Page 17 of The Manny

“Fine. I’ll leave you in peace for now.” I headed to the door. “I was planning on making spaghetti for dinner. Mia requested it. Is that cool?”

“Whatever is fine.” He blew out a harsh breath as he picked up the dumbbells.

Since he was distracted, I took one last look at his beautiful body and left the garage.

****

“Mia, can you pass me the salad dressing?” I asked.

Mia nodded and grabbed the bottle of ranch. She handed it to me, and when I smiled at her, she gave me a tiny smile back. We’d spent the day drawing and watching cartoons. I was pleased that she’d warmed up to me quicker than expected. Perhaps she was open to me simply because she was afraid of Jack. I probably seemed like the safer choice to latch onto.

“Mia and I had a wonderful day today,” I said, meeting Jack’s blank gaze. He’d joined us for dinner as promised, but he’d barely spoken. I drizzled ranch over my salad, watching him under my lashes.

“That’s great,” Jack said, once he’d swallowed the food he was chewing.

I’d been hoping for a bit more from him, so I said, “Would you like to know what we did today?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

I glanced at Mia. “How about you tell him what we did at the park, Mia.”

She seemed to freeze and her eyes bugged. “Me?”

I had to restrain my laugher. “Yes. Why not?”

She grimaced and set her fork down. “Well… we saw ducks.”

“Sounds fun.” Jack nodded.

Keeping her eyes down, she said, “We fed them too.”

“Wow.” Jack took another bite of food.

“We also met some nice kids,” I volunteered. “Mia and I plan on seeing them again at the park.”

“Great.” Jack shoveled another big forkful of spaghetti into his mouth.

As I studied him, I had to wonder if he was eating because he was hungry, or because he didn’t want to have to talk.

“We saw a man like you, Uncle Jack,” Mia said, picking her fork up again. “Thomas said so.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jack met my sheepish gaze. “In what way?”

My face warmed. “It was just a casual observation.”

“He said he was shy like you.” Mia took a bite of salad and a lot of the dressing ended up on her face. “He didn’t talk to anyone.”

“Shy?” Jack frowned. “I’m not shy.”

I reached over and wiped Mia’s cheeks. “I didn’t say shy, I said quiet. The guy kept to himself, like I expect you might if you took Mia to the park.” I didn’t see the harm in admitting that. There was little doubt Jack was a reserved person.

“Hmmm.” Jack gave me a grumpy look.

“It wasn’t meant as an insult.”

Mia frowned. “Mommy said sometimes I’m shy.”

Jack glanced at the child. “Did she?”

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