She rose and slipped her jacket on. “Okay. If you’re sure it’s not an imposition, I’ll check my schedule.”
Daisy raced toward them, halting in front of Xander. He crouched down and helped the little girl into her coat. Freya’s stomach flipped at the sight. The tall, uber-masculine guy—man bun and all—carefully zipping up Daisy’s coat and then handing over Mr. Slothy? Uh, yeah...
Who was she kidding? Seeing Xander again?Sign me up.
“Not an imposition at all, Freya,” he said, standing. “Now, who wants chicken nuggets and french fries?”
Daisy’s hand shot in the air. “Me!”
He chuckled, took Daisy’s hand, and gave Freya a hopeful smile. “You’re more than welcome to join us, if you’d like.”
As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t ignore her buzzing phone for much longer. “Unfortunately, I can’t.” Biting her lower lip, she waved her phone. She glanced at her phone’s display and nearly groaned. Fifty-seven awaiting text messages. Excellent. “I should probably call my brothers back before they send out the cavalry.”
“Rain check, then,” he said, heading toward the door.
They called their thank-yous to the woman behind the counter and spilled out onto the street. The crisp air had her shivering. However, she wasn’t quite sure if it was actually due to the temperature or the man beside her.
As they neared Ray’s Diner, she said, “Well, Daisy, it was nice meeting you. Thanks for inviting me to join you guys for ice cream.”
“It was fun!” Daisy said, swinging her stuffed animal in her free hand.
Xander reached for the diner’s front door and then paused to crouch down and meet Daisy’s gaze. “I want you towalkto the counter and say hi to Miss Martha. I’ll be right in, okay?”
Daisy nodded. “Okay. Bye, Faya!”
“Bye!” she called out, watching the little girl hustle through the diner. The waitresses seemed to greet Daisy by name, and then she was engulfed in a hug by the older woman standing at the counter.
“Daisy’s mom works here,” Xander said, tracking Daisy through the diner. “I wanted to ask you if this Friday works for that rain check?”
Surprise had her stammering. “Uh, what . . .”
“Rain check. Me and you. Dinner. Like friends do.” He shot her a lopsided smirk that had a flush heating her cheeks.
Good God, what was this handsome man doing to her?
His gaze swung to inside the diner and the woman behind the counter waving at him. “Ah, I’ve gotta go, but I’ll call you.” He quickly leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thanks for hanging out and being cool with Daisy.”
Before she could blink, before she could remember to breathe, he was gone. Her heart raced in her chest, and her forehead tingled. What just happened?
Tucked in her coat pocket, her phone buzzed again. Letting out a breath, she turned down the street and began the short, two-block walk to her apartment.
First things first. She wanted to call Janie to see how she was doing after Hazel’s interview. Second, she needed to check in with Miriam. Third, she’d get her brothers off her back.
Thenshe could fall down the overanalyzing rabbit hole. Because holy crap. She was going to go out with Xander. As friends, sure, which was absolutely fine, because she wasn’t ready to hop into any sort of relationship. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be giddy about going out with her smoking hot and surprisingly sweet new friend, right?
Two hours later, Freya held her phone away from her ear and mentally cursed her life. She’d called her brother Finn, since she was closest to him. He was five years her senior—while her other brothers were even older—and she thought he’d be the most reasonable of the bunch.
She’d been wrong.
He ranted about why she hadn’t been honest about how close she’d been to the shooting, and she tuned him out and thought back to the earlier conversation she’d had with Janie.
The woman had been rightfully upset, had felt betrayed that Hazel had told the reporter things she’d revealed to them in confidence. But what killed Freya was that Janie had blamed herself for confiding in virtual strangers in the first place.
Freya had tried to reassure the other woman that the blame lay solely with Hazel, but she wasn’t quite sure Janie believed her. They were meeting up for breakfast tomorrow with Claire to talk some more.
“Are you even listening to me, Frey?” Finn groaned.
She jerked and put the phone back against her ear. Nope. She hadn’t heard a single thing he’d said. “Sorry, you were breaking up. Reception is really spotty over here.”
