Not even when Jake began shrieking.
Still, I tipped my head and saw why my kid was shouting—Garrett Lewis hovered at the end of the aisle beside a fancy basket of cookies.
A soft smile curved his lips, not in disapproval or embarrassment, more like understanding. When I’d looked into his background for the management role, I’d learned that not only was one of his kids a professional hockey player who played for our team, but he’d been married for thirty years.
With a soft squeeze, I released Aoife. “Everything okay, Garrett?”
He nodded but directed his answer at Aoife—smart man. She was his boss, after all. “Mrs. Vandersand might not be returning to the store, Mrs. O’Grady.”
Aoife hitched a shoulder. “I doubt she’ll be gone long. Did you see what was in her cart?”
“No, what?” I asked because Garrett looked as clueless as me.
She beamed at us. “Three of the extra-large packs of my brownies.”
Slowly, I drawled, “And our nearest bakery is across the neighborhood.” Proudly, I grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Creating addicts, one brownie at a time, darling.”
“I know I’m one,” Garrett admitted.
“Precisely.” Her smile, as always, remained kind, but I saw the shark there. A shark that I’d help create—fuck, she was hot inbusiness mode. “Now, I have shopping to do. I’ll see you around, Garrett.”
He said his farewells and drifted off as quietly as he’d shown up.
I turned to her with an arched brow. “Those brownies will win our family the White House.”
She patted my shoulder and smiled.
But that smile?
Told me she agreed. She was just too modest to say so.
TWELVE
“Savannah,is Camden in town and nobody told me?”
“Nah. He’s in Japan, I think. Mom mentioned something about someplace. This fucking thing! Agh!”
“Informative as ever.”
“It’s the journalist in me.”
“He’s still on tour?”
“Yup. Why?”
“I dunno. I thought I saw him last week, that’s all.”
“How was Lapland?”
“Fucking cold.”
It wasn’t altogether odd for Star and Savannah to be up here, griping at one another, but I still glanced into the TV room anyway.
When I saw the knitting circle, I literally had to take a step back and then regretted it as I tripped over Beavis and Butthead.
What the fuck?
I retreated to the hallway.
