Page 7 of Recipe for Rivals
Her face flushed, but she shook her head. “Nothing, sweet pea. Your lunch will be right out.”
Well, that was strange. Guess Gracie Mae wasn’t far off whenshe said Gigi had a lot on her plate. I pulled out my phone and found my calendar. A month was plenty long to plan an auction, right? Drafting an email to the building scheduler, I chose a day, threw in some alternative options to be flexible, and sent it off. Once we had a date and Sharon made the fliers, the rest would fall into place.
The bell over the door chimed, bringing with it the sound of kids chattering and a woman on the phone.
“No, that’s not necessary. I’ll—” She stopped, then lowered her voice. “I’ll call you back. Yes, I promise. I just need that birth cer—okay. Sure. Bye.”
My grocery store gal was here, by the sound of it. I glanced over my shoulder to see her toss her phone into her purse, frowning.
“The fireman!” Well, the boy had noticed me.
I shot him a grin. “Hello, future police officer.” Then I looked at his sister, once again clutching that pink animal and dipping her head shyly. I offered her a smile, and she hid behind her mom’s legs.
Her mom’slonglegs, hidden under baggy pants.Stop, Dusty. This lady did not need me checking her out again.
“Come on,” she said to her kids, walking toward the back and utterly ignoring me. “Let’s get started on this paperwork.”
I faced forward in my seat again, pretending to be absorbed in an email on my phone, but this little family had my attention. A newsletter for a sale on cat beds did not.
“I don’t want to,” the boy whined. “I’m hungry.”
The mom sucked a breath through her nose, ostensibly for patience. “Let’s go and?—”
“Nova,” Gigi said, coming out of the kitchen with my burger. “Let me feed them.”
Her name took me by surprise. I was expecting a Jocelyn or Rebecca or something else equally dependable-sounding. Nova fit her, though.
“You really don’t have to. I need to finish these registrations, so I’ll just hop over to our apartment and get?—”
“Nonsense. It’ll only take a minute to whip up a few sandwiches. You do what you need to and I’ll take care of these two.”
“Okay.” Nova sounded more resigned than grateful.
So she wasn’t living with Gigi, after all. She was living in the building next door. Gigi’s house was down the road, wrapped in a porch and painted green, but she also owned the fourplex across the alley.
Gigi put my plate down. “Whoops. Forgot your drink. Give me a sec.”
“No worries, Gigi.”
She hustled the kids toward the counter and got them settled on stools, then went behind the counter to fill a cup with ice and Dr Pepper.
I lifted my burger and took a huge bite. Nova hesitated at the back door before approaching me.
I’d never chewed so quickly in my life.
“Thanks for the firetruck,” she said quietly, her eyes on mine. They were dark brown, tunneling through me. “I checked with my aunt to make sure you’re not a psycho, and you passed her inspection. But I would appreciate it if you didn’t do something like that again. I had to talk to my kids about accepting gifts from strangers.”
“It wasn’t agift,” I said quickly, then sipped my drink. Hopefully she wasn’t getting a whiff of bacon beef breath. “I was just trying to influence the next generation. You know, stop your son from making a mistake.”
Her eyes sharpened. “How altruistic of you.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, stretching my arm across the back of the bench. “Just doing my bit for society.”
Her arms folded over her chest. “Yourbit?”
Gigi stepped around her and set my Dr Pepper on the table. She eyed her niece. “Everything okay here?”
“Dusty was just telling me how selfless he is.”