by Phoebe Mills
Sofia giggled and nodded enthusiastically, shoveling as much into her mouth as she could. She’d only been eating for two minutes, and she already had a ring of blue around her face, the creamy concoction dribbling down her chin.
“You’re getting awful messy over there, peanut. Maybe that’s why your mom says ice cream is only for the summer.”
Sofia lifted her arm as if to swipe it across her mouth and use her sweater sleeve as a napkin, but Carter’s reflexes had been getting better since he’d come home, and he snapped his hand out to stop her before she could.
“Were you about to wipe your mouth on your sleeve?”
“No,” Sofia said, but her eyes flitted everywhere but at Carter.
With a laugh, he plucked a few napkins out of the dispenser and wiped her mouth, Sofia still trying valiantly to look anywhere but at him. As she was peering off to the left, her eyes suddenly lit up and she pulled away from his cleanup efforts.
“Miss Abby!” she yelled, then waved, her hand fluttering faster than a hummingbird’s wings. “Uncle Carter, it’s Miss Abby!”
At the mention of Abby’s name, Carter glanced over his shoulder, and sure enough, there she stood in a bright red coat wearing a deep yellow knit hat complete with a giant puff on the top, her long red hair spilling out beneath it. Her cheeks were pink from the cold, her eyes sparkling, and the sight of her hit him square in the gut.
Of course she’d be eating ice cream in February on a random Monday night, just like they were. He needed to figure out what he did to piss off the universe and rectify it immediately because this couldn’t go on. Sure, he had willpower, but there was no need to taunt it every waking minute.
Abby smiled and waved, holding up a finger to them before collecting her ice cream and paying. She grabbed a napkin, wrapped it around her dish, and made her way toward them. “Hi, guys. Got a craving for ice cream like I did?”
“I got ubble gum!” Sofia lifted her dish toward Abby before cradling it close to her chest and taking another too-big bite.
“Your favorite,” Abby said with a smile.
“Uh-huh.” Sofia nodded and stuffed another bite in her mouth before she’d finished swallowing the first.
With a chuckle, Carter said, “Slow down, peanut. I don’t think Abby’s here to take it from you.”
She turned to Abby with suspicion written on every inch of her face, and Abby laughed, holding up a hand in surrender. “It’s all yours, promise.”
Sofia smiled then, all blue teeth and excitement, before patting the chair next to her. “I saved this for you.”
“Oh—” Abby flicked her eyes to Carter for only a brief moment before focusing once again on Sofia. “That’s okay. I don’t want to impose on your time together.”
Yeah, he’d definitely pissed off one god or another. How exactly was he supposed to say no to this when his niece was practically bursting at the thought of Abby joining them? There was really only one clear answer to that: He wasn’t.
“It’s no imposition. We’ve got plenty of room.” Carter jerked his chin to the chair, using the toe of his boot to push the seat back from the table and toward her.
Abby paused for only a second, her eyes locked with his, before she gave a small nod and settled into the chair. She shrugged out of her coat, leaving her in a fitted, pale pink sweater that showcased all her soft curves in a way that definitely wasn’t helping his willpower cause.
“Sofia got her favorite, but what about you?” She turned to Carter and eyed his ice cream. “Have you ventured beyond butter pecan?”
He froze with his spoon an inch from his mouth, his eyebrows shooting up. “You remember that?”
Her laugh tinkled out of her, filling the small shop—not to mention a space in his chest he had no idea had been hollow—and she offered a small shrug. “Kind of hard to forget when we used to come here every weekend.”
They had done that…Snippets of every time they’d come in flipped through his mind—the kind of memories that weren’t forgotten but rather just misplaced for a while. The kind that got a little rusty with disuse. She used to offer him a bite of every flavor she’d get—a rotating variation he could never pinpoint the pattern of—but his favorite was always butter pecan. Unless he was tasting it from her lips, in which case any and all of them took first place.
He shook his head and adjusted in his seat, his blood thrumming at the thought of swiping his tongue across her lips for a taste. If he didn’t get himself under control, his reaction would be all too apparent to everyone in the vicinity.
Clearing his throat, he tipped his dish toward her. “Still butter pecan.” He lifted his chin to hers. “How about you? Still playing the flavor field?”
She raised an eyebrow as if to say, See? I’m not the only one who remembers…And then she shrugged while scooping a bite out from her bowl. “I don’t want to be tied down to one flavor. I like to see what’s out there, you know?”
Basically, she approached ice cream the exact opposite of how she approached life. It was what had caused their split in the first place—at least on his end. Yes, they’d gone to different colleges, and it’d been an easy excuse to cop to, but the truth was, her desire and yearning for permanence in Heart’s Hope Bay—complete with a husband, two-point-five kids, and a white picket fence—scared the hell out of him. He’d made it his life’s mission to get as far away from here and the awful memories this small town contained as he could. Didn’t matter that he’d loved her. Didn’t matter that he hadn’t found anyone with whom he’d connected as well in the years since.
What mattered was that he wasn’t the kind of man who could settle down. Who should settle down. His worthless father was proof enough of that.
“Did you get ubble gum?” Sofia asked, pulling Carter out of his thoughts.
“Not today.” Abby smiled down at his niece. “I got today’s flavor—double fudge brownie. Have you ever tried it? Can’t go wrong with chocolate.”
“Chocolate’s my favorite!” Sofia said, even as she licked the remnants of her bubble gum ice cream from the dish like a dog.
“Hey,” Carter said on a laugh he was trying desperately to tamp down. He reached out and grabbed the bowl from her. “Are you seriously licking that? Would you do that if your mom was here?”
Sofia looked properly chastised and lowered her eyes, once again looking everywhere but at him. Uh-huh, that’s what he thought. He had no problem being the fun one—he loved it, actually—but apparently allowing her to eat like an animal in public was where he drew the line.
After wetting a few napkins, he handed them over and let her try her hardest to clean up the mess herself before he’d get whatever remained. Satisfied she wasn’t going to face-dive into her ice cream again as soon as he turned his back, he lifted his gaze to find Abby staring at them, a small smile tugging up the side of her mouth.
“What?” he asked.
She shook her head and glanced down at her dish, scooping up a small bite. “Nothing. I’m just not used to seeing you with kids.” Looking up, she met his stare. “You’re good with her.”
He shrugged, not sure what else to do or say. Sure, he was good with her, but he wasn’t her primary caregiver. He got to hand her back at the end of the day when things got too serious or too hard. Or too permanent. “She’s a good kid, so she makes it easy.”
“Even the best kids are difficult sometimes.” And she’d probably know that more than anyone, considering her line of work and that she saw a dozen kids every day at their best and worst.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Carter said. “Did you get your wallpaper situation taken care of?”
Abby blew out a breath and sank back in her chair. “Definitely not taken care of, but getting there. Hank got me all set up with what I need, so it’s just a matter of finding a whole day to do it. Those are my big plans this weekend.”
“Well, you always were one to party hard.”
She laughed and their eyes co
nnected, a hundred shared memories sparking between them. Was she remembering that bonfire they’d been to on the beach? The last party before they’d each gone their separate ways? There’d been tears—on both their parts—and some ill-advised naked time. He’d found sand in places it should never go, but he’d never regretted that night. It’d been the last time they’d been together.
Abby licked her lips, drawing his gaze to her mouth, and he shifted in his seat. When did eating ice cream become so damn erotic? “You’re right—I do like it hard.”
Carter choked on his own spit as he snapped his attention up to her eyes. “You what?” he managed through his coughs.
Her brows were drawn down, and she split a glance between him and Sofia as if she were missing something. “I like to party hard, like you said. Me and my bullet journal really get up to a lot of craziness.”
“Right. Of course.”
She tipped her head to the side, studying him intently. “What’d you think I said?”
Jesus, he definitely couldn’t tell her the dirty places his brain had been heading.
He opened his mouth to say something—what, he had no goddamn clue—when his sister hobbled in on her crutches, still not completely comfortable with the added encumbrance.
“Hey, sorry I’m late. I—Oh, Abby! I didn’t know you’d be here.”
Abby lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “I sort of crashed their date.”
Becca’s smile widened as she continued toward them. “Well I’m glad you did. It’s good to see you. I’d give you a hug, but, well…” She lifted one of her crutches before bending to press a kiss to Sofia’s hair. “Hi, bug. I missed you today.”
“Me too, Mommy. Can I have ice cream now?”
Carter’s mouth dropped as he huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “Sofia.”
Becca chuckled as she shuffled to the chair opposite her daughter and sat. “By your uncle’s response, I take it you’ve already had your ice cream, Little Miss Con Artist.”
“She did,” he confirmed. “Licked the dish like a dog and everything.”
“Sounds about right.” Becca turned her attention to Abby. “Do all kids do that or just mine?”
“Haven’t met one yet who didn’t. On ice cream days, hair cleaning is pretty much a guaranteed.”
“How’re things going over there? Are you still on track to open the preschool in the fall?”
Abby shifted, her eyes flicking down for only a moment before connecting back with Becca’s. It wasn’t much—and most people probably wouldn’t have even noticed. But he wasn’t most people, at least not when it came to Abby. He’d spent the sum total of entire days looking at her, studying her features and expressions. And there was no denying she was uncertain, maybe even nervous.
“They’re going. And I hope so. We’ve got a lot to get done, and getting the timing of everything to line up is tricky.”
“Well, I’d love to hear about it. You should come over for dinner soon. It’s been too long since we’ve gotten together.”
“Oh, I’m not sure…” Abby looked over at him, as if questioning if she should accept the invitation.
Hell no, was what he wanted to say. Nothing good would come from spending even more time with Abby. Hell, his mind had been in the gutter while sitting next to his niece in an ice cream shop while townsfolk strolled by. There was no telling what would happen when the two of them were alone in his temporary home. But it wasn’t his place to interfere with his sister’s friendships, and it sure as hell wasn’t his place to tell Abby what to do, so he kept his mouth shut.
“I’m not going to take no for an answer,” Becca said. “You can tell us all about your plans. Maybe Carter can even help with some things. Give you a few suggestions to make the renovation easier.”
At Becca’s kick under the table—thankfully with her shoed foot and not her cast—he coughed. “Sure, no problem.”
“What do you think, bug? Should Miss Abby come have dinner with us?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Abby finally dropped her eyes from Carter’s and smiled down at his niece. She lifted her gaze once more to his as if giving him one last chance to put a stop to it. When he didn’t, she said, “Well, okay, then. I’d love to have dinner with you guys.”
Chapter Five
Ever since Abby had accepted Becca’s invitation to dinner, she’d been a ball of nervous energy, and no amount of pro/con lists in her bullet journal were helping to calm her. With her and Carter’s history, she knew spending time together was a recipe for disaster. Especially because he hadn’t miraculously turned into an ugly, dumb troll since he’d been gone. No, instead the jerk had gotten more handsome and intelligent in their years apart. And, quite frankly, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to resist that.
“I ran into Becca at the bank, and she told me you guys have dinner plans this weekend at her place,” Savannah said with a cocked eyebrow.
Gia whipped her head in their direction, her dark hair flying behind her, hands frozen in midair as she worked to clean up the art supplies from today’s class. Ollie, her golden retriever and the Sunshine Corner’s adopted dog, was off receiving lots of love from the kids. “Oh really.”
Blowing out a deep breath, Abby shrugged. “Yeah.”
Savannah laughed and bumped her hip into Abby’s as she carried an armful of building blocks to put them away. “Don’t sound so excited about it.”
Abby’s shoulders slumped as she collapsed in a chair, splitting a glance between her friends. “I’m just not sure it’s a good idea. Maybe I should cancel.”
“Why would you do that?” Gia asked. “You’ve had dinner with Becca before. Lots of times.”
“Yeah, but this time it’s not going to be just Becca. There’s the tiny problem of my ex-boyfriend who will also be there.”
“From what I’ve seen, he’s anything but tiny…” Jenn said under her breath.
Abby gasped, whipping her head toward her friend. “Jenn!”
“What?” she asked, all wide eyes and innocence. “I meant he’s tall. Is he not? Get your mind out of the gutter, girl.”
Cheeks burning with embarrassment, Abby cleared her throat and tried to steer the conversation back on track and away from Carter’s…erm…size. “It’s just been a lot since he’s been back, you know? I feel like I can’t go anywhere in town without running into him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think fate was working overtime to throw us together as much as humanly possible while he’s home.”
“What do you mean, if you didn’t know better?” Jenn asked. “Maybe that’s exactly what’s happening.”
“But fate wouldn’t be that cruel, would she? She wouldn’t throw me together with the one and only guy I’ve clicked with in years after sending me dozens of duds, just to take him away at the end of it all. Right?”
“Well, I don’t know about all that,” Savannah said with a dismissive wave. “It doesn’t always have to be forever, Abby. If you like him, I don’t see what the big deal is with having a little fun while he’s here.”
The big deal was Abby wasn’t into just fun. She didn’t knock those who preferred flings—as long as it was consensual and enjoyable, she was totally on board…for other people. She’d never been a one-and-done kind of girl, and she couldn’t see herself suddenly shaking things up now when she was almost thirty. Not only that, but she also wasn’t so sure her heart wouldn’t try to jump in on the fun, too. It’d be all too easy with Carter, given their history.
Fortunately, she was saved from having to divulge all that by the buzz of the front door.
She didn’t give anyone else the option of grabbing it as she practically leaped to her feet. Tossing an “I got it,” over her shoulder, she strode toward the entryway, a dutiful Ollie trotting along by her side.
Reaching down to offer him a pet, she said, “You’re such a good boy, making sure to greet everyone at the door.”
Ollie looked up at her, his mouth parted and tongue
lolling out, looking for all the world as if he were smiling at her compliment. She grinned right back.
After verifying on the camera system who was outside, she opened the giant front door—the inlaid leaded glass against the bright yellow paint one of her favorite features of their home—and welcomed Norah inside.
“Hey, you’re here early. Skip out on work?” Abby asked as they headed toward the back of the house where the kids were stationed for the afternoon, Ollie seeking Norah’s attention the entire way.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t quite as fun as it could’ve been,” she said, mindlessly patting the dog’s head. “I had a doctor’s appointment.”
Abby lifted her eyebrows. “Oh? I hope everything’s okay…” She didn’t want to pry, but this way the door was open if Norah wanted to discuss it on her own terms.
Norah breathed out a laugh and shook her head as they stepped foot into the great room, her eyes locking on Abby’s grandmother who sat cradling one of the babies to her chest. “I’m not sure if okay is the word I’d use. But Hilde was right.” She pressed a hand to her stomach and exhaled a long breath. “Baby number three will be making their debut in October.”
Abby gasped, along with Savannah, Jenn, and Gia. Hilde, however, only had a knowing smile on her face.
“Oh my God!” Abby said, then read the look on Norah’s face, which was a mix of excitement, apprehension, and nerves. “Um…congratulations?”
Norah laughed and accepted the hug Abby offered. “Thank you. We certainly weren’t planning it, but Mike and I are happy. We won’t tell the kids for a while, though, so please don’t spill the beans.”
Abby mimed zipping her lips and tossing away the key, and the rest of the girls nodded their acknowledgment.
“And you.” Norah pointed an accusatory finger at Hilde. “I don’t know what kind of crazy mojo you do, but this is it, all right? No more kids! I better not show up here in two years and have you telling me I should keep my baby clothes again. I’ll triple up on birth control if I have to, considering this one was the one percent to sneak past the pill.”