Which I don’t blame her for. She has the figure. The face. The heightandthe ass. I’d dig in for a slice myself if I spun the other way.
“This is Gracey!” Ellie says. “She has nice hair too. And see—” She turns to Grace. “The way I braided Piper’s hair? Under and over, just like you taught me!”
“You’re improving!” Grace says. “I want you as my own personal hair stylist one day. I’m sure Piper does too.” She winks in my direction, introducing herself properly as Ellie runs back inside. “Fruit?” She slides the platter my way, the one she’s been balancing in her hand.
It looks like art.
“I’m good for now, but maybe later,” I say.
She smiles. “We haven’t met. Not properly. I get my coffee from Bean There sometimes. I recognize your face.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, failing to recount a time I served a literal Victoria’s Secret Angel. “We serve a lot of customers.”
“And rightly so. It’s good coffee. I also don’t normally look like…this.But you know how it is.” Another wink. “New hotties in town are hard to come by. Give it a few months and he’ll be off the market.”
I grit out a smile as she sashays indoors.
The worst part of me wishes that pert little nose was fake…
But I don’t think it is. I think she’s justthathot.
I tidy up the coffee pots as an excuse to be in the kitchen.
“Piper,” Caleb says. “This is Grace. She’s my next-door neighbor and babysitter.”
Next-door neighbor.
“We’ve already been introduced,” Grace says, turning back to Caleb to flash him a smile. “I brought over a fruit platter for you and Ellie. And Piper, feel free to help yourself.” Grace pauses as Sonny walks into the room. “And who might this cool dude be?”
“Sonny,” answers my kid before Caleb can get a word in edgeways.
“Actually,” Caleb says. “I was hoping you’d be able to babysit the two of them when my shifts cross over with Piper’s.”
“Sure thing,” Grace chirps without a moment’s hesitation. She slides a piece of perfect blonde hair behind her ear and stalls, throwing her head back toward me. “You two are?—?”
“Her house burned down yesterday,” Caleb says. “She and Sonny will be staying with me for the time being.”
“O-M-G! That was you! I heard about the fire. Saw the smoke with my own eyes. It looked horrible. Oh, you poor thing.”
I shake off the sympathy—a woman who sets fire to her own house should not be called a “poor thing.”
“Thanks.” I give her a quick, bracing smile and take Sonny under my wing to guide the pair of us away so Caleb and Grace can talk about…whatever Caleb and Grace talk about.
Jealousy stings my chest in ways it shouldn’t. Caleb is well in his right to get to know other women, as a single man with no loyalties.
But he was with me first…
At least that’s what I thought until he dropped the bomb that he already had a child when he came into town all those years ago.
“I like it here,” Sonny says, clutching the toy plane in his hand. “How long can we stay?”
“Not long, kiddo.” I scrunch his hair. “This is only temporary. We’ll have something more permanent figured out soon.”
I lose my train of thought as I hear Grace flirtatiously laughing in the next room.
After hearing Caleb bid her goodbye, I crawl back out into the kitchen and munch on a watermelon slice—as sweet as the woman who cut it.
Tension filters back into the room.
