Tanya Michaels: Mistletoe Mommy

Adam nodded. “Morgan’s way too young.”

Speaking of which. Brenna noticed the girls threading their way through the dining room.

“I was still playing,” Morgan announced forlornly, “but Eliza said I couldn’t stay back there by myself.”

“She’s absolutely right,” Adam said.

“She said she wanted to come find out who the he-”

“So is there still room at the table for us?” Eliza asked, blushing furiously.

Adam gave her a hard look, then sighed. “Grab a couple of chairs from that empty table over there. You can sit on the end, and Morgan can squeeze in here with me.”

It was a perfectly reasonable suggestion since Morgan took up no room, and Eliza, having already eaten, didn’t need much space. But she looked so ticked off that Adam might as well have asked her to sleep on the floor so someone else could have her bed. From what Brenna had seen so far, it would be easy to believe Eliza was just ticked off at the world in general. But Brenna thought there was more to it than that.

Although the girl acted as if she loathed her father, was she jealous of his attention elsewhere? Eliza already had to share him with two siblings, and now, on the very first day of their vacation, three new people were added to the mix.

Brenna thought of the string of boyfriends with whom she’d had to compete for her mother’s scattered attention-until the woman had left her outright. “Josh, I don’t suppose you’re ready to leave?”

As she finished the question, he gaped at her. He wasn’t even halfway finished with his meal. “You in a hurry?”

“I…” Between her attraction to Adam and her discomfort at being the outsider witnessing another family’s drama, she couldn’t be more eager to go. But since she couldn’t say any of that, she concluded, “I still have one stop tonight in my neighborhood, and I should try and go by the Dillingers’ if I can get a ride over there. Plus, I have a lot of clerical stuff to catch up on tonight. I’ve been so busy with the actual pet visits for the last few days that I’m behind on updating my calendar, printing invoices and logging checks to deposit.” Which was crucial since it looked as though she’d have to rent a car while hers was being fixed. Lord alone knew how much that was going to set her back.

“We can take the rest of our dinner to go,” Natalie offered.

“No, that’s all right.” Brenna backpedaled, feeling silly and ungrateful. “You guys are doing me the favor. The least I can do is let you finish your meal.”

“Nobody rush on our account,” Adam said. “The kids and I should actually head out to the lodge. If I wait until it gets dark, I may end up lost. Natalie, Josh, it was nice meeting both of you.”

“I’ll definitely see you around,” Josh said. “If you want, I can recommend activities for your whole family.”

“Thanks.” Adam’s gaze fell on Brenna. “And maybe I’ll see you around this summer, too?”

“Don’t count on it,” Josh said, shooting her a teasing smile. “Her workdays sometimes start as early as five and can go past ten o’clock. She has no life.”

Brenna sucked in a breath, a bit embarrassed that Adam had heard her described that way. She briefly considered smacking her stepbrother upside the head, but violence was a bad example for the children.

Besides, it probably wasn’t fair to get mad at someone just for speaking the truth.

“QUINN, DO YOU THINK I have no life?”

The brunette driving the car stifled a yawn. “It’s not even seven in the morning and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. I’m not thinking anything. ”

Brenna stared at the day’s schedule and said nothing. As it was, she couldn’t believe she was letting Josh’s comment from the night before bother her. She’d known going into the summer that she would have next to no free time, and it hadn’t disturbed her then. So why was it eating at her now?

Because you felt pathetic in front of Adam Varner?

That was a ludicrous reaction. After all, aside from their paths potentially crossing at the Diner or Mistletoe’s only sizable grocery store, she wasn’t planning to see him again. How he viewed her lifestyle was immaterial.

“Brenna? Everything okay?” Quinn asked, sounding more alert.

“Yeah, just ignore me. Everything’s fine-except my car.” The local automobile dealership also rented vehicles, but when she’d called yesterday evening, they’d said she would have to wait until noon to pick one up. That would be useful for her afternoon visits, not so much for the various dogs who’d been home alone since last night and really needed to be let out this morning. “I appreciate your helping me out today.”

“No problem,” Quinn said. “Honestly, it’s good for me. With school out for the summer, I’ve turned into a bum and sleep in way too late most days. Besides…”

“Yes?” Brenna prompted.

Quinn laughed. “I feel like an idiot saying this out loud, but I’m happy for the excuse not to be at home this morning. I hired Gabriel Sloan to do some roof repair for me. I’m lucky that last set of storms didn’t leave me with a living room full of water. Dylan’s pretty handy and does as much work around my half of the duplex as his own, but he and Chloe are away at Hilton Head.” Dylan Echols was coach of the Mistletoe High baseball team; until tryouts in late July, he, like Quinn, had the summer free.

“Gabe Sloan, huh?” Since the man didn’t own a pet, Brenna didn’t know him very well. But most everyone in Mistletoe knew of him.

“Yeah. He does great work and you can’t find a fairer price, but I get a little unnerved around him. Not because of the scandal-that’s ancient history and probably got exaggerated in gossip, anyway. It’s just that he’s so intense. Lilah says she’s never noticed.” Lilah Waide was Quinn’s best friend.

Brenna laughed. “That’s because Lilah’s too wrapped up in that hunky husband of hers to notice anything about other men.”

“Arianne said that, too. Except she didn’t refer to her brother as ‘hunky.’ But she does think Gabriel is sexy.”

“Really?”

Arianne, Lilah’s sister-in-law, had grown up with two older brothers; she was chatty, opinionated and socially fearless. The idea of Ari having a conversation with the brooding loner Gabe Sloan was both vastly entertaining and completely unimaginable.

“Oh!” Brenna snapped her fingers. “I forgot to ask. How are Rachel and the baby doing?”

Quinn smiled. “Wonderfully. Arianne called me from the hospital last night to say that Bailey Kathryn Waide is beautiful and that the entire family is already wrapped around her teeny tiny finger. David should be taking home both his ladies this afternoon.”

“You should have seen him yesterday when he stopped to see if I needed a ride.” Brenna smiled at the memory. She’d gone to school with the eldest Waide sibling; he’d been the valedictorian of her graduating class. “I always thought he was unflappable, but he looked terrified.”

Quinn rolled to a stop at a red light. “I want to hear more about the guy who did give you a ride. Single dad, huh? Was he good-looking?”

Oh, yeah. “I suppose. He’s only in town for a few weeks, though.”

“A lot could happen in that time,” Quinn said playfully. “I don’t want to sound desperate, but I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve already met most of the local prospects. You ever worry about that?”

“Umm…” Brenna spent more time worrying about whether she’d met most of the pet-owners in Mistletoe.

“There are a lot of great guys here in Mistletoe,” Quinn continued. “Even a few that are still single. But if I were going to click with someone, feel that spark, shouldn’t it have happened by now?”