“Yeah, I’ll be dealing with it soon. Time to bring myself back to civilization.” I grinned and stepped back to encompass my sister. “You remember my baby sister Ivy.”
“Hardly baby. Younger suffices. Hi, Mike.” She smiled and gave him a little wave. “I bet your classroom is closer to done than this schlub’s.”
“Nice to see you, Ivy. And yeah, I’m getting there, but I started early today.” His gaze slid over to Luna, who’d just risen to dust off her knees. “Well, hello. I’m Mike London, third grade teacher here. Who might you be?”
“I’m Luna. I work at Kinleigh and August’s Attic among other things. Pleasure to meet you.” She moved forward to shake Mike’s outstretched hand, her smile dazzling.
He lingered far too long before moving back, and only Ivy hooking her fingers in my back pocket kept me from separating them.
Bodily.
“The pleasure is mine.” Mike cocked his brow at me. “Or maybe not, huh?”
“No. Definitely not. Keep your pleasure to yourself.” I walked over to Luna and looped an arm around her waist.
“Don’t pee on her, for heaven’s sake.” Ivy shook her head. “How’re you doing, pumpkin?”
“Good, thanks,” I answered in a falsetto, making Luna laugh before she went back over to Rhiannon. My niece was ignoring all of us and happily coloring away.
Sometimes I wished I could give as few fucks as kids did. They were definitely smarter than adults. They didn’t bother hiding their feelings.
Mike gave me a thumbs up when Luna turned away to grab another big piece of paper off the roll of scrap I kept on hand. Ivy sat down cross-legged on the floor and was just settling in with her own crayons when I decided to burst her bubble.
“Sister Tobias wants to see you.”
“Okay. We’ll stop in on our way out. She probably wants to talk ice cream again. I actually brought my itemized list of flavors for her to triple-check to ease her mind.” She kept coloring.
So, the only one with a popped bubble at the moment was me, and it was directly related to Mike checking out my girlfriend’s ass as she bent over the table to reach for more crayons.
She wasn’t my girlfriend though. And she did have a superior ass—and all the rest of her.
“Nice job, my man,” he said in an undertone.
“You seeing anyone?” Judging from his disturbingly lascivious smile in Lu’s direction—that she was not privy to, since she was talking quietly to Ivy while they colored—I had to assume no, but Mike didn’t suffer alone for long. He also hadn’t suffered a social life slowdown in recent months during the Cove baby boom.
Either he liked playing with fire, triple-bagged, or had no swimmers in the tank.
“I was earlier in the summer, but it fell apart. She was here on vacation and we tried to make a long distance go of it and that didn’t work out. I’m okay with being single though.” He spread his arms with a smile. “More of me to go around that way.”
“Uh huh.” I couldn’t keep the derision out of my tone.
“What’s with the judgment? It wasn’t so long ago you were singing the same tune. Gotta say that one might make me sing in a different key myself,” he added, waggling his brows as Rhiannon picked the right moment to let out a loud giggle and fall over backwards.
“I don’t judge anyone. Just so much stuff to do. You know how it is.” I led him over to the door. I managed not to drag him there, but I thought about it. “Good luck with your classroom. I’m sure I’ll see you at the picnic.”
“Definitely. I hope to see Luna too,” he said at a level meant to carry over to the women.
The tiniest one was currently trying to chew on a sienna crayon. Her mother successfully pried it out of her mouth and mimed wiping her brow.
Yeah, this parenthood nonsense was vexing. Who did this voluntarily and why?
Luna let out a breezy laugh. “Well, Mr. Beck hasn’t seen fit to ask me yet, so I can’t say if—”
“Come.” My unintentionally suggestive demand had Mike grinning and Luna arching a brow. “Please. I’d love to have you.”
“Oh, I just bet.”
I ignored Mike and wondered why I’d returned to the inept state I’d been in upon first meeting Luna. I’d hoped we’d progressed past all of that, but nope. Wishful thinking.