Chapter 8
Tim took the opportunity of the narrow sidewalk and large family to place his hand on Zoe’s lower back. A small shiver raced down her back and goosebumps rose on the back of her neck. From his touch? Could she be as affected by him as he was by her? It had taken all his willpower not to pull on the thick curl that had escaped the pile of hair on top of her head and he’d only managed by shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
She’d been really nice to the girl manning the booth and he didn’t think it had anything to do with him standing there. He hadn’t given her a lot of time to react between when her sister dribbled coffee on the t-shirts and when he’d approached, but he had a feeling she would have done the right thing regardless.
“Does your sister always leave you holding the bag? Or the cup, in this case?”
“I’ve taken the blame for her on more than occasion. I always got off light because I’m the baby of the family.”
“Huh.”
She turned caramel colored eyes up to him. “What ‘huh?’”
“I have a younger sister. She’s the baby. Now that I think of it, she got away with a lot more than my brother and I did.”
“Did you blame her for things you did?”
He chuckled. “There was no way my parents would have believed Shannon did the things we did.”
She flashed him a smile. It felt like a punch in the gut. He had a suspicion he would do just about anything to make her smile like that again.
“Gabriella.” A hard tone entered her voice.
The sisters were of similar height and build, but Gabriella’s face was fuller and her hair wasn’t as curly.
“Desculpa, caro.”
Zoe removed the clean pink shirt and held the bag out to Gabriella. “You owe me fifty dollars.”
Her sister responded in Portuguese. His gaze jumped between the two women as they argued. His two-years of high school Spanish in no way equipped him to keep up with, much less understand, their conversation.
“Gabriella?” he asked.
The sisters stopped arguing and Gabriella finally took notice of him. She looked him up and down, then pointed at him. “Quem e?”
Zoe sighed. “Tim, this is my sister Gabriella. Gabby, this is Tim. The neighbor.”
Gabby held out a hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Neighbor Tim.”
The way she rolled herrmade it sound like she purred when she spoke. Hell, she might have.
“You too,” he said.
Gabby spoke to Zoe in Portuguese while she continued to look at him.
Fifteen years on the police force had taught him there were usually only a few of reasons for people to not speak English—they didn’t know it, weren’t comfortable speaking it, or they were talking about a person but didn’t want that person to know what they were saying.
Both Zoe and her sister spoke English with almost no trace of an accent, so… “Are you talking about me?”
Zoe blushed and Gabby smirked.
“I was saying—”
“How very sorry she was for being such a horrible and irresponsible sister and of course she will not only pay me back, but buy me lunch as well,” Zoe said.
“That’s not—”
“Isn’t that right, Gabriella?” Zoe spoke through clenched teeth and glared at his sister.
