can manage a few things.”
Dani twirled on her good foot, taking in the high ceilings and web of twinkle lights I’d carefully woven through the rafters I’d convinced Gavin to put in. They were faux beams, but gave the space a great structure and had given him plenty of ideas to use on the other apartments.